The original version of The Amityville Horror (1979), directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as the haunted Lutz couple, is often ranked with the great late 60s-70s horror classics, like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen. It’s certainly as famous as those films. And it's still being re-released in various formats and watched by millions.
Recently, I sat down to watch it again after many years, expecting to revisit an old favorite on a spooky October afternoon. Unfortunately, as the film started to stream, I got a sudden, shock realization: it’s actually not very good. Its legendary status notwithstanding, the original Amityville Horror kind of sucks.
First, the script: it’s meandering and repetitive. How many times do we have to see a priest or a nun get waylaid while they try to help the Lutz family? Every time Ol’ Scratch (or whatever the source of the “horror” is — it’s not clear) tries to stop them from visiting the Lutz house, the clergymen/women just give up and go away. Oh well, the devil wins again! Father Merrin and Father Karras from The Exorcist, they ain’t.
Make Up Your 'Effin Mind
Then there’s the ever-changing nature of the reason why the house is haunted.
First, it’s the ghost of Ron DeFeo, who murdered his entire family in the house, and who’s supposedly possessing George Lutz. Then, it’s haunted because the house was built on the same site as a house that belonged to a colonial-era warlock who escaped the Salem Witch Trials (really?). Then, it’s because Native Americans allegedly used the site to bury people they considered evil. Then, at last, it’s because there’s a “passage to hell” in the basement. It’s like the scriptwriter just decided to throw together a random assortment of common 70s horror tropes — Satanic visitations, colonial witches, reincarnation, Native American folklore — and let the audience decide which one of them sticks.
Now let’s talk about the direction. Stuart Rosenberg directed several good but forgotten films (The Pope of Greenwich Village, 1984) and one bona fide classic (Cool Hand Luke, 1967). Here, he shows little talent for building up suspense and dread. Random terrible things keep happening to the Lutzes, and then they finally run away. Plus, a priest (Rod Steiger) who tries especially hard to help the Lutzes goes apeshit. That’s it. There’s no real plot and zero character development. The script also stereotypes Kathy Lutz’s northeast Irish/Italian-American family as loud, poorly educated, and super-Catholic.
There are a few very effective scenes, such as when George looks under the sofa and finds the wrapper band for the missing wad of cash his brother-in-law unaccountably lost, taunting him. And the opening scenes depicting the murders of the De Feo family are chilling. I’ll even defend the flying, demonic pig scene that everybody else laughs at. But all of these parts together don’t add up to a cohesive whole. They’re like a Halloween Haunted House tour, where random horrors jump out at you for awhile, and then you finish the tour and leave.
Then there’s the acting. Brolin is remote as George Lutz and never really connects with the audience. No one cares when he starts to lose his shit while supposedly being possessed by Ron DeFeo. Kidder looks pretty, and that’s about it. Steiger is totally embarrassing as the ranting and raving priest; what was he on?
The cinematographer (Fred Koenekamp, Oscar-winner for The Towering Inferno, 1974) tries too hard to make the interior of the Amityville house look dark and menacing — so dark it’s hard to see what’s going on. To be fair, the exterior scenes depicting a gorgeous autumnal Long Island are stunning.
The one real bright spot is the score by Lalo Schiffrin. It was nominated for an Oscar, a true achievement -- especially when considering the traditional prejudice the film Academy displays towards horror. BTW, true story: Schriffin wrote the original score for The Exorcist, but it was rejected by studio executives for being “too dark.” Lol, imagine a “too dark” score for The Exorcist!!
For the life of me, I can’t say why the original Amityville remains a classic after all these years. Possibly, viewers are intrigued after reading the book and believing it’s based on a “true story.” (Ron DeFeo is a real person who actually did murder his family in the Amityville house.) It's worth a watch, because you can't be a true horror fan without knowing it, but it doesn't deserve to be in the top tier of great 70s horror films. It's definitely second-tier like Michael Winner's The Sentinel (1977). Now streaming on Amazon, free to Prime members.
