Amityville: An Origin Story, on MGM+

The realtor did indeed disclose the brutal mass murder of the DeFeo family at 112 Ocean Avenue, but like all good New Yorkers, the Lutz Family bought it anyway, because it was a whole lot of house, for not a lot of money. It is hard to blame them—it had water access and a boathouse. Of course, their experiences there became the stuff of a best-selling book and a horror franchise. It even had its own episode of In Search Of…, which covered the case much more economically than the four-part documentary, Amityville: An Origin Story, directed by Jack Riccobono, but the first episode is still pretty creepy when it premieres Sunday on MGM+.

Several years ago, Daniel Lutz, the oldest son of Kathleen Lutz and stepfather George Lutz, told his story in My Amityville Horror. This time around, their middle child, now known as Christopher Quarantino tells the tale from his perspective. The first episode does not even get into the notorious “Red Room,” but it touches the flies, the cold spots, the ill-fated attempts at blessings, and the previous DeFeo murders. Much of the notoriety surrounding the house overlooks the very real true crime tragedy that occurred there. Origin Story does not fully do it justice yet, at least not in the first installment.

It also rather unflatteringly portrays the parish priest, Father Pecoraro, blaming him for not being more proactive exorcising whatever demons haunted the property. As an interesting counterpoint, the In Search Of episode somewhat defends Father Pecoraro (who appeared in silhouetted interview segments), suggesting supernatural forces prevented the Lutz family’s further attempts to communicate with him.

Amityville Murders: The Original Suffolk County Horror

This is the kind of notorious history real estate agents are supposed to disclose. We’re at 112 Ocean Avenue, one of the most notorious addresses in America, but it is before the Lutzes, who came before James Brolin and Margot Kidder. The evil started with the DeFeo family murders, which are dramatized for the first time—entirely exploitatively—in Daniel Farrands’ The Amityville Murders (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in Los Angeles.

The notorious DeFeo murders really did happen, but probably not the way they are depicted here. Regardless, this would be “film zero” in the Amityville chronology, but Murders is clearly not part of the increasingly loose franchise of sequels, reboots, and whatever you might call Amityville: The Awakening. Previously the stuff of prologues, the DeFeo family takes center stage as Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. precipitously descends into madness. Arguably, it is all his own fault—and that of his sister Dawn. They decided they wanted to fool around summoning a spirit. Now they can’t get rid of it.

Frankly, the DeFeo family is a nightmare even before they open the portal to Hell or whatever. Ronnie DeFeo Sr. is abusive towards his long-suffering wife, his teen daughter Dawn, and old Butch. He also appears to be engaged in some sort of shady mob business. Plus, he is a Nixon supporter (serious, can’t they give Tricky Dick a break?).

At least Sr. doesn’t bother the young ones too much. Usually, Dawn can also up-manage him relatively well, unless he thinks she is acting trampy. Unfortunately, the hippyish Butch is practically asking for it. The mysterious black car surveilling their house does not help his disposition either, but it is just massive loose end that goes conspicuously unresolved.

Arguably, Amityville Murders is fundamentally ill-conceived, because it climaxes with an utterly horrible murder-spree. There is precious little fun to be found in this film and even less suspense, thanks to the opening sequence featuring the fateful 9-1-1 call.

The hard truth is Eric Walter’s documentary My Amityville Horror is still the best Amityville movie, but Amityville Murders isn’t even in the running. Supernatural tom-foolery is implied, but most of what Farrands shows is just terrible parenting.

Paul Ben-Victor is suitably ferocious and rodent-like as Ronald Senior. He is a rather unsavory character, but that doesn’t mean his complaints aren’t valid. Alas, Lainie Kazan and Burt Young are largely wasted as Ronald Sr’s in-laws. However, John Robinson is so sweaty and twitchy as Butch Jr., he might as well be wearing a “murder-suicide” t-shirt.

