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The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.
For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for The Amityville Horror can be found here.
The Amityville Horror is a 1977 novel by American author Jay Anson. The book was adapted for the film by Canadian screenwriter Sandor Stern. The popularity of the film has led to numerous sequels including: Amityville II: The Possession (1982), Amityville 3-D (1983), Amityville: The Evil Escapes (1989), The Amityville Curse (1990), Amityville 1992: It's About Time (1992), Amityville: A New Generation (1993), Amityville: Dollhouse (1996), and The Amityville Horror (2005), a remake of the first movie.
When the book first came out in 1977, it was marketed as a true story. Since then, there has been much controversy, many inconsistencies, questionable evidence, and numerous lawsuits by the many people involved. The Lutzes maintain that the events really happened, while other witnesses claim otherwise. Other than the DeFeo murders, the house has no history of violence or paranormal activity prior to the Lutzes moving in, and the families who have lived in the house after the Lutzes moved out have reported no paranormal activity. Since the truthfulness of the story is still being hotly debated, it cannot be decided on an IMDb faq page whether or not the story is true or a hoax.
Amityville is a village along the south shore of Long Island in the state of New York. Its location on a U.S. map can be seen here. The Lutzes' Amityville house was located at 112 Ocean Avenue. It has since been renovated, and it's said that the address has been changed to keep away the curious. The house that was used for the exterior shots is located in Toms River, New Jersey. It, too, has since been renovated. The barn-shaped roof and those "evil-eyed" windows were simply fitted to the house for the movie (to make it look more like the house described in the book).
Twenty-eight (28) days. They moved in on 18 December, 1975 and left on 14 January, 1976.
According to the book, it is Ron "Butch" DeFeo Jr's face that appears on the wall of the red room. DeFeo and George Lutz were supposed to have looked very much alike. Mugshots of the real Ron DeFeo Jr can be viewed here and compared to the real George Lutz's photo here. A photo of actor James Brolin, who plays George Lutz in this movie, can be seen here. In actuality, it is the face of James Brolin's brother.
The red room was a hidden room in the basement, discovered by the psychic. When George breaks down the wall and looks inside, he can see that the room is painted red. The psychic then screams, "Find the well! It's the passage to HELL! Cover it!" She explains that the red room was once used for devil worship and sacrifices and that the site where the house sits was where the Shinnecock Indians used to bury their death and abandon their mentally ill. [In real life, all of this has been verified as being untrue.]
Because a scene in the book says that George saw Kathy (Margot Kidder) transform into an old woman of ninety, "the hair wild, a shocking white, the face a mass of wrinkles and ugly lines, and saliva dripping from the toothless mouth."
On the last night in the house, there is a violent storm. Kathy returns home after researching newspaper reports about the murders committed by the previous resident and noticing that he strongly resembles George. Meanwhile, George has been out in the boathouse sharpening his axe. When Kathy walks in the door, she finds George running through the house with his axe, calling for Amy. Amy and her brothers are hiding in their room. George hacks through the door just as Kathy grabs him from behind. George knocks her to the ground and almost hits her with the axe before he realizes what he is doing. At that moment, the floor in the red room erupts and the windows in the attic explode. Kathy and George grab the kids, and they run out to the truck. George has to go back in the house to get the keys and Harry (the dog). As he goes down to the basement where Harry is barking, the steps break, and George falls into the well. At first, Harry starts to attack him until he realizes it is George, then Harry helps pull George from the well. As George heads for the front door, it suddenly slams shut, so he breaks a window instead. George and Harry make it to truck, and the Lutz family drives away. In the final scene, a note appears saying: George and Kathleen Lutz and their family never reclaimed their house or their personal belongings. Today they live in another state.
There is a rumour that the Lutz's returned to the house to hold a garage sale not long after they fled the house. The Lutz's fled the house on January 14, 1976. Long Island's Channel 5 filmed a seance in the house on March 6, 1976. There are several photographs taken during this investigation that show the house contained all of the Lutz's possessions. Mr. and Mrs. Lutz hired an independent auctioneer to sell off their remaining possessions.
The reported events in the Amityville house took place, according to the Lutzes' story, in December 1975 and January 1976, over 30 years ago. George and Kathy Lutz divorced in the late 1980s. George died of heart disease on 8 May, 2006 in Clark County, Nevada, and Kathy died of emphysema on 17 August, 2004 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The three children -- Daniel, Christopher, and Missy -- are adults and remain out of the public eye.
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