The Amityville Horror (1979)

What's with the Weird Cat Thing glaring in the window?
This is the film that scared the fried shrimp from my colon when I first saw it at the age of 8 on TV as ABC's Sunday Night Movie. It was still disturbing today. I munched down my Wendy's single combo and only after digesting fully, did I watch it again after all that time.
There are some amusing and upsettling moments. It becomes over the top if you accept the "This is a True Story." claim at the beginning.One part that made me jump was when a window suddenly falls on a young boy's hand and his parents can't get the window back up. There was no way to see that coming. I hate seeing kids get hurt, even in the movies.
A parapsychologist performed the commentary and I can't really agree with him.
He claims that the house was built in Amityville back in 1904. A bad rainstorm caused the skeleton of an old Indian Chef on a horse to pop out of the ground. A kid walking by, pulled off the skull and played football with it. Ever since the skull Football game, the house has had strange occurences. The first family moved the house to a different location in 1928 after poltergiest style activities developed. When the house was moved nothing else happened. A new house was built on the same land in 1928 which leds to the idea that the land is haunted and not the house on the land.
In 1974 Ronald Defoe, killed his entire family with a rifle. That did happen, althought I don't really believe the story about the skull being popped off. The dumb thing about it is, none of the Defoe family woke up after the father was shot in the head. No neighbers reported any sounds of gunfire. The parapsychologist tried to claim that the Indian spirits muffled the noises so the attacks could be carried out. I have may doubts about that. I think that Defoe had help from a relative or someone else otherwise it couldn't happen as claimed. The bedroom walls in the Amityville house are so close that you would hear a rifle going off and more than likely make a run for it.
But I think the whole thing is a work of fiction, including the past haunting backgrounds, the only thing real was the Defoe Killings.
It is an amusing movie to watch today. James Brolin is hairy looking indeed. Imagine Grizzly Adams as a family man up against the supernatural. He had the whole 70's Natural Cool look down (allowing all hair, including facial, to grow out as long as possible.)
The priest was covered with honey and real flies landed on his face.
Jodie was an imaginery friend of one of the kids in the movie. Jodie appears in the movie as a pig or possible cat with bright red glowing eyes and seems to spring up outside windows for unknown reasons.
All in all, a classic retro flick to re-live.
Oddly, Jay Anson who wrote the book is dead. The Lutz family who claimed the whole thing was real are both dead. George was the last to die back in May 2006. It is interesting that they got a divorce in the 80's afterwards. But divorce was the In Thing to do in the 80's. It has been rumored that Anson and other writers working on the book and the movie screenplay died of mysterious circumstances. I just don't think an enraged Indian Chef is responsible. The house is stil standing and the current family should have been ran off years ago if the legend is really true.

IS ELLEN BURSTYN HOME ?
No, this isn't "The Exorcist", but it deserves better than a 3.5 star overall rating. Only after buying a home that's seen multiple murders in the past,does protagonist Brolin finally come to realize that it's the land surrounding "Xanadu" that's been cursed for centuries. Oh, there's plenty of courage in fighting satan on his home field. Steiger tries first and after several severe setbacks, the psychiatric Priest is finally blinded,muted, destroyed.His young assoociate is wiser,withdrawing from the chaos, probably looking for a 1959 Edsel after a "devilish" dodgem ride down an otherwise ordinary freeway.Meanwhile, back at the ranch,Brolin and family are enduring 3 weeks of hell: strange noises, slamming windows, self opening windows, toilets gushing ink, doors crashing open from the inside, and a true satanic vision in an uncovered passageway,pointing downward, definitely not headed towards MacDonald's. In the end , Brolin and family finally surrender and flee, leaving satan to await his final defeat at Armageddon, and leaving the viewer certainly not ready for a good night's sleep.

A good old-fashioned haunted house tale, but don't believe a word of this "true" story.
Decent acting, solid special effects, and a fairly intelligent script save this film from being just another haunted house tale.

This review contains some minor spoilers after the following brief paragraph:

This film follows the supposedly true story of the Lutz family that lived a mere 28 days in a house that is not just haunted, but possessed by both ancient and contemporary evil spirits. The film is effectively scary and great for a stormy cold night, but you've seen this kind of film before. I don't consider this a "classic" as it added very little to the genre other than some demonic elements not typically found in traditional haunted house tales and it's influence on the film industry was barely a blip on the radar scope; however, it is top-notch entertainment and it has held up well over time. It greatest value is that you can enjoy this film multiple times. There are even those out there that consider this film more silly than scary, but find it entertaining regardless.

Now the spoilers:

There is no way I can believe a single thing in this film as having really happened and everyone, but the Lutz family, connected to the real life events deny their involvement as presented in the film and book. For example, George Lutz's partner denies ANYTHING ever happened between him and George as depicted in the film. The local church parish denies that any priest ever went to that house to bless it, let alone go blind later as a result of that visit, and official weather reports clearly indicate that the violent storm noted on their last night in that house never happened.

Those are just a few problems with the supposedly "true" story. Other concerns relate to the fact that the Lutz family may have been encouraged to fabricate this story as after buying the house, George's business began to sink and this story may have been a way to save himself financially. He may have also been encourage by a family friend who claimed to be a "sensitive" (AKA Medium) to pursue the history and supernatural possibilities connected to the house.

Of course, the credibility of their story takes another hit when the supposed "red room" under the staircase of the house was discovered to NOT EXIST in reality. The owners after the Lutz family moved out showed the house off to disprove the nonsensical claims by the Lutzes. In addition, there is one serious question to be ask in that if the house itself was possessed (not just haunted), then why is it not one single owner of that house after the Lutzes had left ever had a single unusual thing happen to them? Sure sounds like very selective spirits to me --lol.

Hey, I can suspend my disbelief as much as anyone to enjoy a good book or film, but don't try and snow job me with claims of "a true story" on something that is completely and totally fabricated in order to garner attention and/or make a buck for someone. I have a large forehead, but "stupid" isn't written on it.

BTW: I lived in New York at the time the original murders in that house took place, when the Lutz family lived there, and when the later owners opened the home to disprove the tall tales about the house. I was actually at that house once, and I never got so much as a goose bump.