50 Fun Facts About The Amityville Horror

Which actor, later the husband of Barbra Streisand, played George Lutz in the 1979 film The Amityville Horror?

James Brolin agreed to star after reading the book late at night: a pair of trousers he had hung up fell to the floor during a tense chapter and he leapt from his chair.

Which future Deadpool star played stepfather George Lutz in the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror?

Ryan Reynolds led the remake to a number-one opening weekend in the US, and it went on to earn over $100 million worldwide on a $19 million budget.

In the 1979 film The Amityville Horror, which insects swarm the priest who comes to bless the house?

Flies were real on set: the actor playing the priest was doused in sugar water and beer so that the insects would crawl all over him.

In the 1979 film The Amityville Horror, Amy's imaginary friend Jody appears as which glowing-eyed animal?

A pig is the shape Jody takes at a window on the family's last night; Kathy had earlier glimpsed its eyes outside Amy's bedroom.

What gives the house in the Amityville Horror films its famous jack-o'-lantern face?

Its attic windows, two quarter-round panes, are often lit in the films to look like menacing eyes; the real house has since had them removed.

Which 1990 film ended the 1979 Amityville Horror's run as the highest-grossing independent film of all time?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took the record after eleven years; the haunted-house film had earned $86.4 million in North America.

Which self-described demonologists investigated the Amityville house with a TV crew on a night in March 1976?

Ed and Lorraine Warren's visit produced the famous infrared photograph said to show a ghostly boy with glowing eyes at the foot of the stairs.

Which horror novelist argued in Danse Macabre that the 1979 film The Amityville Horror is really about money worries?

Stephen King had panned the film in Rolling Stone, then recanted, reading it as a parable of recession-era fears about buying a home you can't afford.

Lawyer William Weber claimed he and the Lutzes invented the Amityville haunting over many bottles of what?

Wine was the fuel, Weber told People magazine in 1979, calling the book a hoax; George Lutz kept insisting the events were mostly true.

Before confessing in 1974, whom did the Amityville killer first blame for shooting his parents and four siblings?

A Mafia hitman was his first story, and he even named one, but the man had an alibi placing him out of state and the confession came a day later.

Which actress went from Lois Lane in Superman to Kathy Lutz in the 1979 film The Amityville Horror?

Margot Kidder took the part a year after Superman and later admitted she laughed her way through the shoot, never believing the haunting was real.

Which Oscar winner for In the Heat of the Night played Father Delaney in the 1979 film The Amityville Horror?

Rod Steiger took the part to show Hollywood he was fit again, after open-heart surgery had made studios wary of the cost of insuring him.

Which author turned the Lutz family's taped memories into the 1977 bestseller The Amityville Horror?

Jay Anson never worked with the couple directly: he built the book from about 45 hours of recordings they sent him.

Who was convicted of murdering six members of his own family inside the Amityville house in November 1974?

Ronald DeFeo Jr., 23 and known as Butch, received six sentences of 25 years to life and died in custody in 2021.

The real Amityville Horror house stands beside a canal on the south shore of where in New York?

Long Island's Amityville is a real village, and its historical society website makes no mention of the murders or the haunting.

Which 2016 horror sequel directed by James Wan opens with a séance inside the Amityville house?

The Conjuring 2 uses Amityville only as a prologue, then follows its ghost hunters to London for the Enfield poltergeist case.

In the 1979 film The Amityville Horror, a possessed George Lutz turns which weapon on the children at the climax?

An axe was only put in the lead actor's hands after a local axe thrower in New Jersey had trained him to handle it safely on set.

Which future Kick-Ass star had one of her first roles as daughter Chelsea Lutz in the 2005 Amityville Horror remake?

Chloë Grace Moretz was still a small child when she played Chelsea, five years before her breakthrough as Hit-Girl.

How did the real George Lutz respond to the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror, which he called drivel?

George Lutz sued the filmmakers for libel, objecting to scenes such as his character killing the family dog; the case was unresolved when he died in 2006.

The composer of the 1979 Amityville Horror score denies recycling music rejected by which 1973 horror classic?

The Exorcist rumor is persistent, but the composer says he began the Amityville theme from the image of the house shown under the opening credits.

Which Mission: Impossible theme composer earned an Oscar nomination for scoring the 1979 film The Amityville Horror?

Lalo Schifrin was also nominated for a Golden Globe for the score, and he returned to write the music for the prequel, Amityville II: The Possession.

The main theme of the 1979 film The Amityville Horror is a distorted version of what kind of song?

A lullaby for three children's voices came to the composer because three kids were moving into the house, unaware of its past.

What is the name of the Lutz family's dog, which fled the Amityville house with them in January 1976?

Harry was a Malamute-Labrador cross, and in the 1979 film it is his scratching at a basement wall that leads to the hidden room.

In the 1979 film The Amityville Horror, what color are the walls of the hidden room behind the basement brickwork?

Red walls gave the secret room its name, but later owners said the real one was just a small basement closet that had never been hidden.

The Amityville Horror house, with its distinctive gambrel roof, is built in which architectural style?

Dutch Colonial was also the style of the New Jersey house chosen for the 1979 film, which was dressed up to double for the real one.

