AMITYVILLE:
A TRUE HORROR
(Investigator 109, 2006
July)
Suppose
the following occur in your house:
- Odours
of perfume and bile arise mysteriously;
- Green
slime oozes from walls;
- Black
stains appear in the bathroom;
- Formerly
well-behaved kids become brats;
- You
awake and see your young wife transformed into a "90 year-old hag";
- Your
wife levitates off the bed;
- The
front door falls off its hinges;
- Windows
get smashed;
- Unknown
forces push furniture around;
- Cloven-hoofed
footprints appear outside;
- Swarms
of insects attack your family;
- Sounds
of a marching band awake your family;
- Demonic
eyes outside peer through windows.
You
probably wouldn't stay long and if you paid rent you'd want a refund.
After 28 days the Lutz family likewise fled their
house.
A priest tried to exorcise the place but fled suffering from
mysterious blisters. Ghost hunters were called and felt demonic forces.
There followed the best seller The Amityville Horror: A True Story
(1977) authored by journalist Jay Anson. Then the movie The
Amityville Horror (1979).
Anson's
book is about a haunted
house in New York where the above-listed events happened.The publisher
called the book "non fiction". The introduction said: "The names of
several individuals mentioned in this book have been changed to protect
their privacy. However, all facts and events, as far as we have been
able to verify them, are strictly accurate."
The movie
got poor revues. Typical is: "A yawn inducing rehash not even
good for laughs."
Spin-off
movies were as bad as the first:
- Amityville
II (1982)
- Amityville
3D (1983)
- Amityville
4: The Evil Escapes (1989)
- The
Amityville Curse (1990)
- Amityville
1992: It's About Time (1992)
- Amityville:
A New Generation (1993)
Considering
that the book is subtitled "A True Story" how true is it?
Six
members of the DeFeo family were murdered in their Ocean Avenue
house on November 13, 1974 while they slept.
Another
family member, Ronald DeFeo Jr, was found guilty and jailed.
The house
was purchased by George and Kathleen Lutz in 1975 and, in
December, they moved in with their three children.
Jay Anson
interviewed George and Kathleen Lutz and built his horror
story on what they said.The Lutzes swore all this was true and Jay
Ansen claimed he had adequate independent corroboration.The Lutz family
went on a nationwide tour to promote Anson’s book as their "true
story." They appeared on TV shows and were written about in magazines.
The Amityville
Horror sold over 3,000,000 copies and the 1979
movie based on the book grossed $80 million. The Lutz family made a
fortune from film and book rights.
Eventually
Ronald DeFeo's lawyer, William Weber, admitted that he and
the Lutz family had made the story up. The lawyer had wanted to call
for a fresh trial and therefore promoted the idea that a "force" made
his client murder. In People magazine (1979, September 17)
Weber said, "We created this horror story over many bottles of
wine."