From December 18, 1975 to January 14, 1976, the house located at 112 Ocean Avenue in the Amityville Village of Long Island, New York, was occupied by George and Kathleen Lutz along with their children. The story of what they experienced during the twenty-eight days they resided in this house is told in The Amityville Horror.
Since the reading of this book many years ago as a child, I have heard many conflicting reports about what actually went on in that house. Some of the reports state that what the Lutz family claimed they experienced is true. Others say it was nothing more than an elaborate hoax. I don’t know whether those events really happened or not, but it is something interesting to investigate.
Amityville Horror house in December 2005, wikipedia
The House
On November 13, 1974, only thirteen months before the Lutz family moved into the house, Ronald DeFeo, Jr., supposedly killed his parents and four siblings. DeFeo has since claimed that demonic voices told him to kill his family. He has also claimed that God told him to kill them. Then again, he says his he killed his father because his father was abusive to him and that he turned around and killed his mom because she hadn’t stopped the abuse. Afterwards, he went out for a while. When he returned, he found that his sister, Dawn, killed the rest of the kids, so he killed her because of that. In my opinion, he sounds like one sick, confused young man.
Ronald DeFeo, murderpedia.org
Regardless of the murders that had occurred there, the Lutz family thought this was just the home they had been looking for. In their eyes, it was a happy house.
According to the Lutz family, strange things began to happen the moment they moved into the house. Even the priest who came to bless the house said that eerie things happened to him while he was blessing what became the sewing room. He claims that it had an unearthly coldness about it and that a deep voice told him to get out. He also claims that some presence in the room slapped him across the face.
Once the priest left the house, he and Kathy Lutz say they weren’t able to communicate with each other by telephone because there was always an unusual amount of static on the phone when one of them would try and call the other.
Several more strange things are reported to have happened:
>A room was filled with flies in the dead of winter.
>The priest who blessed the house was plagued with blisters.
>One of the toilets would overflow with black goop each time it was flushed.
>George developed an extreme physical coldness. This affected him in such a way that he was unable to get warm, and he became extremely moody.
>George and Kathy had nightmares where they relived the murders that had taken place there, and they dreamed they were the victims.
>One of their daughters had a mysterious playmate, a pig who could only be seen if he wanted.
>Their children’s beds would levitate.
Many more strange things are supposed to have happened, but there are far too many to list.
When they began to fear for their sanity and their lives, they fled the house, leaving behind all of their possessions.
George and Kathy Lutz with two sons, www.pausedreviews.com
Now, did all of those things really happen? Hmm. I don’t know. They could have. The man who wrote the book, Jay Anson, believed the family was telling the truth. The Lutz children, even in recent years, have said that what they claimed happened is true.
According to legend, the Amityville House was built on the site where the Shinnecock Indians of Suffolk County, New York, imprisoned tribe members they thought were insane, evil, or possessed. Could this have any bearing on what is supposed to have happened?
The DeFeo family and the Lutz family are not the only people who have ever lived in this supposedly haunted, possessed house. Three different families (one through inheritance) owned the house before the DeFeo family bought it. And four families have owned it since the Lutz family fled from it. None of them have reported hearing any unusual voices or seeing any paranormal activity.
Since no other paranormal or demonic activity have been reported by any of the other inhabitants of the house, for me, that casts doubt on the tales the Lutz family has told. Since I wasn’t there, I don’t know for sure. But what about you? Would you be willing to live there, maybe even just spend one night there, to find out for yourself?
For those of you who are curious to visit this house, the address has been changed to discourage unwanted visits to those who are currently living there. That sounds like wisdom for those who are brave enough to own a house with such a haunting reputation.
The Amityville Horror: the Movie vs. the Book
Jay Anson wrote the account of what the Lutz family claims happened to them while they lived in the attractive house on suburban Long Island. I hadn’t read the book since I was a child (yes, I read it when I was a child), so I picked it up to read again. I don’t remember it scaring me when I was younger, and it definitely didn’t scare me this time.
Many creepy things are said to have happened. Maybe they did, and maybe they didn’t, but this book has inspired many movies to be made.
Two different film versions of the horrifying events that supposedly happened to them have been made. The first one was made in 1979, and the second was filmed in 2005. I chose to watch and review the 2005 version directed by Andrew Douglas and starring Melissa George and Ryan Reynolds.
As the film begins, it says “based on a true story.” The question remains though, was it a true story or a made-up set of events?
The setting is sufficiently creepy. The house doesn’t appear to be out of the ordinary in any way, and the family apparently thinks that life there will be grand. They are not prepared for the scary and unusual things that begin to happen just about immediately.
Magnets on the refrigerator rearrange themselves and spell out a harrowing message, shadows are seen, and voices are heard whispering when no one else is there. There is an eerie digital clock—things happen when it says 3:15, and there is a freaky bathroom scene. The babysitter is locked in the closet and tormented by Jodie. And some really strange, horrifying things happen in the boathouse.
Parts of the movie are different than the book. The little girl, Chelsea, talks to a pig named Jodie in the book. In the movie, Jodie is a little girl. She is actually a girl who lived there and was killed by her brother, Ronald DeFeo. This little girl ghost attempts to get Chelsea to do things that would literally kill her. And there is something really creepy about the teddy bear that Chelsea begins carrying around.
The priest doesn’t come into the movie (49 minutes through) until the Lutz’s have lived there for a bit. In the book, he visits them right after they move in. But they do add a pretty awesome twist to what happens when the priest is blessing one particular room in the house. There were an overabundant number of flies in the room, but they weren’t in there when he walked in. He hears them slowly approaching, and they fly out of a vent and attack him. As he is being attacked, this creepy voice tells him to get out. The corresponding scene in the book isn’t nearly as awesome.
Another harrowing scene is the one where George is splitting logs while making Billy, his stepson, hold them in place. I really thought he was going to split Billy instead of one of the logs.
George and Kathy dream about the murders that Ronald DeFeo committed in the house they now live in, and they dream that they are the victims. What part in all of this does DeFeo play? The movie reinforces the thought that the evil spirits that affected him also begin to work on George Lutz. George’s outlook on everything takes a drastic change for the worse immediately after they move in.
The origin of these evil spirits is explained as is the reason they are hanging around. I’m not sure I believe any of that stuff really happened, but the movie is worth watching. If you like horror movies, this is a decent one. Maybe if you watch it with all the lights out, it will even scare you just a bit.
In my opinion, the 2005 movie is so much more entertaining than the book. If you are interested in seeing what the Lutz family claimed happened to them while living in this house, I would opt for the movie.
If you would like to purchase a copy of this movie from Amazon, I have provided a link for you below.
Amazon Link: The Amityville Horror (2005)
If you would rather read the book, here is a link for that.
Amazon Link: The Amityville Horror
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