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. Amityville: The Awakening , which was filmed in 2014, was released theatrically in Ukraine on July 27, 2017, and in the United States on October 28, 2017. [2]
Film | U.S. release date | Director | Screenwriter(s) | Producer(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Original series | |||||
The Amityville Horror | July 27, 1979 | Stuart Rosenberg | Sandor Stern | Elliot Geisinger and Ronald Saland | based on the book of the same title |
Amityville II: The Possession | September 24, 1982 | Damiano Damiani | Tommy Lee Wallace Dardano Sacchetti (uncredited) | Ira N. Smith, Stephen R. Greenwald and José López Rodero | based on the book Murder in Amityville; Mexican-American co-production |
Amityville 3-D | November 18, 1983 | Richard Fleischer | William Wales | Stephen F. Kesten and Antonio Rubio | aka Amityville III: The Demon; American-Mexican co-production |
Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes | May 12, 1989 | Sandor Stern | Steve White, Barry Bernardi and Kenneth Atchity | aka Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes and Amityville: The Evil Escapes; based on the book Amityville: The Evil Escapes | |
The Amityville Curse | May 7, 1990 | Tom Berry | Michael Krueger, Doug Olson, and Norvell Rose | Franco Battista | based on the book of the same title; Canadian production |
Amityville: It's About Time | July 16, 1992 | Tony Randel | Christopher DeFaria and Antonio Toro | Steve White, Barry Bernardi and Christopher DeFaria | aka Amityville 1992: It's About Time; based on the book Amityville: The Evil Escapes |
Amityville: A New Generation | September 29, 1993 | John Murlowski | |||
Amityville Dollhouse | February 18, 1997 | Steve White | Joshua Michael Stern | Steve White, David Newlon, Zane W. Levitt and Mark Yellen | |
Remake | |||||
The Amityville Horror | April 15, 2005 | Andrew Douglas | Scott Kosar | Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller | Remake of The Amityville Horror (1979) |
Independent releases | |||||
The Amityville Haunting | December 13, 2011 | Geoff Meed | David Michael Latt | ||
The Amityville Asylum | June 3, 2013 | Andrew Jones | |||
Amityville Death House | February 24, 2015 | Mark Polonia | John Oak Dalton | Mark Polonia | |
Amityville: The Final Chapter | March 28, 2015 | Forris Day Jr. and Geno McGahee | Geno McGahee | aka Sickle | |
The Amityville Playhouse | April 13, 2015 | John R. Walker | John R. Walker and Steve Hardy | John R. Walker | aka The Amityville Theater |
Amityville: Vanishing Point | April 1, 2016 | Dylan Greenberg | Dylan Greenberg, Selena Mars, and Jurgen Azazel Munster | Jurgen Azazel Munster | |
The Amityville Legacy | June 7, 2016 | Dustin Ferguson and Michael Johnson | Dustin Ferguson, Matthew DiGirolamo and Jake Bockoven | re-released in 2020 as Amityville Toybox | |
The Amityville Terror | August 2, 2016 | Michael Angelo | Justin Jones, Philip J Day and Zeus Zamani | ||
Amityville: No Escape | August 5, 2016 | Henrique Couto | Eric Widing | ||
Amityville Exorcism | January 3, 2017 | Mark Polonia | Billy D'Amato | Mark Polonia | |
Amityville: Evil Never Dies | June 2017 | Dustin Ferguson | Matthew DiGirolamo, Jason Harlow and Jason Bracht | sequel to The Amityville Legacy ; re-released in 2020 as Amityville Clownhouse | |
Against the Night | September 15, 2017 | Brian Cavallaro | Arielle Brachfeld and Brian Cavallaro | aka Amityville Prison | |
Amityville: The Awakening | October 28, 2017 | Franck Khalfoun | Daniel Farrands, Jason Blum and Casey La Scala | ||
Amityville: Mt. Misery Road | May 31, 2018 | Chuck Morrongiello and Karolina Morrongiello | Chuck Morrongiello | Chuck Morrongiello and Karolina Morrongiello | |
The Amityville Murders | February 8, 2019 | Daniel Farrands | Daniel Farrands, Eric Brenner, Jim Jacobsen and Lucas Jarach | aka The Amityville Murders: A Haunting on Long Island. Loosely based on the books Murder in Amityville and High Hopes: The Amityville Murders | |
Amityville Island | March 17, 2020 | Mark Polonia | John Oak Dalton | Rob Hauschild | |
Amityville Vibrator | June 6, 2020 | Nathan Rumler | |||
