The Amityville Horror. You’ve heard of it as a movie or maybe a true story. You might even have heard it mentioned in an Eminem song. However you first heard about it, you heard the real truth. Amityville is a real town in New York, Suffolk County to be precise. The town was settled back in the 1600’s, but it wouldn’t be until the 1970’s that it’d rise to national prominence due to a tragic real crime committed at the famous address 112 Ocean Avenue.
On the night in November of 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr killed 6 of his own family members in what would come to be known as the Amityville murders. That’s the true Amityville horror, but the story continues after that. George Lutz and his wife (along with their three children) moved into that house on Ocean Ave the following December. Kathy Lutz found the place creepy right away and 28 days later (interesting?) the family moved from that residence claiming they’d experienced traumatic paranormal events.
Now, enter the author Jay Anson. He wrote not only the book 666, but also the novel titled ‘The Amityville Horror‘ based on the events that the Lutz family went through though it is up for debate how close he stuck to the original real story. That book (published in 1977), in turn, became used to base a movie that would bear its same title in 1979. The movie terrified audiences worldwide with James Brolin, Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger all giving creepy performances that only added to the already scary story of the Amityville horror house.
Does the Amityville house exist today in real life? It certainly does, though it’s been renovated these days and the address has been changed. Many people came to see the site of the DeFeo murders and the place where demon possession was supposed to have taken place. Obviously, the home owners needed their privacy so they took steps to get that back.
I hope I’ve helped clear up any misunderstandings about the awful events surrounding the Amityville house. While the movies are terrific (a new version was made in 2005), the real stories are nothing to smile about.