The overriding problem with 'Mitty Murders is not its predictability, but it’s the plodding pacing. This is a hard slog. That’s not exactly what you typically look for in a lurid “based-on-a-true-story” cash-in. Not recommended, Amityville Murders opens tomorrow (2/8) in LA, at the Arena CineLounge.

Amityville: The Awakening—Back to Long Island’s Most Infamous Address

At the end of Amityville 3-D, the evil house finally burns to the ground, yet somehow it was up and standing again in the next fourteen films in the franchise. Some were reboots and prequels, but others just ignored the slightly glaring continuity problem. The latest (though much delayed) entry has no need of retcons, because it takes place in a world where the DeFeo murders really happened in 1974 and the series of cash-in movies they spawned also very definitely exist. The latest teen resident will even watch the original 1979 movie with her new classmates at the fateful hour of 3:15 am. That turns out to be a bad idea in Franck Khalfoun’s Amityville: The Awakening, which is supposed to have some sort of release this weekend, despite its early promotional window of free streaming on Google Play.

Belle Walker’s family has just moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, because the price was right and it was conveniently near her catatonic brother’s doctor. That is correct, they have brought a possibly brain-dead vessel into a demonically-possessed house. What a super-good idea that is.

So yes, Awakening is basically the Amityville franchise mixed with the Ozploitation cult classic Patrick for an infusion of new blood. To be honest, it works better than any of us have a right to expect. Poor James Walker does indeed start showing signs of life, but in a series of admirably tense scenes, his sister determines there is something evil in there with him.

Even though Awakening is a Blumhouse production from a horror director with a bit of a critical reputation, the Weinsteins kept it languishing on the shelf. Seriously, what is so hard about marketing an Amityville Horror movie? Frankly, their habit of hiding films in the vault or frittering away their release (Suite Française on Lifetime?) is another reason the industry has so enjoyed their ongoing implosion.

Regardless, Awakening is probably one of the fresher Amityville films, since the original with Margot Kidder (helmed by Stuart Rosenberg, director of Cool Hand Luke). Khalfoun’s take is far from the scariest film you will see this holiday season, but he keeps it moving along nicely and the meta-references to the prior books and films are a rather clever tweaking of the franchise.

Academy Award nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh is surprisingly creepy as Walker’s ill-tempered mother, Joan. Bella Thorne carries the film well enough as Belle Walker, while nicely playing off Taylor Spreitler and Thomas Mann as her personal Monster Squad. Plus, genre regular Kurtwood Smith (Robocop, Agent Carter) does his thing as neurologist Dr. Milton.

As of now, the price is certainly right for Awakening, but it still deserved way better treatment than it received. Franck actually shows a subtle touch and measured restraint, which are not so apparent in Maniac, probably his best-known film so far. For a bit of a nostalgic guilty pleasure, you could do worse than streaming Amityville: The Awakening on Google Play (for free), until November 8^th. There is also a theatrical screening vaguely reported for October 28^th and the DVD releases on November 14^th.

My Amityville Horror: Back to Ocean Ave

Long Island used to be considered a great place to settle down and raise a family. That was before Buttafuoco and Frankenstorm.  However, the thing that really freaked people out was the incident known as The Amityville Horror in a raft of books and movies.  Now a grown man, the eldest son of the terrified Lutz family finally breaks his silence on their twenty-eight days spent at the notorious Ocean Avenue address in Eric Walter’s My Amityville Horror (trailer here), which opens today in New York at the IFC Center.

Daniel Lutz is a heck of an interview subject.  Not afraid of a little salty language, he sounds a lot like a typical Long Island knucklehead, until you hear his story.  Although there is a fair amount of general skepticism expressed by others in the film, no one doubts his sincerity.  Clearly, he never enjoyed being known as the kid from The Amityville Horror.  Listening to him unburden himself in what appear to be staged counseling sessions, audiences might surmise the subsequent notoriety was as traumatic for him as whatever might have happened in the house itself.  The same may well be true for the circumstances surrounding his mother’s marriage to his stepfather, George Lutz, whose name he was forced to adopt.

