The Amityville Horror

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Eric W. I read the book/watched movie as a child. Believing it was a true story, it traumatized me to the core. Yes, it could be considered boring for the gamer generation, but the real life slaughter of an entire family that morphs into demonic experiences… that just pushed me in front of the bus. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/13/25 Full Review Larry K Pretty scary. Didn't love the ending though Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 07/23/25 Full Review Harold K. A boring house with boring kids with a boring dog. I give it 2 1/2 stars for the score by Schifrin and loving the story in general. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/23/25 Full Review Justin T This is so much better than I remembered. Maybe it’s me that has matured. I probably didn’t like the slow burn the first time I watched it. You know what the film is doing way before it gets there but because of the atmosphere and slow development it actually doesn’t matter. The cinematography is possibly my favourite from this era. The ending is riveting, the slow burn really does pay off. I can see why so many films took the Amityville name and made something else like Amityville Apt. (2025), they had a fairly strong foundation to piggyback off. Except the ending which is a bit sudden. The original defines so many tropes of the haunted house film but in my opinion is overshadowed by Poltergeist (1982) that refined and improved every aspect. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/28/25 Full Review DanTheMan 2 A double-dosing of horror with 𝔸ℕℕ𝔸. Really, more about the deep-seated, primal fear of family members inflicting violence on each other than it is about ghosts and demonic spirits, The Amityville Horror has often been cited as one of the quintessential haunted house horrors despite its dubious true crime roots. Reading more about anxiety over homeownership and financial turmoil, there's an endless stream of great ideas and spooky moments, but it doesn't come together as neatly as you'd hope it would. The pacing is off, there are too many subplots that go nowhere, and it seems just to come to a clunking halt at the end, but the film's lack of commitment to any single reading of its narrative architecture is precisely what makes it so uncanny. The workman-like direction from Stuart Rosenberg serves the film well, as do the committed central performances from Brolin and Kidder, and Lalo Schifrin's eerie musical score, which adds a lot to the film's atmosphere, but the lackadaisical editing and the thinly realised screenplay just don't deliver creating a slow and somewhat messy film. While it's periodically dull, The Amityville Horror is a blunt and effective horror that still packs enough of a whallop to warrant a sceptical visit. It's certainly a watchable film, but more so as a character study than the flat-out horror it promises. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/17/25 Full Review Mike P Smash hit horror film; which launched a whole franchise; based mostly on the big publicity stunt that this Long Island haunted house story was "for real"...Although this famous epic about the Lutzes and the Defeos and reliving the Sins of the Father in this Fall of the House of Usher type story is a limp, disjointed affair. A good cast is wasted, (James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and Rod Steiger)...And the direction is mostly amateur hour. The film also isn't sure if it wants to be Pulp Fiction or a cinema verité style docudrama; and so it lands somewhere awkwardly in between. The Shining which came out in 80 and then Poltergeist in 82 were much better genre examples, (and then especially Insidious, decades later)... Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/05/25 Full Review Read all reviews

The Amityville Horror

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