The Real Story Behind the 'Amityville Horror House' HowStuffWorks

Table Of Content

• Amityville Horror House: Unveiling the True Story Behind the Legend
• Feeding time! Here are the best vet-recommend dog food brands in 2024
• The Lutz family experienced supernormal activity
• Meryl Streep reveals Nicole Kidman skinny-dipped every morning filming ‘Big Little Lies’
• Clowning for Novices: History and Practice With Rose Carver

The darker shingle siding was swapped for lighter colors, while the creepy little top windows were removed. The home on Ocean Ave that was the site of so much death looks quite different than it did years ago. In an attempt to distance it from the DeFeo murders, the home was given a different house number and extensive renovations. The Amityville Horror House serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of critical thinking and skepticism. While the events surrounding it are undeniably eerie, the influence of sensationalism and the media on the story cannot be ignored.

Amityville Horror House: Unveiling the True Story Behind the Legend

With 3,600 square feet of living space, the house’s windows open up to beautiful views of the Amityville river. And to make the most of its waterfront location, the property also has a renovated boat house. The ‘evil eyes’ of the home, which is how people used to refer to the two attic windows, were also redone to tone down the evil — a bit late for that, but things were starting to look positive for the infamous murder house. The home, now with a new address of 108 Ocean Avenue, features 5,000 square feet of living space and amenities like a modern kitchen, a redesigned basement, high-end security systems, a large boat house, swimming pool, and a two-car garage. In 1979, the film-adaptation of The Amityville Horror was released, it became the highest-grossing independent film of all time, holding the record until 1990.

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The Amityville House — now with a different house number to discourage horror fans — has been sold at least four times since the murders and none of the newer owners have reported seeing any psychic phenomena. The house where the movie was filmed in 1979 has been completely renovated and is currently for sale for $1,699,900. The O’Neills purchased the home for $325,000 and swapped out the now-infamous eye windows for square ones. In June of 1997, after living there for 10 years, the O’Neills sold the house to Brian Wilson for $310,000. In the 13 years he owned the home, Wilson fixed up the boathouse and added a second sunroom to the back side of the house.

The Lutz family experienced supernormal activity

Newlyweds and their three children move into a large house where a mass murder was committed. They start to experience strange, inexplicable manifestations which have strong effects on every... Read allNewlyweds and their three children move into a large house where a mass murder was committed. They start to experience strange, inexplicable manifestations which have strong effects on everyone living in or visiting the house.Newlyweds and their three children move into a large house where a mass murder was committed.

Meanwhile, the new wave of curiosity sparked by the movie was affecting the entire community. When Jim and Barbara Cromarty bought the house for $55,000 in April of 1977, they were unaware that a book would soon be published about it. By November, the Cromartys had been bombarded by so many unwanted visitors, they decided to change the address of the house. This, however, did nothing to stop curious onlookers from coming by at all hours of the day. In the early morning hours of November 13, 1974, six members of the DeFeo family were found murdered inside their home.

The Amityville Horror Real Story: The House, Murders, and Movies - Popular Mechanics

The Amityville Horror Real Story: The House, Murders, and Movies.

Posted: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

I live in an abandoned school — my family transformed the historic building into our dream home

Yes, the real life Amityville house is a 5-bedroom, 3 bathroom home in Amityville, Long Island. If it weren’t for its gruesome past, the 3,600 square foot property could easily be considered prime real estate. Much like its movie counterpart, the Amityville house is located along the waterfront and features its own boat dock. After the Lutz family left the Amityville Horror House, several owners came and went from the property.

What happened to the Amityville Horror house? Inside the infamous $1.46 million property where Ronald DeFeo mu - Daily Mail

What happened to the Amityville Horror house? Inside the infamous $1.46 million property where Ronald DeFeo mu.

Posted: Fri, 02 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Director Stuart Rosenberg had, once upon a time in 1967, directed Paul Newman in the critically lauded classic Cool Hand Luke, a film with both theological and countercultural themes. More significantly, all of these things laid the groundwork for a film that is crucial to understanding not just the Amityville Horror phenomenon, but the rise of the Moral Majority in the late 1970s and the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s. Castle Keep, a surrealist war film starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Falk, came and went fairly quickly in the summer of 1969. It was a box-office flop, and was quickly overshadowed by director Sidney Pollack's next feature, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? But this was no "filmed at a distance" ethnographic film like the kind that would become more prevalent in the latter half of the 20th century.