Refused permission to shoot in Amityville, the 1979 Amityville Horror crew filmed in which New Jersey town?

Toms River locals answered newspaper ads to lease their homes to the production, and the town's volunteer fire company supplied the film's rain.

Which Transformers director produced the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror through his company Platinum Dunes?

Michael Bay co-founded Platinum Dunes in 2001, and the company became known for horror remakes including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th.

Which future Sleepless in Seattle star had an early role as teenager Lisa in the 1983 film Amityville 3-D?

Meg Ryan plays a friend of the hero's daughter; the film was the only Orion Pictures release ever shot in 3D.

In Amityville 3-D, which object warns Susan Baxter and her friends at the house that she is in danger?

A Ouija board delivers the warning, and it comes true soon after when Susan falls from her father's motorboat and drowns.

In June 1979, George and Kathy Lutz backed their Amityville haunting story by submitting to what?

A polygraph run by two leading examiners found no sign of lying, though skeptics counter that such tests are notoriously unreliable.

At the 1975 trial, which defense did the Amityville killer and his lawyer William Weber mount?

Insanity failed after the prosecution's psychiatrist testified that the defendant, a heroin and LSD user, knew exactly what he was doing.

Which type of weapon was used to kill all six victims of the 1974 Amityville murders in their beds?

A rifle with no silencer was used, yet all six victims were found face down in bed with no signs of a struggle and no trace of sedatives.

Which local daily newspaper first reported the Lutz family's Amityville haunting claims on Valentine's Day 1976?

Newsday's report already carried a rival theory: one friend said the family left because the heating had failed and they couldn't afford to fix it.

Which American International Pictures chief bought the Amityville Horror film rights and rejected its first script?

Samuel Z. Arkoff talked CBS out of making a TV movie by offering the network the broadcast rights, and the film gave his studio its biggest opening week.

Which director of Cool Hand Luke was behind the camera for the 1979 film The Amityville Horror?

Stuart Rosenberg made four films with Paul Newman; The New York Times complained that his haunted-house outing piled up horror clichés and repetitive gimmicks.

Which Best Picture winner was the only 1979 release to outgross The Amityville Horror in North America?

Kramer vs. Kramer alone beat the haunted-house film, whose takings came to nearly twenty times its budget.

Which actor, famous as Paulie in the Rocky films, plays the violent father in Amityville II: The Possession?

Burt Young plays the head of a family modelled on the real 1974 victims; test audiences reacted so badly to some scenes that they were cut.

Which Vienna-born parapsychologist wrote Murder in Amityville, the book behind the film Amityville II: The Possession?

Hans Holzer was recommended to the killer in 1979 by his own defense lawyer, as a way to land a book deal telling his side of the story.

Which future Full House star plays doomed daughter Susan Baxter in the 1983 film Amityville 3-D?

Lori Loughlin made the film five years before joining the sitcom as Aunt Becky; her character is seen walking upstairs, drenched, as her body is brought ashore.

In the 1989 TV movie Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes, which possessed object carries the evil to California?

A floor lamp bought for $100 at a yard sale of the house's contents is posted west as a birthday present chosen for being ugly.

In Amityville: A New Generation, which haunted object from the house is handed to photographer Keyes Terry?

A mirror holds the demon this time; several 1990s sequels swapped the house for a cursed item, among them a clock and a dollhouse.

Which Oscar winner for The Miracle Worker stars in the 1989 TV movie Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes?

Patty Duke plays a mother of three who moves in with her own mother; the film was written and directed by Sandor Stern, who scripted the 1979 original.

In the 1979 film The Amityville Horror, what is the vocation of Kathy's aunt Helena, who flees the house violently ill?

A nun, Helena visits the day after the priest is driven out, and her sudden sickness leaves Kathy baffled.

The house in the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror was a real 1800s home in which Midwestern state?

Wisconsin's Silver Lake area stood in for New York, and the $60,000 false front built for the film stayed on the house for some time after production.

Which former Disney Channel star plays the lead in the 2017 haunted-house film Amityville: The Awakening?

Bella Thorne's film sat on the shelf for three years after shooting in 2014, then debuted free on Google Play before reaching US cinemas.

The Amityville Horror book claims the house stood where which Native American tribe once abandoned the dying?

Shinnecock people rejected the claim outright, one of several details in the book that locals and researchers went on to dispute.

Stephen Kaplan, who spent years branding the Amityville haunting a hoax, described himself as which kind of expert?

A vampirologist who founded the Vampire Research Center, he fell out with the Lutzes after vowing to expose any fraud he found.

Which 1979 TV broadcast first put the Amityville 'ghost boy' photograph in front of the public?

The Merv Griffin Show hosted the Lutzes as they promoted the first film; the infrared picture had been taken three years earlier.

Where in Manhattan did The Amityville Horror have its world premiere in July 1979, three days before wide release?

Museum of Modern Art screenings opened a retrospective of its studio's films, a lofty launch for a movie most critics went on to pan.

Which Chicago Sun-Times critic panned the 1979 Amityville Horror yet rated its prequel slightly better?

Roger Ebert gave the original one and a half stars and the prequel two, yet still named the prequel among the worst films of 1982.