New Yorkers will be especially interested to learn the extent to which local channel five (now Fox 5) owned the Amityville story before Jay Anson’s “true story” novel and the release of the films.  Appropriately, Marvin Scott (now with the City’s CW affiliate) appears at length, along with his former colleague, Laura DiDio.  Having spent a mostly uneventful night there, Scott remains largely incredulous, whereas DiDio sounds like she gives it all considerably more credence.

Scoring a series of interviews with Lutz was certainly a coup, but it is precisely that tension between belief and skepticism that really distinguishes Walter’s film from a History Channel special or DVD extra.  Yet, the documentary still has plenty of creepy moments (particularly with regards to George Lutz and his alleged background with the occult), despite Walter’s level headed approach.  Many viewers will likely conclude there was definitely something evil going on in that house, but whether or not it was supernatural is an open question.

Even for us doubting materialists, My Amityville is fascinating stuff, featuring a truly compelling central character in Daniel Lutz.  An intriguing nonfictional twist on the horror genre, it would make a strange but fitting double feature with either Rodney Ascher’s Room 237 (as a one-two examination of the cultural impact of well known horror movies) or Joshua Zeman & Barbara Brancaccio’s Cropsey (as the Long Island-Staten Island axis of real life horror stories).  Eerie but entertaining and always open-minded, My Amityville Horror is definitely a satisfying doc for genre fans.  Recommended accordingly, it kicks off a week of midnight screenings tonight at the IFC Center.

DOC NYC ’12: My Amityville Horror

Long Island used to be considered a great place to settle down and raise a family. That was before Buttafuoco and Frankenstorm.  However, the thing that really freaked people out was the incident known as The Amityville Horror in a raft of books and movies.  Now a grown man, the eldest son of the terrified Lutz family finally breaks his silence on their twenty-eight days spent at the notorious Ocean Avenue address in Eric Walter’s My Amityville Horror (trailer here), which screened last night at this year’s DOC NYC, closely following word it had been acquired by IFC Midnight.

Daniel Lutz is a heck of an interview subject.  Not afraid of a little salty language, he sounds a lot like a typical Long Island knucklehead, until you hear his story.  Although there is a fair amount of skepticism expressed by others in the film, no one doubts his sincerity.  Clearly, he never enjoyed being known as the kid from The Amityville Horror.  Listening to him unburden himself in what appear to be staged counseling sessions, audiences might surmise the subsequent notoriety was as traumatic for him as whatever might have happened in the house itself.  The same may well be true for the circumstances surrounding his mother’s marriage to his stepfather, George Lutz, whose name he was forced to adopt.

New Yorkers will be especially interested to learn the extent to which local channel five (now Fox 5) owned the Amityville story before Jay Anson’s “true story” novel and the release of the films.  Marvin Scott (now with the City’s CW affiliate) even helped introduce the film and appears at length, along with his former colleague, Laura DiDio.  Having spent a mostly uneventful night there, Scott remains largely incredulous, whereas DiDio sounds like she gives it all considerably more credence.

Scoring a series of interviews with Lutz was certainly a coup, but it is precisely that tension between belief and skepticism that really distinguishes Walter’s film from a History Channel special or DVD extra.  Yet, the documentary still has plenty of creepy moments (particularly with regards to George Lutz and his reported background with the occult), despite Walter’s level headed approach.  Many viewers will likely conclude there was definitely something evil in that house, but whether or not it was supernatural is an open question.

Even for us doubting materialists, My Amityville is fascinating stuff, featuring a truly compelling central character in Daniel Lutz.  An intriguing nonfictional twist on the horror genre, it would make a strange but fitting double feature with either Rodney Ascher’s Room 237 (as a one-two examination of the cultural impact of well known horror movies) or Joshua Zeman & Barbara Brancaccio’s Cropsey (as the Long Island-Staten Island axis of real life horror stories).  Eerie but entertaining and always open-minded, My Amityville Horror is definitely a satisfying doc for genre fans.  Recommended accordingly, it should be coming back to the IFC Center relatively soon, courtesy of IFC Midnight.