The Amityville Horror (2005 film)
Encyclopedia
The Amityville Horror is a 2005 horror film
directed by Andrew Douglas. It is a remake of the 1979 film of the same name
which itself was based on the 1977 novel of the same name
by Jay Anson
, which documents the alleged experiences of the Lutz family after they moved into a house in Long Island
which had been the scene of a mass murder committed by Ronald DeFeo, Jr.
who shot six members of his family there in November 1974.
shot and killed his family at their home, 412 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York
. He killed five members of his family in their beds, but his youngest sister, Jodie, had been killed in her bedroom closet. He claimed that he was persuaded to kill them by voices he had heard in the house.
George and Kathy Lutz and her three children from a previous marriage move into what they believe will be their dream home, 412 Ocean Avenue situated on the waterfront in Amityville. When George questions the asking price, which is well below market value, the realtor confesses the house was the scene of a brutal murder. Despite some misgivings, George acquiesces to his wife's wishes and purchases the property.
Almost immediately, the family is plagued by a series of unexplained and apparently supernatural happenings. Refrigerator magnets rearrange themselves to spell out the message KATCH EM, KILL EM. Daughter Chelsea (Chloe Moretz
) insists she has become friendly with a young girl named Jodie, the same name of one of the slaughtered DeFeo children. Chelsea also inexplicably acquires Jodie's teddy bear
, with whom Jodie was buried. George frequently complains of the cold and starts spending large amounts of time in the basement, where he hears garbled voices coming from the furnace, an old television, and an unplugged clock radio reading 3:15, the time the DeFeos supposedly were killed. The locked boathouse door repeatedly is found open, blood seeps from the walls, George momentarily sees an apparition of Jodie behind Kathy as the digital clock from the basement, now by their bed, flicks from 3:14 to 3:15 am and the family dog incessantly barks at things only he can see. Babysitter Lisa is trapped in a bedroom closet that has a door with no lock yet will not open, and when she is finally released, hysterically insists she saw Jodie, who took her finger and put it inside her gunshot wound to the head.
At Kathy's behest, local priest Father Callaway comes to bless the house, but is driven away when his holy water sizzles as it hits the walls and he is attacked by a swarm of flies. He later tells Kathy the battered stuffed animal Chelsea has, belonged to Jodie DeFeo and was buried with her.
George's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre
, and he begins to mistreat and taunt the stepchildren he once clearly adored. As the paranormal events escalate, Kathy decides to research the history of her home in the library's public records. There she discovers it once belonged to a mysterious cult preacher named Father Katchem (thus explaining the KATCHEM AND KILL EM message), who tortured and killed Native American
s in the basement. Upon investigating she finds numerous bodies in the walls of the house. Kathy is convinced the man's evil spirit has taken control of her husband. By the urgent request of Father Callaway, she races home to remove her children from the house and take them to safety. Meanwhile, George has broken through the basement wall and discovered a secret chamber, where he has visions of Father Katchem and his numerous victims. Apparently possessed and no longer able to control his impulses, George chases his family with a shotgun. In a desperate struggle, George screams for Kathy to kill him, but Kathy manages to knock him out and with the help of the children binds his hands and feet and carries him to the boathouse, from which they make their escape by water. George regains consciousness and urges Kathy to get them as far away from the house as possible. A note comes below the screen, which tells viewers - how Lutz family left the house within 28 days of their stay and never came back even to retrieve their things.
Jodie is seen standing in the front doorway. As she starts screaming and cries a single tear, the clocks throughout the house reset themselves to 3:15, misplaced objects go back to where they were and the girl is pulled through the hallway floor by an unknown force. The Evil spirits were gone, and the Lutz family finally lived in peace.
, Buffalo Grove
, and Fox Lake
in Illinois
and Salem
and Silver Lake
in Wisconsin
.
