The legend of the house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island, New York, has enjoyed a long life. Going on its 40th year, it continues to frighten audiences and present questions as to just what - if anything - ever happened in what might be the most famous haunted house in America.
I've read Jay Anson's book. I've seen the original movie (which I consider one of the scariest ever) numerous times. I've seen the remake, some sequels and the cable TV documentaries, and all left me with that creeping sense that something must've happened in that house. (I had an opportunity to go see the house in 1999, but we chose to go to Times Square instead. I was always kind of relieved.) But it wasn't until I watched My Amityville Horror, the documentary presenting the story of Daniel Lutz, that I finally concluded that the whole thing was a hoax.
If you haven't seen The Amityville Horror (the original with James Brolin and Margot Kidder), please rectify that soon. In the meantime, here's the story in a nutshell: In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his mother, father, two sisters and two brothers in the house with a rifle. A little more than a year later, the Lutz family moved in. They fled the house 28 days later in the middle of the night with nothing but the clothes on their backs, saying they were terrified of paranormal happenings in the home. The story of chairs that rocked themselves, neverending cold spots, spontaneously appearing flies, walls that bled, glowing red eyes and more was investigated by local media and written about in Anson's book which was eventually turned into the movie.
Over the years since, the story has been spun and re-spun and examined by believers and doubters. It was also kept alive by Lutz family patriarch George, who, among other things, trademarked the phrase Amityville Horror.
Daniel Lutz, now in his 40s, was a boy when his family moved into the Amityville house. After decades of listening to others tell the story, he tells his in My Amityville Horror.
Sort of.
The documentary is more of a study of a troubled man than a tell-all of the 28 days in the house. We're treated to face-the-camera rants from Lutz, a revisiting of the story with a local newswoman, a trip to the home of Ed and Lorraine Warren (of The Conjuring fame) and interviews with other journalists, both of the legitimate kind and paranormal. We also get to see Lutz visit with a new psychiatrist.
Daniel obviously had serious emotional issues as a boy that still plague him. He had a vicious hatred for his stepfather George, and his horror story is more about that than any ghosts or demons. He ran away numerous times, claims he lived in the desert for awhile, spent years in therapy, and takes a deep satisfaction in the fact that George is now dead. And yet his anger seems not to have dissipated.
In fact, it manifests itself in spades when he is asked on camera if he'll take a lie-detector test. The question catches him off-guard, and he immediately turns on the film makers, telling them "we're going to have words" and not to do that to him. He finally raises his voice and proclaims he'd take a lie detector if he thought he needed to, but what's a machine going to tell us that he can't?
It's moments like that that finally convinced me it's all bullshit.
The trip to see Lorraine Warren was another one. Warren was the "psychic" who investigated the Amityville house. She also happened to investigate the house from the recent hit The Conjuring. She comes across as sweet at first, but then transforms into a sort of self-righteous loon, at one point presenting a crucifix she claims holds wood from the "true cross" on which Jesus was crucified. Lutz seems enamored with her, and she of him. And both seem delusional.
I recently interviewed a similar person. When you sit on someone's couch and listen to them confirm by their words and actions what you already believe to be true - that they're unstable - you learn to recognize the hallmarks. I saw them in the scene at Warrens' homes.
There are other moments, some suggestive, others very telling. One psychologist presents the idea that Lutz is simply repeating stories from the book and movies because he's come to believe them. Lutz continuously blames George for attracting these dark forces in the first place. His siblings, who could easily corroborate these stories, refused to appear. None of the local TV and print journalists who've been in the house (including one reporter who spent the night) nor any of the families that have lived in the house since have ever reported anything out of the ordinary.
And Lutz never tells a straight start-to-finish story. He gives passionate accounts. Sometimes he's vague, sometimes detailed, but he never offers the narrative I was hoping for. The only physical evidence he presents is a crooked finger he claims is the result of a window being slammed down on his hands by an unseen force. Most of his stories are about how hard it has been to be him and how much he hated George.
Lutz lives a peaceful life as a UPS driver. He works on hot rods and he is one hell of a guitar player. But I think the only thing he is haunted by is the memory of a man who Lutz sees as having stolen his family from his birth father, and thus stolen his life.
As for The Amityville Horror itself, this is my theory: George Lutz saw an opportunity in that murder house. He moved his family into it, and between his own actions and the backing of so-called paranormal investigators like the Warrens, he convinced the world he'd lived a nightmare.
One that keeps making someone a lot of money.
If you want a real mystery from that house, ask yourself this question: How did Ronald DeFeo Jr. - by himself - kill six people in the middle of the night with a high-powered rifle with no silencer without waking up anyone? I own the same model of rifle as the one he used, just in a slightly differently caliber. A Marlin 336C is loud. How did DeFeo kill people who slept in the same room with no one waking up? Eight shots (he shot both parents twice), from a gun the report of which can be heard a mile away. And no one woke up. No one in the house. No neighbors. No one. That's a question that's creepy and deserves to be answered.
My Amityville Horror gets 2.5 stars.
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