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They followed the advice of a friend and had the house ‘cleansed’ by a priest before moving in, but as it turned out, that didn’t help much. George and Kathy Lutz didn’t really get to enjoy life in their new mansion for long. The eldest son, Ronald, or Ronnie, as friends called him, was a troubled young man who wasn’t able to find his place in the world, who couldn’t hold down a job, and who was in constant fights with his father.

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Scroll through the photos below to see both past and present shots of the infamous home.

In March of 2021, Ronald Defeo Jr. died in prison at the age of 69 (per Rolling Stone). Since the grisly 1974 slayings of the Defeos, the Amityville house has circulated throughout the market, a home to numerous different residents, the most recognizable being the Lutz family. They moved in a year after the murders and were the first to report instances of paranormal activity that allegedly prompted their abandonment of the mansion after only 28 days. Following their untimely departure, the house went into foreclosure in 1977 (per All That's Interesting). The home — its original address was 112 Ocean Ave. but was changed to 108 to deter tourists — was purchased by George and Kathy Lutz one year after the murders. But they ditched the property after only one month due to reported paranormal activity, which inspired a 1977 book and 1979 movie.

Not much apparently, but discovery+’s special “Shock doc” Amityville Horror House has a great, gory time going over it again. First, they tell us what we already know, the beautiful house in the affluent suburb, just an hour from Manhattan, is known as the most haunted house in America. Then they tell us more about what we know, the 1979 film Amityville Horror was a huge hit, breaking box office records, which made ghost hunting movies accessible to everyday people. A community so tight, with people so caring, they can’t hear the sounds of nine rifle blasts at 3 a.m.

The original film earned well over its production budget at the box office and was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score, while the 2005 remake brought in a whopping $107.5 million when it was shown in theaters. Renowned investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren were among those to delve into the case. Their involvement further fueled the mystique surrounding the house, with Lorraine telling The Express-Times following their investigation that the stories were not false and that there was some truth to what the Lutz family had experienced.

You'll find antiques and memorabilia from decades of very real history from the village of Amityville. Stand on the steps of that museum, and you can see the site of the St. Mary's Chapel, built in 1888 by Wesley Ketcham (the real Ketcham legacy in Amityville). Truthfully, someone looking for an "old house" in Amityville would in fact be better served traveling further up Ocean Avenue, to Nautical Park, where a well-worn historic home awaits restoration. On a recent visit, a local resident informed PopMech that several people have mistaken the dilapidated building for the infamous "horror house." But while these burial grounds are recognized and preserved, others are the subject of contentious conflict to this day. The book wasn't just a bestseller; it also had the benefit of being "based on a true story," while having the cinematic narrative propulsion Anson added through his years of experience in the film industry.

While there has been a lot of work done on the home, there are still areas of the residence that haven’t changed much since the 1970s. The living room, for example, still looks creepily similar to what it looked like when the DeFeo’s lived there. From Jay Anson’s bestselling book to the iconic 1979 film adaptation and subsequent sequels, remakes and spin-offs, the story has captured the public’s imagination.

This was followed by many sequels and other movies that had no connection to the original movie other than its reference to the town of Amityville. In 1990, Ronald DeFeo Jr. filed a 440 motion, a proceeding to have his conviction vacated. In support of his motion, DeFeo asserted that Dawn and an unknown assailant, who fled the house before he could get a good look at him, killed their parents and Dawn subsequently killed their siblings. He claimed the only person he killed was Dawn and that it was by accident as they struggled over the rifle.

Being able to move his family from their small apartment in Brooklyn to the spacious home on Ocean Avenue was a dream come true for Ron Sr., who dubbed the house “High Hopes” and hung a sign bearing the name off a post in the front lawn. Inside, however, “Big Ron’s” pattern of abusive and controlling behavior towards his wife and children caused tension to build until it came to a tragic head nine years later. The full story of the Amityville Horror House is featured in season three of House Beautiful’s haunted house podcast, Dark House.