MGM claimed the remake was based on new information uncovered during research of the original events, but George Lutz later claimed nobody ever spoke to him or his family about the project. When he initially heard it was underway, his attorney contacted the studio to find out what they had in the planning stages and to express Lutz's belief they didn't have the right to proceed without his input. Three letters were sent and none were acknowledged. In June 2004, the studio filed a motion for declaratory relief
in federal court, insisting they had the right to do a remake, and Lutz countersued, citing violations of the original contract that had continued through the years following the release of the first film. The case remained unresolved when Lutz died in May 2006.
of the New York Times said, "Low-key creepy rather than outright scary, the new Amityville marks a modest improvement over the original, partly because, from acting to bloody effects, it is better executed; and partly because the filmmakers have downgraded the role of the priest, played in all his vein-popping glory by Rod Steiger
in the first film and by a considerably more subdued Philip Baker Hall here."
Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone
rated the film one star and commented, "First-time director Andrew Douglas crams in every ghost cliche
, from demonic faces to dripping blood. This house springs so many FX
shocks it plays like a theme-park ride. Result? It's not scary, just busy. For the real thing, watch Psycho
. . . The Shining
. . . The Haunting
. . . or The Innocents . . . What all those films have in common is precisely what the new Amityville Horror lacks: They know it's what you don't see in a haunted house that fries your nerves to a frazzle."
Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle
thought "the truly shocking thing about the new version is that it's not bloody awful . . . The decision to use minimal computer-generated effects, made for monetary rather than artistic reasons, works to Amityvilles advantage. It retains the cheesy look of the 1979 original, pure schlock not gussied up to appear to be anything else."
Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle
stated the original film was "an effective little tingler whose frights are steady, implied, and cumulative . . . but in the remake the frights are such that you’re wondering why the stubborn Lutzes don’t flee after the first night. Obviously, the filmmakers were keen to remake this film exactly because the technological advances of the last 25 years now permit more graphic displays of horrific imaginings and computer enhancements that can render the invisible world visible. Strategically, the new Amityville never intended to go for the subtler, implied horror of the original; this one would be all about scaring the pants off viewers. And in this, the movie generally succeeds as sudden scares and flashes of yucky imagery cause audience members to yelp aloud as if on cue . . . The most irritating aspect of the new movie, however, has nothing to do with comparisons but rather with some of the inherent illogic of the story. Why are we seeing images of a hanged girl when we know she’s been shot in the head? Images seem to be grafted into the film that have little to do with the actual story. Maybe it’s a technique that succeeds within quick advertising spots, but it piles confusion onto the art of storytelling."
James Christopher of The Times
observed, "There is something pleasurably batty about the way the family blunders on. The chills are satisfyingly creepy. The gory special effects are lavish and effective. And the wooden house itself is a sinister architectural pleasure. It’s total nonsense of course, but I left the lights on that night anyway."
The film currently holds a 24% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes
.
format on October 4, 2005. Bonus features include commentary by Ryan Reynolds and producers Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller; eight deleted scenes; Supernatural Homicide, with discussions about the murders that are the basis for the film with police and local residents; The Source Of Evil, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film; and a photo gallery.
announced the production company planned another remake of the plot. MGM holds different rights and Dimension planning on developing The Amityville Tapes.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Andrew Douglas. It is a remake of the 1979 film of the same name
The Amityville Horror (1979 film)
The Amityville Horror is a 1979 American horror film based on the bestselling 1977 novel of the same name by Jay Anson. It is the first movie in the Amityville Horror franchise....
which itself was based on the 1977 novel of the same name
The Amityville Horror
The Amityville Horror: A True Story is a book by Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released between 1979 and 2005...
by Jay Anson
Jay Anson
Jay Anson was an American author whose most famous work was The Amityville Horror. After the runaway success of that novel, he wrote 666, which also dealt with a haunted house...
, which documents the alleged experiences of the Lutz family after they moved into a house in Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
which had been the scene of a mass murder committed by Ronald DeFeo, Jr.
Ronald DeFeo, Jr.
Ronald Joseph "Butch" DeFeo, Jr. is an American murderer. He was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters...
who shot six members of his family there in November 1974.
Plot
On November 13, 1974, at 3:15am, Ronald DeFeo, Jr.Ronald DeFeo, Jr.
