This is about the Amityville Horror story that has been the subject of numerous books, films, news articles, paranormal investigations, and more. The 1979 film The Amityville Horror (directed by Stuart Rosenberg) is the first film based on the incident. While the film is based on Jay Anson’s 1977 book, it is not yet clear whether the events and the paranormal incidents are completely true or just a fabrication of just some truth.
Ever since the murder incident first came to light, attracting massive publicity because of the bizarre nature of the crime and also the paranormal angle, people and researchers have invested much time and money to either know the truth or earn more money. Nevertheless, with the release of a book and then numerous movies, the myth has remained a myth until today.
The documentary The Real Amityville Horror takes us through the events and the circumstances that prompt the writers and many filmmakers to create their own version of what really happened. In fact, as in the art world or what we call creative liberty, they create their own reality – whether we believe it or not.
The documentary features many personalities involving the Amityville, whether it’s the police investigators, paranormal psychologists, ghost hunters, journalists, authors, and even the family George and Kathy Lutz, who were the first to report weird things happening in the house – when they first moved into their new Ocean Avenue home in Amityville in the year 1975.
As far as the police investigation is concerned, six people were murdered on the night of November 13, 1974. 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his parents, two brothers, and two sisters with a shotgun. Initially, DeFeo confessed his crime but later testified that he was acting in direction of an evil force who handed him a gun and told him to kill his family members. His insanity plea was later rejected by the court and he was sentenced to six consecutive life imprisonments.
Looking at the extraordinary case where there are still some doubts of one person killing six people sleeping in three different rooms and no one really tried to move out of the house by hearing the noise of a shotgun blast, and also the noise getting drowned out from the reach of neighbors, pushes many to believe the paranormal side. In addition, a police investigation found no signs of drugs or sedatives in the victims’ blood samples.
In the documentary, it was discussed that there are many contradictions between the story narrated by the Lutz family and reality. While the Lutzs defend their claims and their dreadful experience – the real murder mystery, the sensational news, and the possibility of some paranormal presence together have made Amityville the mother of all horrific crime stories.
The documentary The Real Amityville Horror is available online for you to watch. The film neither approves nor disapproves of anything in certainty. It simply introduces us to different sides of the incident and how different people see the case in different ways based on their belief systems.
Where to watch The Amityville Horror (2005)
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