Witches of Amityville Academy | October 2, 2020 | Rebecca Matthews | Tom Jolliffe | Nicole Holland, Kira Reed Lorsch, Donna Spangler and Brittan Taylor | aka Amityville Witches |
The Amityville Harvest | October 20, 2020 | Thomas J. Churchill | Thomas J. Churchill, Steven Louis Goldenberg and Phillip B. Goldfine | ||
An Amityville Poltergeist | May 18, 2021 | Calvin Morie McCarthy | John Ashley Hall and Calvin Morie McCarthy | Josh Dietrich, Airisa Durand and Calvin Morie McCarthy | |
The Amityville Moon | October 5, 2021 | Thomas J. Churchill | Thomas J. Churchill, Steven Louis Goldenberg and Phillip B. Goldfine | sequel to The Amityville Harvest | |
Amityville Cop | October 29, 2021 | Gregory Hatanaka | Geno McGahee | Nicole D'Angelo, Craijece Danielle, Gregory Hatanaka, Geno McGahee, Chris Spinelli, Benny Tjandra, Jason Toler | |
Amityville Cult | December 7, 2021 | Trey Murphy | Chance Gibbs, Trey Murphy and Micha Marie Stevens | ||
Amityville Vampire | December 14, 2021 | Tim Vigil | Carlos Perez, Tim Vigil | Ted Chalmers, David S. Sterling and Gustave Whinnery | |
Amityville Scarecrow | January 4, 2022 | Peter Jack Mundy | Shannon Holiday | Scott Jeffrey | |
Amityville Uprising | January 11, 2022 | Thomas J. Churchill | Thomas J. Churchill and Phillip B. Goldfine | sequel to The Amityville Moon | |
Amityville Gas Chamber | April 1, 2022 | Michael Stone | Parody to all the very low budget mass productions, especially those which just use the title for marketing reasons. | ||
Amityville in Space | July 19, 2022 | Mark Polonia | Rob Hauschild | ||
Amityville Hex | August 9, 2022 | Tony Newton | Tony Newton, Shawn C. Phillips | Michael Bilinski, David Cartledge and Sam Mason-Bell | |
Amityville In The Hood | August 23, 2022 | Dustin Ferguson | Jerimiah Douglas, Dustin Ferguson | Dustin Ferguson (as Dark Infinity), Rob Hauschild and Saul Mejia | |
Amityville Karen | September 13, 2022 | Shawn C. Phillips | Julie Anne Prescott | Shawn C. Phillips, Will Collazo, Ron Bonk, Avery Crumley | |
Amityville Christmas Vacation | September 19, 2022 | Steve Rudzinski | Winner of the 2023 Fangoria Chainsaw Award for "Best Amityville". [3] | ||
Amityville Thanksgiving | November 8, 2022 | Will Collazo, Julie Anne Prescott | Shawn C. Phillips, Will Collazo, Avery Crumley, Julie Anne Prescott | ||
Amityville Scarecrow II | November 14, 2022 | Adam Gowrie | Craig McLearie | Stuart Alson, Scott Chambers, Becca Hirani, Nicole Holland | |
Ghosts of Amityville | November 22, 2022 | Jt Kris | Danny Langston | ||
Amityville Ride-Share | January 9, 2023 | Jack Hunter II | Dann Eudy, Jack Hunter II | Dann Eudy, Dustin Hubbard, Jack Hunter II, Heather McKnight | |
Amityville Death Toilet | March 17, 2023 | Evan Jacobs | Evan Jacobs | Ron Bonk | |
Amityville Frankenstein | April 13, 2023 | Nick Box | Nick Box, Matt Mcnew, Chan Walrus | ||
Amityville Job Interview | April 14, 2023 | Nick Box, Stuart Fitzsimmons | Nick Box, Stuart Fitzsimmons, Matt Mcnew, Chan Walrus | ||
Amityville Elevator | April 20, 2023 | Nick Box | Nick Box, Matt Mcnew | ||
Amityville Emanuelle | May 8, 2023 | Louis DeStefano | Geno McGahee | Geno McGahee, Gregory Hatanaka, Linda S. Wong | |
The Amityville Curse | May 28, 2023 | Éric Tessier | Dennis Heaton | Graham Ludlow and Kaleigh Kavanagh | Based on the 1981 novel of the same name, though not a remake of the 1990 adaptation. [4] [5] |
Amityville Shark House | August 8, 2023 | Will Collazo Jr., Shawn C. Phillips | Will Collazo Jr., Shawn C. Phillips, Julie Anne Prescott | ||
Amityville Apocalypse | August 29, 2023 | Will Collazo Jr., Brandon Farmer, Mark C. Fullhardt, William Holt, Evan Jacobs, Marc Chindemi, Steven Haar, Alan Smithee, Toby Van Der Wegen | Marc Chindemi, Steven Haar, Alan Smithee, Toby Van Der Wegen | Steven Haar, Cole Miner, Jose Sanchez, Alan Smithee | |
The Last Amityville Movie | November 20, 2023 | Josh Spiegel | |||
Amityville: Where the Echo Lives | October 29, 2024 | Carlos Ayala |
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. [6]
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. [7] 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. [6] 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. [6] 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).