Ronald Joseph "Butch" DeFeo, Jr. is an American murderer. He was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters...
shot and killed his family at their home, 412 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York
Amityville, New York
Amityville is a village in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. The population was 9,441 at the 2000 census.-History:...
. He killed five members of his family in their beds, but his youngest sister, Jodie, had been killed in her bedroom closet. He claimed that he was persuaded to kill them by voices he had heard in the house.
George and Kathy Lutz and her three children from a previous marriage move into what they believe will be their dream home, 412 Ocean Avenue situated on the waterfront in Amityville. When George questions the asking price, which is well below market value, the realtor confesses the house was the scene of a brutal murder. Despite some misgivings, George acquiesces to his wife's wishes and purchases the property.
Almost immediately, the family is plagued by a series of unexplained and apparently supernatural happenings. Refrigerator magnets rearrange themselves to spell out the message KATCH EM, KILL EM. Daughter Chelsea (Chloe Moretz
Chloe Moretz
Chloë Grace Moretz is an American actress, known for her role as Hit-Girl in the 2010 superhero film Kick-Ass. She also appeared in The Amityville Horror, Days of Summer, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hugo, and portrayed Abby, the child vampire, in Let Me In.-Personal life:Moretz was born in Atlanta,...
) insists she has become friendly with a young girl named Jodie, the same name of one of the slaughtered DeFeo children. Chelsea also inexplicably acquires Jodie's teddy bear
Teddy bear
The teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They are usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring form of a stuffed animal in many countries, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items...
, with whom Jodie was buried. George frequently complains of the cold and starts spending large amounts of time in the basement, where he hears garbled voices coming from the furnace, an old television, and an unplugged clock radio reading 3:15, the time the DeFeos supposedly were killed. The locked boathouse door repeatedly is found open, blood seeps from the walls, George momentarily sees an apparition of Jodie behind Kathy as the digital clock from the basement, now by their bed, flicks from 3:14 to 3:15 am and the family dog incessantly barks at things only he can see. Babysitter Lisa is trapped in a bedroom closet that has a door with no lock yet will not open, and when she is finally released, hysterically insists she saw Jodie, who took her finger and put it inside her gunshot wound to the head.
At Kathy's behest, local priest Father Callaway comes to bless the house, but is driven away when his holy water sizzles as it hits the walls and he is attacked by a swarm of flies. He later tells Kathy the battered stuffed animal Chelsea has, belonged to Jodie DeFeo and was buried with her.
George's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre
Bizarre
Bizarre may refer to:*Bizarre , solo rapper as well as member of the group D12*Bizarre , Spanish rock band*Bizarre , a Canadian sketch comedy television series...
, and he begins to mistreat and taunt the stepchildren he once clearly adored. As the paranormal events escalate, Kathy decides to research the history of her home in the library's public records. There she discovers it once belonged to a mysterious cult preacher named Father Katchem (thus explaining the KATCHEM AND KILL EM message), who tortured and killed Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
s in the basement. Upon investigating she finds numerous bodies in the walls of the house. Kathy is convinced the man's evil spirit has taken control of her husband. By the urgent request of Father Callaway, she races home to remove her children from the house and take them to safety. Meanwhile, George has broken through the basement wall and discovered a secret chamber, where he has visions of Father Katchem and his numerous victims. Apparently possessed and no longer able to control his impulses, George chases his family with a shotgun. In a desperate struggle, George screams for Kathy to kill him, but Kathy manages to knock him out and with the help of the children binds his hands and feet and carries him to the boathouse, from which they make their escape by water. George regains consciousness and urges Kathy to get them as far away from the house as possible. A note comes below the screen, which tells viewers - how Lutz family left the house within 28 days of their stay and never came back even to retrieve their things.
Jodie is seen standing in the front doorway. As she starts screaming and cries a single tear, the clocks throughout the house reset themselves to 3:15, misplaced objects go back to where they were and the girl is pulled through the hallway floor by an unknown force. The Evil spirits were gone, and the Lutz family finally lived in peace.
