The Amityville Horror House
by Ed Weidman
Title
The Amityville Horror House
Artist
Ed Weidman
Medium
Photograph - Photographs
Description
The Amityville Horror: A True Story is a book by Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of eleven films released between 1979 and 2013. The book is said to be based on the real-life paranormal experiences of the Lutz family, but has led to controversy and lawsuits over its truthfulness.
In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, a large Dutch Colonial house in Amityville, a suburban neighborhood located on the south shore of Long Island, New York. Thirteen months before the Lutzes moved in, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. had shot and killed six members of his family at the house. After 28 days, the Lutzes left the house, claiming to have been terrorized by paranormal phenomena while living there..
The house at 112 Ocean Avenue remained empty for 13 months after the DeFeo murders. In December 1975, George and Kathleen Lutz bought the house for what was considered to be a bargain price of $80,000. The six-bedroom house was built in Dutch Colonial style and had a distinctive gambrel roof. It also had a swimming pool and a boathouse, as it was located on a canal. George and Kathy married in July 1975 and each had their own homes, but they wanted to start fresh with a new property. Kathy had three children from a previous marriage: Daniel, 9, Christopher, 7, and Melissa (Missy), 5. They also owned a crossbreed Malamute/Labrador dog named Harry. During their first inspection of the house, the real estate broker told them about the DeFeo murders and asked if this would affect their decision. After discussing the matter, they decided that it was not a problem.
The Lutz family moved in December 19, 1975.[a] Much of the DeFeo family's furniture was still in the house, because it was included for $400 as part of the deal.[2] A friend of George Lutz learned about the history of the house, and insisted on having it blessed. At the time, George was a non-practicing Methodist and had no experience of what this would entail. Kathy was a non-practicing Catholic and explained the process. George knew a Catholic priest named Father Ray who agreed to carry out the house blessing (in Anson's book, real-life priest Father Ralph J. Pecoraro was referred to as Father Mancuso for privacy reasons).
Father Mancuso was a lawyer, judge of the Catholic Court and psychotherapist who lived at the local Sacred Heart Rectory. He arrived to perform the blessing while George and Kathy were unpacking their belongings on the afternoon of December 18, 1975, and went into the building to carry out the rites. When he flicked the first holy water and began to pray, he heard a masculine voice demand that he "get out." When leaving the house, Father Mancuso did not mention this incident to either George or Kathy. On December 24, 1975, Father Mancuso called George Lutz and advised him to stay out of the second floor room where he had heard the mysterious voice, the former bedroom of Marc and John Matthew DeFeo that Kathy planned to use as a sewing room, but the call was cut short by static. Following his visit to the house, Father Mancuso allegedly developed a high fever and blisters on his hands similar to stigmata. At first George and Kathy experienced nothing unusual in the house. Talking about their experiences subsequently, they reported that it was as if they "were each living in a different house."
Some of the experiences of the Lutz family at the house have been described as follows:
George would wake up around 3:15 every morning and would go out to check the boathouse. Later he would learn that this was the estimated time of the DeFeo killings.
The house was plagued by swarms of flies despite the winter weather.
Kathy had vivid nightmares about the murders and discovered the order in which they occurred and the rooms where they took place. The Lutz children also began sleeping on their stomachs, in the same way that the dead bodies in the DeFeo murders had been found.
Kathy would feel a sensation as if "being embraced" in a loving manner, by an unseen force.
George discovered a small hidden room (around four feet by five feet) behind shelving in the basement. The walls were painted red and the room did not appear in the blueprints of the house. The room came to be known as "The Red Room." This room had a profound effect on their dog Harry, who refused to go near it and cowered as if sensing something ominous.
There were cold spots and odors of perfume and excrement in areas of the house where no wind drafts or piping would explain the source.
While tending to the fire, George and Kathy saw the image of a demon with half his head blown out. It was burned into the soot in the back of the fireplace.
The Lutzes' 5-year-old daughter, Missy, developed an imaginary friend named "Jodie," a demonic pig-like creature with glowing red eyes.
George would wake up to the sound of the front door slamming. He would race downstairs to find the dog sleeping soundly at the front door. Nobody else heard the sound although it was loud enough to wake the house.
George would hear what was described as a "German marching band tuning up" or what sounded like a clock radio playing not quite on frequency. When he went downstairs the noise would cease.
George realized that he bore a strong resemblance to Ronald DeFeo, Jr., and began drinking at The Witches' Brew, the bar where DeFeo was once a regular customer.
When closing Missy's window, which Missy said Jodie climbed out of, Kathy saw red eyes glowing at her.
While in bed, Kathy received red welts on her chest caused by an unseen force and was levitated two feet in the air.
