Works based on the Amityville haunting explained

The Amityville haunting is a modern folk story based on the true crimes of Ronald DeFeo Jr. On November 13, 1974, DeFeo shot and killed six members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, on the south shore of Long Island. He was convicted of second-degree murder in November 1975. In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into the house. After 28 days, the Lutzes left the house, claiming to have been terrorized by paranormal phenomena while living there. The house became the subject of numerous investigations by paranormal researchers, journalists, and skeptics, including Ed and Lorraine Warren. These events served as the historical basis for Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror, which was followed by a number of sequels and was adapted into a film of the same name in 1979. Since then, many films have been produced that draw explicitly, to a greater or lesser extent, from these historical and literary sources. As Amityville is a real town and the stories of DeFeo and the Lutzes are historical, there can be no proprietary relationship to the underlying story elements associated with the Amityville haunting. As a result of this, there has been no restriction on the exploitation of the story by film producers, which is the reason that most of these films share no continuity, were produced by different companies, and tell widely varying stories.

The Amityville Horror film, released in the summer of 1979, was a major box office success, and went on to become one of the most commercially successful independent films of all time.[1] A series of sequels were released throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s through various distributors; some of the films received theatrical distribution, while others were direct-to-video releases. In 2005, a re-imagining of the first film was released.

Beginning in 2011, there was a resurgence of low-budget direct-to-video independent films based on or loosely inspired by the Amityville events.

In 2017, The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films distributed the first theatrical Amityville film since the 2005 re-imagining. , which was filmed in 2014, was released theatrically in Ukraine on July 27, 2017, and in the United States on October 28, 2017.[2]