Cast
- Ryan ReynoldsRyan ReynoldsRyan Rodney Reynolds is a Canadian film and television actor, best known for his roles in such films as National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Waiting..., The Amityville Horror, Just Friends, Definitely, Maybe, The Proposal, Buried, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Green Lantern.One of his best known...
as George Lutz - Melissa GeorgeMelissa GeorgeMelissa Suzanne George is an Australian film and television actress who has worked in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Melissa is perhaps best known for her role as Angel Parrish on the Australian soap opera Home and Away...
as Kathy Lutz - Jesse JamesJesse James (actor)Jesse James is an American actor.-Life and career:James was born in Palm Springs, California, the son of Jaime, a laboratory technician, and Shane James, an actor....
as Billy Lutz - Jimmy BennettJimmy BennettJames Michael "Jimmy" Bennett is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as a child actor in Daddy Day Care, Hostage, Poseidon, and more recently in Orphan and as young James T. Kirk in Star Trek...
as Michael Lutz - Chloe MoretzChloe MoretzChloë Grace Moretz is an American actress, known for her role as Hit-Girl in the 2010 superhero film Kick-Ass. She also appeared in The Amityville Horror, Days of Summer, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hugo, and portrayed Abby, the child vampire, in Let Me In.-Personal life:Moretz was born in Atlanta,...
as Chelsea Lutz - Rachel NicholsRachel Nichols (actress)Rachel Emily Nichols is an American actress and model. Nichols began modeling while attending Columbia University in New York City in the late 1990s...
as Lisa - Philip Baker HallPhilip Baker Hall-Early life:Hall was born in Toledo, Ohio, the son of a factory worker father who was from Montgomery, Alabama. He attended the University of Toledo. As a younger man, Hall served in the military, started a family, and became a high school English teacher. In 1961, he decided to become an actor...
as Father Callaway - Isabel Conner as Jodie DeFeo
- Brendan Donaldson as Ronald "Ronnie" DeFeo, Jr.Ronald DeFeo, Jr.Ronald Joseph "Butch" DeFeo, Jr. is an American murderer. He was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters...
- Kara Rubeo as Dawn DeFeo
Production
Although the film is set on Long Island, it was shot in Chicago, AntiochAntioch, Illinois
Antioch is a village in the Antioch Township of Lake County, Illinois, United States. The population was 14,430 at the 2010 census. Antioch is part of the Chicago metropolitan area.- Prior to incorporation :...
, Buffalo Grove
Buffalo Grove, Illinois
Buffalo Grove is an affluent village located in the northern suburbs of Chicago, and in Cook and Lake counties in Illinois, United States. The town was named for Buffalo Creek, which was itself named for bison bones found in the area....
, and Fox Lake
Fox Lake, Illinois
Fox Lake is a village in Grant Township, Lake County, Illinois and Richmond Township, McHenry County, Illinois. The population was 9,178 at the 2000 census.-History:...
in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
and Salem
Salem, Wisconsin
Salem, Wisconsin may refer to:*Salem, Kenosha County, Wisconsin, a town in Kenosha County*Salem , Kenosha County, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community in Kenosha County*Salem, Pierce County, Wisconsin, a town in Pierce County...
and Silver Lake
Silver Lake, Wisconsin
Silver Lake is a village in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,341 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Silver Lake is located at ....
in Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
MGM claimed the remake was based on new information uncovered during research of the original events, but George Lutz later claimed nobody ever spoke to him or his family about the project. When he initially heard it was underway, his attorney contacted the studio to find out what they had in the planning stages and to express Lutz's belief they didn't have the right to proceed without his input. Three letters were sent and none were acknowledged. In June 2004, the studio filed a motion for declaratory relief
Declaratory relief
Declaratory relief is a judge's determination of the parties' rights under a contract or a statute, often requested in a lawsuit over a contract. In theory, an early resolution of legal rights will resolve some or all of the other issues in the matter....
in federal court, insisting they had the right to do a remake, and Lutz countersued, citing violations of the original contract that had continued through the years following the release of the first film. The case remained unresolved when Lutz died in May 2006.
