The Amityville Horror (1979)

Still Scary After All These Years

The film shows it technical age but the topic is still scary if a bit dated. November 3, 2008

I Loved It!

It was an excellent movie. I loved it! The first time I saw this movie when I was 14 I enjoyed it and I have ever since. I especially liked the part when the blood and goo drip down the walls. The part of the spirts in the house bellowed "GET OUT!" and the priest gets attacked by insects. There are many haunted house flicks in the horror film genre however this is one of the best, in my opinion. Mainly because it's based on a "supposedly" true story making it that much more scary and intriguing. So if you like supernatural tales' give this one a try! October 19, 2008

Truth or fiction

The "behind the scenes" interviews are as interesting as the novel. You'll love Kidder's personality, off screen, as she describes some of the acting processes and her interaction with her co-stars. Brolin does a great job of recounting his early days. All in all, a good "edition" of the film to have. Now, on to the film:

The fact or fiction faction of this film has nothing to do with the film. Nor should the "truth" about what truly happened should be of no concern to the horror fan.

The facts about this film are:
1. Brolin's performance is flawless and riveting.
2. Kidder's performance is genuine and provoking.
3. Steiger's performance deserved an Academy nod.

The film begins it's haunting feel from the get-go. A great job by all involved. A perfect film for the horror genre. Just keep telling yourself: what if? what if..... August 28, 2008

Good but not believable

Amityville Horror is a supposed true story that centers around a family who buy a new home. They think the house is being invaded by spirits of a murdered family who died there years before. Despite the fact of them finding out about the murder and being harrassed by ''demons'' they decide to stay and the chaos ensues.

As far as this being a true story.. Whatever happened in that house could be attributed to common occurences or freak incidents- How would a car accident or a cut on a priests hand have anything to do with spirits or demonic possession?

They are trying to put a supernatural spin on things that are not out of the ordinary occurences. So the fact that a family died here just gives more of an excuse to attribute regular occurences to something supernatural.

The people in this story could have made something out of nothing, been freaked out by the fact a family was killed there or the father could of been mentally ill. Everything else that happened was no proof of a ghost.. They could of made it all up.

Other than that, This was a pretty good movie. If you want to see a good/decent horror movie then you should buy it but stick with the original and pass on the re-make. 3.5 stars.

April 4, 2008

What's with the Weird Cat Thing glaring in the window?

This is the film that scared the fried shrimp from my colon when I first saw it at the age of 8 on TV as ABC's Sunday Night Movie. It was still disturbing today. I munched down my Wendy's single combo and only after digesting fully, did I watch it again after all that time.
There are some amusing and upsettling moments. It becomes over the top if you accept the "This is a True Story." claim at the beginning.One part that made me jump was when a window suddenly falls on a young boy's hand and his parents can't get the window back up. There was no way to see that coming. I hate seeing kids get hurt, even in the movies.
A parapsychologist performed the commentary and I can't really agree with him.
He claims that the house was built in Amityville back in 1904. A bad rainstorm caused the skeleton of an old Indian Chef on a horse to pop out of the ground. A kid walking by, pulled off the skull and played football with it. Ever since the skull Football game, the house has had strange occurences. The first family moved the house to a different location in 1928 after poltergiest style activities developed. When the house was moved nothing else happened. A new house was built on the same land in 1928 which leds to the idea that the land is haunted and not the house on the land.
In 1974 Ronald Defoe, killed his entire family with a rifle. That did happen, althought I don't really believe the story about the skull being popped off. The dumb thing about it is, none of the Defoe family woke up after the father was shot in the head. No neighbers reported any sounds of gunfire. The parapsychologist tried to claim that the Indian spirits muffled the noises so the attacks could be carried out. I have may doubts about that. I think that Defoe had help from a relative or someone else otherwise it couldn't happen as claimed. The bedroom walls in the Amityville house are so close that you would hear a rifle going off and more than likely make a run for it.
But I think the whole thing is a work of fiction, including the past haunting backgrounds, the only thing real was the Defoe Killings.
It is an amusing movie to watch today. James Brolin is hairy looking indeed. Imagine Grizzly Adams as a family man up against the supernatural. He had the whole 70's Natural Cool look down (allowing all hair, including facial, to grow out as long as possible.)
The priest was covered with honey and real flies landed on his face.
Jodie was an imaginery friend of one of the kids in the movie. Jodie appears in the movie as a pig or possible cat with bright red glowing eyes and seems to spring up outside windows for unknown reasons.
All in all, a classic retro flick to re-live.
Oddly, Jay Anson who wrote the book is dead. The Lutz family who claimed the whole thing was real are both dead. George was the last to die back in May 2006. It is interesting that they got a divorce in the 80's afterwards. But divorce was the In Thing to do in the 80's. It has been rumored that Anson and other writers working on the book and the movie screenplay died of mysterious circumstances. I just don't think an enraged Indian Chef is responsible. The house is stil standing and the current family should have been ran off years ago if the legend is really true.

January 30, 2008

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