Literature

Films

FilmU.S. release dateDirectorScreenwriter(s)Producer(s)Notes
Original series
The Amityville HorrorJuly 27, 1979Stuart RosenbergSandor SternElliot Geisinger and Ronald Salandbased on the book of the same title
September 24, 1982Damiano DamianiTommy Lee WallaceDardano Sacchetti (uncredited)Ira N. Smith, Stephen R. Greenwald and José López Roderobased on the book Murder in Amityville; Mexican-American co-production
Amityville 3-DNovember 18, 1983Richard FleischerWilliam WalesStephen F. Kesten and Antonio Rubioaka Amityville III: The Demon; American-Mexican co-production
May 12, 1989Sandor Sternaka Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes and Amityville: The Evil Escapes; based on the book Amityville: The Evil Escapes
The Amityville CurseMay 7, 1990Tom BerryMichael Krueger, Doug Olson, and Norvell RoseFranco Battistabased on the book of the same title; Canadian production
July 16, 1992Tony RandelChristopher DeFaria and Antonio ToroSteve White, Barry Bernardi and Christopher DeFariaaka Amityville 1992: It's About Time; based on the book Amityville: The Evil Escapes
September 29, 1993John Murlowskin/a
Amityville DollhouseFebruary 18, 1997 This is actual release date of the film in U.S. only, not October 1996 in UK. Do not change it.-->Steve WhiteJoshua Michael SternSteve White, David Newlon, Zane W. Levitt and Mark Yellen
Remake
The Amityville HorrorApril 15, 2005Andrew DouglasScott KosarMichael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad FullerRemake of The Amityville Horror (1979)
Based on the Amityville haunting
The Amityville HauntingDecember 13, 2011Geoff MeedDavid Michael Lattn/a
The Amityville AsylumJune 3, 2013Andrew Jones
Amityville Death HouseFebruary 24, 2015Mark PoloniaJohn Oak DaltonMark Polonia
The Amityville PlayhouseApril 13, 2015John R. WalkerJohn R. Walker and Steve HardyJohn R. Walkeraka The Amityville Theater
April 1, 2016Dylan GreenbergDylan Greenberg, Selena Mars, and Jurgen Azazel MunsterJurgen Azazel Munstern/a
The Amityville LegacyJune 7, 2016Dustin Ferguson and Michael JohnsonDustin Ferguson, Matthew DiGirolamo and Jake Bockovenre-released in 2020 as Amityville Toybox
The Amityville TerrorAugust 2, 2016Michael AngeloJustin Jones, Philip J Day and Zeus Zamanin/a
August 5, 2016Henrique CoutoEric Widing
Amityville ExorcismJanuary 3, 2017Mark PoloniaBilly D'AmatoMark Polonia
June 2017Dustin FergusonMatthew DiGirolamo, Jason Harlow and Jason Brachtsequel to The Amityville Legacy; re-released in 2020 as Amityville Clownhouse
Against the NightSeptember 15, 2017Brian CavallaroArielle Brachfeld and Brian Cavallaroaka Amityville Prison
October 28, 2017 Franck KhalfounDaniel Farrands, Jason Blum and Casey La Scalan/a
Amityville: Mt. Misery RoadMay 31, 2018Chuck Morrongiello and Karolina MorrongielloChuck MorrongielloChuck Morrongiello and Karolina Morrongiello
The Amityville MurdersFebruary 8, 2019Daniel FarrandsDaniel Farrands, Eric Brenner, Jim Jacobsen and Lucas Jarachaka The Amityville Murders: A Haunting on Long Island. Loosely based on the books Murder in Amityville and
Amityville IslandMarch 17, 2020Mark PoloniaJohn Oak DaltonRob Hauschildn/a
Amityville VibratorJune 6, 2020Nathan Rumler
Witches of Amityville AcademyOctober 2, 2020Rebecca MatthewsTom JolliffeNicole Holland, Kira Reed Lorsch, Donna Spangler and Brittan Tayloraka Amityville Witches
The Amityville HarvestOctober 20, 2020Thomas J. ChurchillThomas J. Churchill, Steven Louis Goldenberg and Phillip B. Goldfinen/a
An Amityville PoltergeistMay 18, 2021Calvin Morie McCarthyJohn Ashley Hall and Calvin Morie McCarthyJosh Dietrich, Airisa Durand and Calvin Morie McCarthy
The Amityville MoonOctober 5, 2021Thomas J. ChurchillThomas J. Churchill, Steven Louis Goldenberg and Phillip B. Goldfinesequel to The Amityville Harvest
Amityville CultDecember 7, 2021Trey MurphyChance Gibbs, Trey Murphy and Micha Marie Stevensn/a
Amityville VampireDecember 14, 2021Tim VigilCarlos Perez,
Tim Vigil
Ted Chalmers, David S. Sterling and Gustave Whinnery
Amityville ScarecrowJanuary 4, 2022Peter Jack MundyShannon HolidayScott Jeffrey
Amityville UprisingJanuary 11, 2022Thomas J. ChurchillThomas J. Churchill and Phillip B. Goldfinesequel to The Amityville Moon
Amityville Gas ChamberApril 1, 2022Michael Stonen/aParody to all the very low budget mass productions, especially those which just use the title for marketing reasons.
Amityville in SpaceJuly 19, 2022Mark PoloniaRob Hauschildn/a
Amityville HexAugust 9, 2022Tony NewtonTony Newton,
Shawn C. Phillips
Michael Bilinski, David Cartledge and Sam Mason-Bell
Amityville In The HoodAugust 23, 2022Dustin FergusonJerimiah Douglas,
Dustin Ferguson
Dustin Ferguson (as Dark Infinity), Rob Hauschild and Saul Mejia
Amityville KarenSeptember 13, 2022Shawn C. PhillipsJulie Anne PrescottShawn C. Phillips, Will Collazo, Ron Bonk, Avery Crumley
Amityville Christmas VacationSeptember 19, 2022Steve RudzinskiWinner of the 2023 Fangoria Chainsaw Award for "Best Amityville."[3]
Amityville ThanksgivingNovember 8, 2022Will Collazo, Julie Anne PrescottShawn C. Phillips, Will Collazo, Avery Crumley, Julie Anne Prescottn/a
Amityville Scarecrow IINovember 14, 2022Adam GowrieCraig McLearieStuart Alson, Scott Chambers, Becca Hirani, Nicole Holland
Ghosts of AmityvilleNovember 22, 2022Jt KrisDanny Langston
Amityville Death ToiletMarch 17, 2023Evan JacobsEvan JacobsRon Bonk
Amityville ElevatorApril 20, 2023Nick BoxNick Box, Matt Mcnew
Amityville EmanuelleMay 8, 2023Louis DeStefanoGeno McGaheeGeno McGahee, Gregory Hatanaka, Linda S. Wong
The Amityville CurseMay 28, 2023Éric TessierDennis HeatonGraham Ludlow and Kaleigh KavanaghBased on the 1981 novel of the same name, though not a remake of the 1990 adaptation.[4] [5]

