The Amityville Horror Reviews

The Amityville Horror is really the perfect horror film for the horror rookie. I found the film pretty scary, but not too scary. It's not Exorcist scary. The film is pure old school shocks, and the film relies on atmosphere to create its terrifying pacing. The film is slow, but is necessary in establishing effective scares. Based on the "real" life story of how George and Kathleen Lutz bought a haunted house where a member of the previous family murdered his entire family, The Amityville Horror is yes a haunted house film. However the Lutz ordeal is of course bullshit and was conjured up to make a quick buck on the tragic murder that happened in that house. Anyhow, the new family moves in and strange things start to happen. The husband for one acts stranger, and becomes more violent. There are also other weird happening such an ordeal involving a babysitter where she is locked into the closet and is scared to death and that she can't get out. The Amityville Horror is a good haunted house film, but it's far from the best. For my money The Changeling with George C. Scott is a far more superior film. The Amityville Horror is terrifying, but when you read about the real happenings, it definitely makes it less scary. But for what it's worth, this is a film that people that are new to horror should check out. The film has about the right amount of scares to makes this film a not so unpleasant viewing experience to the horror beginner. The Amityville Horror definitely relies on its atmosphere to create the horror and eerie tone of the film. It works in some ways and in others it doesn't. But it does offer some decent enough entertainment, and decent enough scares. A good enough film for seasoned Horror buffs even if it doesn't have that many terrifying moments that one would expect from a film like this. If you want the most terrifying haunted house film, watch The Changeling. But if you want a film with enough decent scares to scare, but not in an Exorcist sort of way, then The Amityville Horror would be a good pick. A good film, even if it's not truly classic, it sure as hell doesn't feel like it.

An incredibly dull horror movie that is nothing but a badly concocted series of bizarre events with no relation between one another. It goes for the cheap scares but is hardly ever scary, the characters are very poorly developed and the plot is illogical.

A great modern version of a haunted house story, it's got a lot of really creepy scenes. I liked it.

Excited about the remake I decided to go out and just but the original Amityville Horror. Being a huge horror buff, I just had to and besides I had only seen some of it's absurd sequels. hearing mixed reviews from friends and critics from terrifying to hilarious I turned it on with my boyfriend at the time and prepared myself for something scary. I must say that I was quite impressed. And although slightly disappointed in some of the films scenes ultimately I must say this is one old fashioned scary flick! I can hugely recognize the appeal it had in it's it's hey day. With the exception of Texas chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead, the Omen and some others I rarely see what people did in their horror classics nowadays. Like The Exorcist, pretty damn boring and funny in my opinion. But getting back to this film. It builds a creeping mood filled with fright inducing suspense. The effects are simple but effective and the performances are somewhat over the top but necessarily wacky. The film's overall lasting appeal has little to do with the film's apparent campiness. it has more to do with the real terror inducing legend that inspired it. Like the Chainsaw remake the new ones looks to amp up the horror and intensity which would be greatly welcomed. Although a great horror classic Amityville's finale is somewhat anti climactic and after a long and impressively scary build-up it fails to deliver the end goods. But whoa some of the scenes from the imaginary friend Jody flying out the window, to the visitor at the door, to the voice in the house and just everything in the basement this film is all about delivering some authentic chills.

Some say it is based upon real events, some say just a Novel. Frankly I tried so hard to enjoy this Movie, but I was bored over all. Even the Sequels? How can a Movie based upon real events have sequel?

A great American horror. It's got a great creepy feel to it along with great performances to make it convincing. The story is just so effective in that it makes you wonder about hauntings and what paranoia can create. Much like Halloween and The Exorcist, it's main target is the American family and values. Also for being a dramatized recounting of true events, it's pretty well paced. Things just get more unsettling as the movie progresses.

I look forward to seeing the remake of this horror classic, after I saw this one. To be made in 1979, it was sure impressive, liked it a good bit.

A bit long-winded and not very scary but a good film all the same.

Scared me to death when I was little, just rewatched it, and it's still, (ilogically) as scary as hell. Vastly superior to the the remake.

Based on a novel about the hauntings in a Long Island house. Very creepy.

When everybody believed that it was a true story, this was a terrifying film indeed. Now that it is known to be a hoax, the film is still pretty damned scary in its own right.

