Amityville Horror
3
Ah, yes. The seventies! Post Vietnam, pre-Clinton. A period during which, for a short time, the attention of that segment of the public which cares about such things was riveted by a house in Amityville Long Island, said to be inhabited by, amongst other things, a malign spirit which took the form of an outsized pig. When George and Kathleen Lutz (portrayed in this film by James Brolin and Margot Kidder)fled the house after 28 days with their children and the family dog, leaving behind all their possessions and refusing to re-enter the house to claim them, the story broke. First on the national news as a curiosity, then through the book "The Amityville Horror", written by reporter Jay Anson. The Lutz's story, to which they adhere even today, some twenty years after the fact, has been the subject of an ongoing controversy that still continues. It has been reported, falsely, that the story was "proven" a hoax. It has also been rumored, again falsely, that the Lutzes themselves confessed to making it up. The story is just as incredible, and just as shrouded in controversy and innuendo today as it was then. Whatever the truth, or lack thereof, of the story the Lutzes told Anson, the established fact is that around 4 a.m. one morning in 1976, 23 year old Ronnie Defeo took a shotgun and killed his mother, father, sister and two brothers as they slept. This is the starting point for the film. Soon thereafter, newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz move in, with George's dog and Kathy's three kids from a previous marriage to this nice house on the bank of the river which they picked up really cheap. It's haunted, you see. Flies swarm in closed rooms, black smelly crap fills up the toilets (I know, I know, but this happens when they HAVEN'T been used!), and red piggy eyes peer in through the windows. As if this weren't bad enough, the house also causes anyone affiliated with the church to vomit. Kathy's aunt, a Roman catholic nun comes to visit, becomes ill and has to leave immediately. She barely gets her car out of the driveway before she slams on the brakes and pukes out the door. This scene is great for laughs everytime, no matter how often you see the film. At least she leaves the property before she yakks. The concerned, intense priest who comes to bless the house, after he is attacked by flies and screamed at by a disembodied voice to "Get ooouuut!", vomits right in the driveway! Satan-2, clergy-0. Worse than all of this, though, is that George Lutz stops bathing and shaving and begins to resemble Ronnie Defeo. He also develops a strange affinity for the axe he uses to chop wood in a vain attempt to heat a house which always seems to be too cold. It begins to seem as if George may be under the influence of a force which will compell him to repeat Defeo's crimes. The film has it's moments, but they are few. There is a rather startling apparition, seen from George's point of view on the lawn, in one of the upper windows at the climax of the film (the videotape copies of the film are so poor and grainy that this vision can't be made out, but it is clearly to be seen on the dvd), and Kidder and Brolin play with conviction, but overall any feelings of creepiness are evoked not by any specific thing seen onscreen, but rather by the thought that all of this (or part of it, anyway) might really have happened. If you choose to disbelieve it, you're likely to find the film pointless, if occasionally amusing. Ralphing nuns aside, Rod Steiger as the overwrought Father Delaney, victimized by flies, phones that turn red-hot whenever he touches them, and falling statuary, makes the film at least worth fast-forwarding through for those who don't wish to sit through it in it's entirety (dvd's with chapter search are excellent for this!). He enlivens the proceedings whenever he appears onscreen. He rants, raves, screams and cries and generally acts manic, reminding us that the days of "The Pawnbroker" are long past.