Overview

The first film to be inspired by the story of the Amityville haunting, The Amityville Horror (1979) chronicles the events of Jay Anson's novel, in which the Lutz family finds their new home in Amityville, New York, to be haunted; the house had been the site of a mass murder by Ronald DeFeo Jr. in 1974. The following film, Amityville II: The Possession, is a prequel based on the book Murder in Amityville by Hans Holzer, and depicts the purported supernatural events in the home that led DeFeo to murder his family. The third installment, Amityville 3-D, is set after the events of the first film, and was released in 3D.

In 1989, the fourth installment, Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes, was released as a made-for-television film, and documents hauntings stemming from a floor lamp that was in the home at the time of the DeFeo murders. The Amityville Curse, released in 1990, follows a group of teenagers who spend the night in a former rectory in Amityville where a priest committed suicide; this installment was set in an entirely different house.[6] Amityville: It's About Time, released in 1992, focuses on a haunted clock that a family from Los Angeles, California takes into their home from an estate sale in New York.[7] The seventh film in the series, Amityville: A New Generation, also utilizes a haunted object as a plot device. This time, a man purchases a mirror possessed by the spirit of his father, who, like DeFeo, also murdered his family in the Amityville house with a shotgun.[7] Amityville Dollhouse (1996) follows a family haunted by spirits unleashed from a doll house replica of the Amityville home.

In 2005, a remake of the 1979 original film was released theatrically. In 2017’s Amityville: The Awakening, which received a limited theatrical release, a family with an ill son moves into the home and find themselves tormented by ghosts who seek to possess the son's body.

Further films would follow, each released direct-to-video or with limited theatrical releases: The Amityville Haunting (2011; a found footage film that presents supposed home movies that corroborate the family's haunting); The Amityville Asylum (2013, set in a haunted Amityville psychiatric hospital); Amityville Death House (2015, featured yet another explanation for the hauntings); Amityville Playhouse (2016, focuses on a haunted theater in Amityville); Amityville: Vanishing Point (2016, focused on a haunted boarding house in Amityville); The Amityville Legacy (2016, features a haunted toy monkey from the original house), The Amityville Terror (2016, a family moves to Amityville and are tormented both by an evil spirit and the townsfolk who want to keep them trapped there); Amityville: No Escape (2016, college students encounter evil in the forest around Amityville); and Amityville Exorcism (2017, evil spirits possess the daughter of a family that moves to Amityville).

Continuity between films

The first three films released share some continuity, although they also contain contradictions. Amityville II is a prequel to the original 1979 movie, and tells the story of the murder of the DeFeo family (renamed the Montelli family in the film). Amityville 3-D is a sequel to the first movie, and is based on the accounts of paranormal investigator Stephen Kaplan (renamed John Baxter for the film), who was trying to prove that the Lutz family's story was a hoax. Due to legal disputes with the actual Lutz family, the events of the first movie could not be directly referenced, nor could the Lutz family themselves be referenced by name. Amityville 3-D also refers to the massacre in Amityville II as the "DeFeo murders", despite the renaming of the family to Montelli for that film.

Of the later films, Amityville: The Awakening (2017) is explicitly a different continuity from all of the previous movies, which are depicted as films within the film; the characters watch and discuss the 1979 movie, and one of them brings DVDs of the sequels and remake to the protagonist's house. The Amityville Curse (2023) is loosely based on the 1981 book of the same name, but is not a remake of its 1990 adaptation.

Release

Producers and distributors

The films have at various times been owned by several different production and distribution companies internationally and in the United States. American International Pictures produced and released the original film, before Orion Pictures bought the rights to the film, as well as II and 3-D. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) now owns films one through 3-D, and released them in a DVD box set in 2005. While 4 was a TV film broadcast on NBC, it has been released multiple times by independent distribution companies in recent years (one of which was Vidmark, who also released Curse (1990); Vidmark is now owned by Lionsgate). Multicom Entertainment Group owns distribution rights to Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes, It's About Time, A New Generation and Dollhouse.

