The Amityville Horror (1979)

The Amityville Horror is the ultimate haunted house story. In this case, the haunted house is literally a character of its own, even going so far as to tell the ill-starred owners to leave. The “based on a true story” tagline made the movie all the more terrifying. Think of it — what could be creepier than buying a house only to find that it is the embodiment of some unknown demon that would rather kill you than share space with you. Now that’s creepy!

Plot summary for The Amityville Horror:
George and Kathy Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder) buy a coast-side Long Island home and move in along with their three children. The young family’s dream home has a dark secret — a murder that took place years before. Things quickly start to escalate, and soon the couple seeks the aid of priests and the police. In the end, nothing will stop the house from scaring off these unfortunate homeowners. It will even possess them if necessary – hint hint. Beware the red room.

Memorable scene from The Amityville Horror:
There’s something about flies in the attic — thousands upon thousands of flies in the attic — that ties a knot in our stomachs. In the movie it’s just one more sign that something is terribly wrong, but what a sign it is!

Memorable quote from The Amityville Horror:
“GET OUT!”

Why Socreepy loves The Amityville Horror:
Exorcisms. Possessions. A haunted house. An innocent family in harms way. What’s not to love?

The Amityville Horror (2005)
Oh, will the Lutzes never learn?? Here they go again, but this time it’s a little slicker, the cast (Ryan Reynolds as George Lutz and Melissa George as Kathy Lutz) is MUCH hotter and it’s all around better eye candy.

Socreepy really couldn’t complain about this remake because it had some genuinely startling moments. Notice we said “startling” and not scary. That’s because the movie had quite a few seat jumper moments, which was apparently VERY true for the annoying lady sitting behind me. Anyway, this was entertaining and while maybe not overtly scary, it was stressful and creepy at the same time – it gave good atmosphere.

This one did a little more visually with the fact that the haunted house was built over a space where Native Americans were brutally tortured and slaughtered. That seems to be a recurring theme – ever see “Poltergeist” or “Pet Semetary”? Yeah, kinda the same thing. We don’t really care, though. We want to be entertained, whether or not our mind is engaged in the horror movie in front of us. This one delivered with only a couple of complaints: the very obvious fact Ryan Reynolds was wearing bloodshot contacts and the fact that continuity wasn’t so great on scenes where it was thundering and lightning one shot, then clear or vice versa or maybe it was day or maybe it was night – it was hard to tell.

If you can get over those things, you oughta enjoy the remake of “The Amityville Horror” – we did. And it was WAY better than “The Ring 2″ – not like that’s a surprise or anything.

Frightening Fact:
The Amityville Horror’s outdoor scenes were filmed not in Amityville, Long Island, but in Toms River, New Jersey.