The Amityville Horror (1979)

Release date: 1979-07-27
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Production Co: American International Pictures (AIP), Cinema 77, Professional Films
Genre: Horror
Rating: 6.2/10
Length: 1h 57min

Storyline

Based on a true story that was claimed by writer Jay Anson, The Amityville Horror is about a large house on the coast of Long Island where newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz and their three children move into the house that they hope will be their dream house which ends up in terror. Despite full disclosure by the real estate agent of the house's history, George and Kathy buy the house. George says, "Houses don't have memories," but they turn to their family priest Father Delaney who believes the house is haunted and performs an exorcism on the house. But satanic forces in the house causes him to become blind and makes him very sick. With the help of another priest Father Bolen and a police detective, George and Kathy face the fears of the house, but not knowing the forces are planning to possess George and then the children.

Plot Keywords

haunted house, woman wearing only a man's shirt, male underwear, attack, theft, van, terror, dream, evil, surveillance, suffocation, rainy night, dead children, menace, panic, occult, sex scene, stepfather, wedding reception, scream

Short Review

[The Amityville Horror] begins with the promising premise of a haunted house in the suburbs (poltergeists in the barbecue pit?) and quickly degenerates into a display of pretentious camera angles.