Critical reception
Manohla DargisManohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
of the New York Times said, "Low-key creepy rather than outright scary, the new Amityville marks a modest improvement over the original, partly because, from acting to bloody effects, it is better executed; and partly because the filmmakers have downgraded the role of the priest, played in all his vein-popping glory by Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
in the first film and by a considerably more subdued Philip Baker Hall here."
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
rated the film one star and commented, "First-time director Andrew Douglas crams in every ghost cliche
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
, from demonic faces to dripping blood. This house springs so many FX
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
shocks it plays like a theme-park ride. Result? It's not scary, just busy. For the real thing, watch Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
. . . The Shining
The Shining (film)
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an...
. . . The Haunting
The Haunting (1963 film)
The Haunting is a 1963 British psychological horror film by American director Robert Wise and adapted by Nelson Gidding from the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It stars Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn. The film centers around the conflict between...
. . . or The Innocents . . . What all those films have in common is precisely what the new Amityville Horror lacks: They know it's what you don't see in a haunted house that fries your nerves to a frazzle."
Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
thought "the truly shocking thing about the new version is that it's not bloody awful . . . The decision to use minimal computer-generated effects, made for monetary rather than artistic reasons, works to Amityvilles advantage. It retains the cheesy look of the 1979 original, pure schlock not gussied up to appear to be anything else."
Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
stated the original film was "an effective little tingler whose frights are steady, implied, and cumulative . . . but in the remake the frights are such that you’re wondering why the stubborn Lutzes don’t flee after the first night. Obviously, the filmmakers were keen to remake this film exactly because the technological advances of the last 25 years now permit more graphic displays of horrific imaginings and computer enhancements that can render the invisible world visible. Strategically, the new Amityville never intended to go for the subtler, implied horror of the original; this one would be all about scaring the pants off viewers. And in this, the movie generally succeeds as sudden scares and flashes of yucky imagery cause audience members to yelp aloud as if on cue . . . The most irritating aspect of the new movie, however, has nothing to do with comparisons but rather with some of the inherent illogic of the story. Why are we seeing images of a hanged girl when we know she’s been shot in the head? Images seem to be grafted into the film that have little to do with the actual story. Maybe it’s a technique that succeeds within quick advertising spots, but it piles confusion onto the art of storytelling."
James Christopher of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
observed, "There is something pleasurably batty about the way the family blunders on. The chills are satisfyingly creepy. The gory special effects are lavish and effective. And the wooden house itself is a sinister architectural pleasure. It’s total nonsense of course, but I left the lights on that night anyway."
The film currently holds a 24% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Box office
The film opened on 3,323 screens in the US on April 15, 2005 and grossed $23,507,007 on its opening weekend, ranking #1. It eventually earned $65,233,369 domestically and $42,813,762 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $108,047,131.DVD release
The film was released on DVD in anamorphic widescreenAnamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
format on October 4, 2005. Bonus features include commentary by Ryan Reynolds and producers Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller; eight deleted scenes; Supernatural Homicide, with discussions about the murders that are the basis for the film with police and local residents; The Source Of Evil, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film; and a photo gallery.
Legal
- The real life/original George Lutz denounced the 2005 version of the film as "drivel" and was suing the makers of the film at the time of his death in May 2006.
Departure from the book, 1979 Film and True Story
- This is the only film which has a Lutz family member as the protagonist (Kathy) and another (George) as the antagonist.
- "Jodie DeFeo", who appears as a prominent character in the film, is a fictional character and was not one of the victims of the shootings by Ronald DeFeo, Jr.Ronald DeFeo, Jr.Ronald Joseph "Butch" DeFeo, Jr. is an American murderer. He was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters...
in November 1974. However, according to the DVD's "On Set Peeks feature", it is said to be based on the youngest female DeFeo child, Allison.
- The House's address in the 2005 film is 412 Ocean Avenue, although the real address was 112 Ocean Avenue.
Remake
On 25 November 2009 Dimension FilmsDimension Films
Dimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
announced the production company planned another remake of the plot. MGM holds different rights and Dimension planning on developing The Amityville Tapes.