Only the first two 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 not a sequel as stated in the movie poster to the first 2 movies, 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.
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.
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.
Film | Release date | Budget | Total Gross | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Amityville Horror | July 27, 1979 | $4,700,000 | $86,432,000 | [8] [9] |
Amityville II: The Possession | September 24, 1982 | $5,000,000 | $12,534,817 | [10] |
Amityville 3-D | November 18, 1983 | $6,000,000 | $6,333,135 | [11] |
The Amityville Horror | April 15, 2005 | $19,000,000 | $108,047,131 | [12] |
Amityville: The Awakening | October 28, 2017 | — | $8,481,997 | [13] |
The Amityville Murders | February 8, 2019 | — | $77,206 | [14] |
Film | Rating | ||
---|---|---|---|
Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | ||
The Amityville Horror (1979) | 31% (45 reviews) [15] | 32 | |
Amityville II: The Possession | 24% (21 reviews) [16] | — | |
Amityville 3-D | 18% (22 reviews) [17] | — | |
Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes | 40% (5 reviews) [18] | — | |
The Amityville Curse (1990) | 17% (7 reviews) [19] | — | |
Amityville: It's About Time | 40% (10 reviews) [20] | — | |
Amityville: A New Generation | — | — | |
Amityville Dollhouse | — | — | |
The Amityville Horror (2005) | 24% (163 reviews) [21] | 33 [22] | |
Amityville: The Awakening | 29% (21 reviews) [23] | 42 [24] | |
The Amityville Murders | 0% (16 reviews) [25] | 35 [26] | |
The Amityville Curse (2023) | — | — | |
The Amityville Horror is a book by American author Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is based on the claims of paranormal experiences by the Lutz family, but has led to controversy and lawsuits over its truthfulness.
Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. was an American mass murderer who was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters in Amityville, New York. Sentenced to six counts of 25 years to life, DeFeo died in prison on March 12, 2021. The case inspired the book and film versions of The Amityville Horror.
The Amityville Horror is a 2005 American supernatural horror film directed by Andrew Douglas, and starring Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, and Philip Baker Hall. It also featured the debut of actress Chloë Grace Moretz. Written by Scott Kosar, it is based on the novel The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, which was previously adapted into the 1979 film of the same name, while also serving as the ninth film in the Amityville Horror film series, and was also served as inspiration for The Conjuring, which documents the experiences of the Lutz family after they move into a house at 112 Ocean Avenue, Long Island. In 1974, real-life mass murderer Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six members of his family at the same house in Amityville, New York.
Amityville II: The Possession is a 1982 supernatural horror film directed by Damiano Damiani and starring James Olson, Burt Young, Rutanya Alda, Jack Magner, and Diane Franklin. It’s an international co-production between Mexico and the United States. The screenplay by Tommy Lee Wallace is based on the novel Murder in Amityville by the parapsychologist Hans Holzer. It is the second film in the Amityville Horror film series and a loose prequel to The Amityville Horror (1979), set at 112 Ocean Avenue and featuring the fictional Montelli family, loosely based on the DeFeo family. It follows the Montelli family's decline under apparent demonic forces present in their home.
Edward Warren Miney and Lorraine Rita Warren were American paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent cases of alleged hauntings. Edward was a self-taught and self-professed demonologist, author, and lecturer. Lorraine professed to be clairvoyant and a light trance medium who worked closely with her husband.
