“The Amityville Horror” is one of the quintessential American haunted house tales. Whether you’re intrigued by the supernatural, or curious about the retellings the original story has spawned, a new video essay details the differences between the source material and movies it spawned.
The video essay from CineFix explores three different ways “The Amityville Horror” has been told: the original novel by Jay Johnson, the 1979 film adaptation starring James Brolin, and the 2005 film starring Ryan Reynolds. Relying on the novel, each film deviates slightly in order to make the audience terrified of the hauntings the households. The 1979 adaptation stays true to the novel for the most part, but adapts means to make the audience jump, relying mostly on fear of the unknown rather than a fear for the characters themselves. The 2005 adaptation is constantly reminding audiences of what is at stake for the characters. Utilizing more grizzly imagery and adding to the sex appeal by way of its stars, the haunted house story is turned into a spectacle.
The latter half of the video essay concerns the possibility that the events described in the novel and depicted on screen may have never occurred as more is revealed about the Lutz family. Regardless if the story is true or not, ‘Amityville’ continues to inspire haunted house stories, creating monster of our safest havens.