Box office

text-align:center;"Filmtext-align:center;"Release datetext-align:center;"Budgettext-align:center;"Total Grosstext-align:center;"
The Amityville HorrorJuly 27, 1979$4,700,000$86,432,000
Amityville II: The PossessionSeptember 24, 1982$5,000,000$12,534,817[8]
Amityville 3-DNovember 18, 1983$6,000,000$6,333,135[9]
The Amityville HorrorApril 15, 2005$19,000,000$108,047,131[10]
Amityville: The AwakeningOctober 28, 2017$8,481,997 [11]
The Amityville MurdersFebruary 8, 2019$77,206[12]

Critical reception

FilmRating
Rotten TomatoesMetacritic
The Amityville Horror (1979)31% (45 reviews)[13] 32
Amityville II: The Possession24% (21 reviews)[14]
Amityville 3-D18% (22 reviews)[15]
Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes40% (5 reviews)[16]
The Amityville Curse (1990)17% (7 reviews)[17]
Amityville: It's About Time40% (10 reviews)[18]
Amityville: A New Generation
Amityville Dollhouse
The Amityville Horror (2005)24% (163 reviews)[19] 33[20]
Amityville: The Awakening29% (21 reviews)[21] 42[22]
The Amityville Murders0% (16 reviews)[23] 35[24]
The Amityville Curse (2023)

Documentary

See also

Works cited

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Amityville Horror. Turner Classic Movies. In the Know. Miller, John M.. 14 July 2017.
  2. Web site: Aronson. Alex. 'Amityville: The Awakening' Sees More Delays; The Internet Freaks Out. Movie Pilot. 6 August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170609123519/https://moviepilot.com/p/amityville-the-awakening-horror-delays-internet-reactions/4290352. 9 June 2017. dead.
  3. Web site: Winners . 2023-05-22 . FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards . en-US.
  4. Web site: Tubi Confirms Adaptation Of 'The Amityville Curse' & Original Horror Pic 'Marry F*** Kill'. Deadline. Armando Tinoco. September 13, 2022. August 19, 2023.
  5. Web site: The Amityville Curse (2023) Review. Voice from the Balcony. Morazzini. Jim. May 28, 2023. August 19, 2023.
  6. Web site: Canuxploitation Review: The Amityville Curse. Canuxploitation. 19 July 2017.
  7. Book: The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies. 17. Young, R.G.. Hal Leonard Corporation. 2000. 978-1-557-83269-6.
  8. Web site: Amityville II: The Possession. Boxofficemojo.com. September 7, 2015.
  9. Web site: Amityville 3-D. Boxofficemojo.com. September 7, 2015.
  10. Web site: The Amityville Horror (2005). Boxofficemojo.com. September 7, 2015.
  11. Web site: Amityville: The Awakening. Boxofficemojo.com. September 7, 2015.
  12. 6984258. The Amityville Murders. August 31, 2023.
  13. Web site: The Amityville Horror (1979) . Rotten Tomatoes . March 14, 2023.
  14. Web site: Amityville II: The Possession (1982) . Rotten Tomatoes . January 5, 2023.
  15. Web site: Amityville 3-D (1983) . Rotten Tomatoes . January 5, 2023.
  16. Web site: Amityville: The Evil Escapes (1989) . Rotten Tomatoes . September 7, 2023.
  17. Web site: The Amityville Curse (1990) . Rotten Tomatoes . September 7, 2023.
  18. Web site: Amityville 1992: It's About Time (1992) . Rotten Tomatoes . September 7, 2023.
  19. Web site: The Amityville Horror (2005) . Rotten Tomatoes . March 14, 2023.
  20. Web site: The Amityville Horror . Metacritic . January 5, 2023.
  21. Web site: Amityville: The Awakening (2017) . Rotten Tomatoes . September 7, 2023.
  22. Web site: Amityville: The Awakening . Metacritic . January 5, 2023.
  23. Web site: The Amityville Murders (2019) . Rotten Tomatoes . September 8, 2020.
  24. Web site: The Amityville Murders. Metacritic. January 5, 2023.