The Amityville Horror is a 1979 American supernatural horror film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and starring James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and Rod Steiger. The film follows a young couple who purchase a home haunted by combative supernatural forces. It is based on Jay Anson's 1977 book of the same name, which documented the alleged paranormal experiences of the Lutz family who briefly resided in the Amityville, New York home where Ronald DeFeo Jr. committed the mass murder of his family in 1974. It is the first entry in the long-running Amityville Horror film series, and was remade in 2005.
Amityville 3-D is a 1983 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Tony Roberts, Tess Harper, Robert Joy, Candy Clark, Lori Loughlin and Meg Ryan. It is the third film based in the Amityville Horror series, it was written by William Wales, a pseudonym for David Ambrose. It was one of a spate of 3-D films released in the early 1980s, and was the only Orion Pictures film filmed in the format. It’s an international co-production between the United States and Mexico.
The Amityville Curse is a 1990 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by Tom Berry and starring Kim Coates, Cassandra Gava and Jan Rubeš. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Hans Holzer. It is the fifth film in the Amityville Horror film series.
Stephen Kaplan was an American paranormal investigator, vampirologist, and founder/director of the Vampire Research Center and the Parapsychology Institute of America, both of which were founded in Suffolk County, New York and subsequently relocated to Elmhurst, Queens. He was also an author and radio commentator, and a prominent skeptic of the alleged Amityville Horror hauntings. Kaplan lived in Suffolk County, New York and worked for the New York City Board of Education. His overview of the Amityville Horror became the basis for the film [[ The Amityville Horror Conspiracy] that chronicles his attempt to prove the story was a hoax.
The Amityville Curse is a prequel to The Amityville Horror written by Hans Holzer and released in 1981. Two film adaptations also titled The Amityville Curse were both released direct-to-video in 1990 and 2023, respectively.
Amityville: The Evil Escapes is a 1988 horror fiction book and the fourth installment in the Amityville series of books. The book is known for starting the fictional sequels by John G. Jones.
The Amityville Haunting is a 2011 direct-to-video horror film released on December 13, 2011. The film is inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 book The Amityville Horror. It was produced by The Asylum and Taut Productions.
Amityville: The Awakening is a 2017 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Franck Khalfoun and starring Bella Thorne, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Cameron Monaghan, Mckenna Grace, Thomas Mann, Taylor Spreitler, Jennifer Morrison, and Kurtwood Smith. It is the tenth installment of the Amityville film series and a direct sequel/metafilm taking place in the "real world" outside of the continuity of the series which establishes The Amityville Horror (1979), the sequels from 1982 to 1996, and the 2005 remake of the original film as fiction. Its plot follows a teenager who moves into 112 Ocean Avenue with her family, who shortly find themselves haunted by a demonic entity using her brain-dead twin brother's body as a vessel.
The Amityville Asylum is a 2013 British horror film written and directed by Andrew Jones. It is the eleventh film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. Sophia Del Pizzo stars as Lisa Templeton, a young woman who is hired to work as a custodian at High Hopes Psychiatric Hospital, an asylum that was built on the site of a haunted house in Amityville, New York.
The Conjuring Universe is an American horror franchise and shared universe centered on a series of supernatural horror films. The franchise is produced by New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, and the Safran Company, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The films present a dramatization of the supposed real-life adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent yet controversial cases of haunting. The main series follows their attempts to assist people who find themselves harassed by spirits, while the spin-off films focus on the origins of some of the entities the Warrens have encountered.
The Amityville Legacy is a 2016 American horror film written and directed by Dustin Ferguson and Mike Johnson. It was released direct-to-video, and is the fifteenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. Mark Popejoy stars as Mark Janson, a father who begins murdering members of his own family after being gifted an evil cymbal-banging monkey toy that was taken from 112 Ocean Avenue, a haunted house in Amityville, New York.
Dustin Ferguson is an American underground filmmaker from Lincoln, Nebraska. He has directed numerous music videos and more than 100 horror films since 2007, including The Amityville Legacy. He writes, directs and edits his own films and is known for his prolific output, releasing several feature films each year as well as for making mockbusters and sequels.
Amityville: No Escape is a 2016 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Henrique Couto, and co-written by Ira Gansler. It is the seventeenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. A found footage film, it follows two storylines, one set in 1997 and the other in 2016, that both involve 112 Ocean Avenue, a haunted house in Amityville, New York.