A classic 70's haunted house film, shows signs of being hastily made to cash in on the phenomena from the best-selling novel it was based upon. Starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as the happily married Lutz couple with a bunch of kids, who move into a Long Island home, where the previous family was murdered. From the very beginning, the opening music creates a sense of dread, with its innocent children's theme being violated by deep bass tones. Very quickly some disturbing episodes start occurring. The family priest (played by Rod Steiger) tries to help them, but is shooed away by a swarm of flies and a demonic-voice "Get Out!". Many freaky events and entities torture the family daily, including the little girl's imaginary friend "Jody" (a pig with glowing red eyes), and the discovery of a "Red Room" under the basement stairs. The family are woken up at 3:15am every night, when the murders took place. Blood oozes from the walls and stairs. The father seems to be affected by the house in evil ways, threatening their safety. I love the suspenseful scene where the survivors flee the house, only to realize they forgot their pet and have to go back. Creepy stuff.

Not a good or scary movie, today or even when I was younger. I thought the remake was more effective.

I actually found this movie pretty creepy as it relies on suggestion rather than the usual dodgy effects and gore. But a "true story"? Please...

This and its remake have scattered traces of merit (this in its originality, the remake in some alarmingly good storyboarding and visuals), but they're both pretty shamefully cheesy.

Scary but a little dated.

The remake was a hunk of shit! The original is the best there is !

The Amityville Horror is a decent haunted house movie, but one that is somewhat unmemorable as a whole. However, I don't think it's as bad as the reviews suggest. The acting is cheesy and the plot isn't all that great, but as a horror movie, it's simply mediocre, not necessarily terrible. It's interesting enough to hold your attention if you're horror movie buff, but you will probably forget much of what happens in the movie shortly after watching it.

*1/2 out of ****

Jay Anson's "The Amityville Horror" is considered to be one of the most important, controversial, and polarizing pieces of horror literature ever committed to a few hundred pages. At the time of its release and afterwards, it was subject to speculation whilst Anson faced various lawsuits. I haven't read it in full but I have read excerpts from the book before, and I can already tell you that it's a more terrifying supposed "real-life" story than this poor, messy film adaptation makes it out to be. Regardless of what you believe and how honest the story being told may actually be, Anson had conjured up an accumulated sense of dread that this 1979 adaptation helmed by Stuart Rosenberg never quite captures.

George (James Brolin) and Cathy Lutz (Margot Kidder) are a young couple who have just purchased a new home that rests by a lake of sorts. The film starts off by showing us horrible things that happened in that house just months earlier; namely a homicide case involving a father killing his entire family in the middle of the night at random with a shotgun. The couple is unaware of these things and until further notices settles down quite nicely with their three children (two boys, one little girl; they also have a much older son who is to be wed soon). The house is quite large and creepy; and you know something's really up when the daughter has a new imaginary friend and the local priest comes to bless the house and hears a loud, booming voice that tells him not-so-kindly to "Get out!"

The one most affected by the haunting aesthetic of the house is George. His mental state starts to collapse very slowly and he comes down with a cold. He also stops attending work and instead spends hours on end splitting logs outside in the yard; something that a co-worker takes notice of. I only mention the co-worker because his wife, a woman with a peculiar interest in the paranormal, agrees to come to the Lutz residence to do some paranormal investigating after George expresses concern. Perhaps those who died in that house are communicating from beyond the grave, hmm? It wouldn't anything particularly new, would it?

Everything is in place. You've got a large and demeaning house, creepy theme music by Lalo Schifrin with children singing an ominous tune, and a set-up that calls for some seriously surreal and ghostly going-ons. Instead of taking advantage of all these things that are essentially handed to him on a silver platter, Rosenberg decides to essentially direct this one on auto-pilot. It's not God-awful, annoying direction; but it's so bland an uninspired that it might as well be either better or worse than, well, that. Even the scenes intended to be scary and strange, like the one with the babysitter getting locked in the closet and another involving two red inhuman eyes being seen outside of the daughter's bedroom, are practically useless and completely forgettable. The only striking image is the house and the excessive red color tinting that is so frequently employed.

The pacing feels incredibly slow. So slow that I came this close to just giving up on this damned movie. I don't dislike "The Amityville Horror" because of its pacing - I actually enjoy a good suspense flick - but because it just doesn't have a good enough story or compelling enough actors (although the leads do their best to give it some zest) to hold up and capture the viewer's interest. Therefore, it drags on and on and comes off as rather boring. It makes the general mistake of thinking that big special effects will compensate for a lack of talent in the areas of building tension and generating scares. It comes off as neither surreal nor terrifying. Stupid, overlong, and uninteresting is more like it. This is just another textbook example of a studio horror film made with the pretense of being scary in exchange for profit. Well, look where that gets you; in this case, quite a bit of money and in the five dollar bin at Walmart. I personally don't think I could live with the shame.