ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - July 27th
"THE AMITYVILLE HORROR" released in 1979
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Newly married couple George and Kathy Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder) buy their dream home in Amityville, New York, unaware of his dark and bloody past. Almost immediately, the family - including children Greg (K.C. Martel), Matt (Meeno Peluce) and Amy (Natasha Ryan) - start to experience odd occurrences; George begins to be more sullen and angry over perceived cold in the house, a babysitter being trapped in a closet despite it not having a locking doorknob, and the family dog obsesses over a secret room in the basement. Although not strongly religious, Kathy asks Father Delaney (Rod Steiger) to bless the house after witnessing a glimpse of two red, swine-like eyes outside the daughter's second-story bedroom window. Delaney is assaulted by a horde of out-of-season flies during the blessing, and later, as he continues to assist the Lutz's, experiences further stranger events (including blisters on his palms while touching a telephone) until Delaney suffers a breakdown and goes blind. The situation also worsens at the Lutz house; Amy starts seeing an "imaginary" friend Jody, the family witnesses a bubbling black ooze coming up from all the toilets, and George's persistent waking up at 3:15 am, feeling he must go check on the boathouse. Desperate, Kathy researches the house and discovers that a Satanic worshiper named John Ketchum had once lived on the land, and that the house was built atop a Shinnecock burial ground. Believing that George's unstable behavior is due to paranormal influences, Kathy must now protect her family from the malevolent spirits before the Lutz's become another tragic story in Amityville's bloody history!
George: [shouts] I'm coming apart! Oh, mother of God, I'm coming apart!
Top: George Lutz (James Brolin) starts to come apart from the noises;
Above: Kathy Lutz (Margot Kiddor) sees her daughter's "imaginary" friend, Jody
The real life experiences of George and Kathy Lutz were adapted into the novel of the same name by Jay Anson in 1977. It immediately drew controversy for claiming to be based on a true story, and was the subject of several lawsuits. The Amityville Horror was originally planned to be a made-for-TV production for CBS with producer Ronald Saland directing. But when executive producer Samuel Z. Arkoff purchased the rights, Saland was persuaded to step aside in favor of the more experienced Stuart Rosenberg to direct, and dismissed Jay Anson's draft of the screenplay opting for a version written by Sandal Stern. James Brolin was hesitant when first offered the role of George Lutz. Told that there was no script, he obtained a copy of Anson's novel to read and Brolin read the book until two o'clock in the morning. He had hung up a pair of his pants in the room earlier and during an especially tense passage of the book, the pants fell to the floor. Brolin jumped from his chair in fright and agreed to do the movie. Because the movie was made on a relatively modest budget, Brolin took less money up front but with a promise of 10% of the gross sales after its release - this decision would prove to be a huge financial windfall for Brolin later.
Father Delaney: I checked into the murders. And I checked into the twenty year old boy who killed his parents, and his four brothers and sisters. And when he was at trial, he testified that he heard voices in the house. He heard voices in the house and the voices told him to do it! Now, I was in the house and I heard the voices, too! And I also felt their presence in the house! I'm telling you, there was a presence in that house!
Top and Above: Father Delaney (Rod Steiger) struggles to help the Lutz Family
The town of Amityville denied American International Pictures permission to film any scenes whatsoever in Amityville in an attempt to distance themselves from any publicity (even the current owners had replaced the "evil eyes" windows with normal rectangle-shaped windows after too much unwanted attention). So the exteriors of the famous house were filmed at Toms River, New Jersey, with AIP finding a two-story Dutch-Colonial home that resembled the Amityville house enough and adding the third-floor facade. While shooting the scene where Kathy Lutz is startled by the red eyes in the window, director Stuart Rosenberg wasn't impressed by Margot Kidder's reaction. According to Kidder, Rosenberg then tried to hold up a "a day-glo orange stuffed velour pig with glass eyes" in an attempt to startle Kidder. She said the result was only hysterical laughter, not fear. Local police and ambulance workers would play extras in the film, while the Toms River Volunteer Fire Company was used to provide the "rain" during several scenes.
Jackie: Amy! Amy open the door... Amy? For Christ's sake, open the door!
[closet light turns itself off]
Jackie: [screams] Amy!
Top: Amy's (Natasha Ryan) babysitter Jackie (Amy Wright) gets trapped in
the closet by Jody; Above: Kathy begins to have visions of George murdering
the family, just as the previous owner of the house did!
Most the Amityville house was recreated on the sound stages at MGM studios. Cinematographer Fred J. Koenekamp admitted to having a hard time filming the scenes when Father Delaney is attacked by the flies, as he claimed to be scared of insects. He says that whenever he was to film a scene with a close-up facial shot of a fly right in the camera, he would look away or close his eyes and hope for a good shot. He also lost nearly 30 pounds because he refused to eat, saying the flies made him lose his appetite. For the scene, honey was rubbed on Rod Steiger's head to draw the flies to him. During production Brolin became friendly with George Lutz and his children, although both he and Kiddor were highly doubtful of their story. With filming concluded after seven weeks, composer Lalo Schifrin began working on the score. Contrary to popular belief, Schifrin's Academy Award nominated score for Amityville was not the legendary rejected score composed for The Exorcist six years earlier.
Carolyn: [possessed] Find the well... it's the passage... to hell! COVER IT!
Top and Above: George, Kathy and his sister in law Carolyn (Helen Shaver) find a
secret room behind a wall in the basement, and Carolyn immediately starts to feel the
evil from within!
In hopes of creating more publicity for the film the studio would concoct stories of "weird" occurrences on the set of the film, and had stars Brolin and Kiddor visit the actual Amityville house as part of a publicity junket. Released in 1979, the film was a critical disappointment. Roger Ebert wrote, " In order to be a horror movie, a horror movie needs a real Horror. The creature in Alien was truly gruesome. The case of possession in The Exorcist was profoundly frightening. The problem with The Amityville Horror is that, in a very real sense, there's nothing there. We watch two hours of people being frightened and dismayed, and we ask ourselves... what for?" Despite the reviews, The Amityville Horror was a huge box office success. Brolin's profit participation would eventually earn him about $17 million (or close to $60 million in 2016 dollars), but the star would later claim that he was unable to get work for two years because of his performance in the film. Margot Kiddor would also later go on record with her friends that she hated the film.
Above: Director Stuart Rosenberg (right) with Brolin and Kiddor on set
The Amityville Horror's success would eventually spawn two theatrically released sequels; Amityville II: The Possession (1982) (an official sequel/prequel) and Amityville 3-D (1983) (not an official sequel). Although neither film received any where near the same box office gross of the original, five more direct-to-video low-budget sequels would released from 1989-96; Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes (1989), The Amityville Curse (1990), Amityville: It's About Time (1992), Amityville: A New Generation (1993), and Amityville Dollhouse (1996). In 2005, Platinum Dune's Michael Bay and Andrew Form produced The Amityville Horror remake, starring Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George as George and Kathy Lutz. The remake, like the original, received mostly negative reviews but was considered a hit at the box office.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 24%
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