The Amityville Horror

Flies swarm where they shouldn't, pipes and walls ooze ick, doors fly open, and priests and psychic sensitives cringe and flee in panic. It's definitely a house that audiences will enjoy visiting, especially if unfamiliar with the ending.

I suspect a lot of people will be scared - and thus satisfied - by The Amityville Horror, a film that stoops to some of the oldest and cheapest tricks of the trade in its dogged pursuit of goose bumps. It's a crude haunted-house movie that depends for much of its tension on the possibility that the events that befell George and Kathleen Lutz might be true (though there is considerable evidence that Jay Anson's best-selling book was more fiction that fact). [13 Aug 1979, p.75]

Executive produced by B-movie veteran Samuel Z. Arkoff and indifferently directed by TV-trained Stuart Rosenberg, the film's reputation exceeds its achievements, and the true story angle has been vigorously disputed.

The problem with The Amityville Horror is that, in a very real sense, there's nothing there. We watch two hours of people being frightened and dismayed, and we ask ourselves... what for? If it's real, let it have happened to them. Too bad, Lutzes! If it's made up, make it more entertaining. If they can't make up their minds... why should we?

So many horror-movie clichés have been assembled under the roof of a single haunted house that the effect is sometimes mind-bogglingly messy. There is apparently very little to which the director, Stuart Rosenberg, will not resort. Scary things do happen in the movie, but they're always telegraphed in advance and make too little sense to have a cumulative effect.

The Amityville Horror is a feeble excuse for a haunted-house thriller, but given the source, who could ask for more?

A tedious, lamebrained horror movie, which 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 by director Stuart Rosenberg.

Scary Enough Though not a classic, The Amnityville Horror has a lot creepy moments and scares to keep you satisfied.

Does a lot considering the era and budget, but the first hour is a drag of hokey haunted house tropes. Doors that close by themselves, black cats, and windows that slam shut on fingers. This movie has them all. It's not like they're something the genre has moved away from over the years, but in most of the other options out there these things are the build up to something bigger. The stuff that lets you know that evil is on the way and some real scares too. For the majority of the movie I never got that feeling. Somewhat wasting an uncomfortable atmosphere and one of the creepier houses in cinema (don't the windows look like eyes?). At least until the last 45 minutes... What kept me watching until that point was the subplot about the priest who keeps trying to save the Lutz family at great personal cost. This sort of selfless bravery reminded me of The Warrens from The Conjuring series and a depiction of the kind of warmth so few get to experience with religion. Of course it also depicts the less open side of the church as well when the larger diocese refuses to even investigate the case. Instead brushing it off as a bunch of hooey. So much for the outreach program I guess... With paranormal afflictions keeping anyone of the cloth from being able to intervene, it's up to the family's friends to try and get to the bottom of George Lutz's increasingly antisocial behavior. That's when the movie starts to get really good. Demons lurk outside windows, blood leaks from the walls, and a satanic burial ground is found in the basement. The evil that seemed like a non-presence for about the first half of the film rears it's malevolent head and the chaos begins. As a **** for possessed house films (demons are way scarier than ghosts!) this is when I started to enjoy myself. As a classic of the genre it should be watched by anyone who calls themselves an enthusiast. You can see how it influenced the countless other movies that followed. The first half+ hasn't aged well, but the final act does a lot to make up for that. Plus the no man, woman, child, or animal ending shows the world what a REAL man looks like. For once I wasn't ticked to see someone run back into danger. Instead I cheered them on. 6.9/10

Watchable, but never scary. Some tense scenes, some campy ones. Anchored by solid performances by the 3 leads, and a very creepy music score. Best moments are small ones, like static on phone calls, doors blowing off hinges from the inside, wads of cash go missing.. And one big shocking nightmare sequence.

An early "There's something wrong with the house" where what's wrong is mostly just priests and nuns getting spooked and the owners acting weird. The pacing and story here really drags for almost its entire runtime.

Cuesta creer que esta película haya sido tan popular en su época tomando en cuenta de que es bastante aburrida y lenta, no vale la pena.