Locks, doors and windows in the house were damaged by an unseen force.
Cloven hoofprints attributed to an enormous pig appeared in the snow outside the house January 1, 1976.
Green gelatin-like slime oozed from walls in the hall, and also from the keyhole of the playroom door in the attic.
A 12-inch (30 cm) crucifix, hung in the living room by Kathy, revolved until it was upside down and gave off a sour smell.
George tripped over a 4-foot-high (1.2 m) China lion ornament in the living room and found bite marks on one of his ankles.
George saw Kathy transform into an old woman of 90, "the hair wild, a shocking white, the face a mass of wrinkles and ugly lines, and saliva dripping from the toothless mouth."
Missy would sing constantly while in her room. Whenever she left the room, she would stop singing, and upon returning, she would resume singing where she left off.
After deciding that something was wrong with their house they could not explain rationally, George and Kathy Lutz carried out a blessing of their own on January 8, 1976. George held a silver crucifix while they both recited the Lord's Prayer and, while in the living room, George allegedly heard a chorus of voices asking them "Will you stop?!"
By mid-January 1976, after another attempt at a house blessing by George and Kathy, they experienced what would turn out to be their final night in the house. The Lutzes declined to give a full account of the events that took place on this occasion, describing them as "too frightening."
After getting in touch with Father Mancuso, the Lutzes decided to take some belongings and stay at Kathy's mother's house in nearby Deer Park, New York until they had sorted out the problems with the house. They claimed that the phenomena followed them there, with the final scene of Anson's book describing "greenish-black slime" coming up the staircase towards them. On January 14, 1976 George and Kathy Lutz, with their three children and their dog Harry, left 112 Ocean Avenue, leaving all of their possessions behind. The next day, a mover came in to remove all of the possessions to send to the Lutzes. He reported no paranormal phenomena while inside the house.[4]
The book was written after Tam Mossman, an editor at the publishing house Prentice Hall, introduced George and Kathy Lutz to Jay Anson. The Lutzes did not work directly with Anson, but submitted around 45 hours of tape-recorded recollections to him, which were used as the basis of the book. Estimates of the sales of the book are around 10 million copies from its numerous editions. Anson is said to have based the title of The Amityville Horror on "The Dunwich Horror" by H. P. Lovecraft, which was published in 1929.[5]
The 1979 film, based on Jay Anson's novel, is the most well known in the series. James Brolin and Margot Kidder portray the couple George and Kathy Lutz. The part of the priest who blesses the house (renamed Father Delaney in the film) was played by Academy Award-winning actor Rod Steiger. The first three Amityville films received a theatrical release, while the fourth film was made for television by NBC. The sequels from the 1990s were released direct to video, and contain virtually no material relating to the Lutz family or the DeFeo murders. Instead, they concentrate on paranormal phenomena caused by cursed items supposedly linked to the house.
One of the famous features of the Amityville Horror films is the distinctive pumpkin head appearance of the house, which was created by two quarter round windows on the third floor attic level. The windows are often illuminated in the films, giving the appearance of malevolent eyes. The first three films were filmed at a house in Toms River, New Jersey which had been converted to look like 112 Ocean Avenue after the authorities in Amityville denied permission for location filming. Although not all of the films in The Amityville Horror series are set at the former Lutz home on Ocean Avenue, the distinctive Dutch Colonial house is traditionally used as the main image in promotional material.
In 2005, a remake of the original Amityville Horror film was released, with the tagline Katch em and kill em, referring to the claimed link between the house in Ocean Avenue and John Ketcham, whose name has been linked to witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts but remains a controversial and elusive figure.[20] This version exaggerates the isolation of 112 Ocean Avenue by depicting it as a remote house similar to the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's The Shining. In reality, 112 Ocean Avenue was a suburban house within 50 feet (15 m) of other houses in the neighborhood. The house used in the 2005 version was in Silver Lake, Wisconsin, while other location work was shot in nearby Antioch, Illinois. The child character Jodie DeFeo, appearing in the film, is fictional and was not one of the victims of the shootings by Ronald DeFeo, Jr. in November 1974. George Lutz described the 2005 remake as "drivel" and sued the makers for defamation, libel, and breach of contract.[21] He objected particularly to the scene in the film where the male lead named as George Lutz and played by Ryan Reynolds is shown killing the family dog with an axe. The film also shows the George Lutz character building coffins for members of his own family. The defamation claim was dismissed by a Los Angeles court in November 2005, while other issues related to the lawsuit remained unresolved at the time of George Lutz's death.[22]
The documentary My Amityville Horror was released in March 2013. It featured interviews with Daniel Lutz, one of the children who lived in the house during the period on which the book and films are based. Lutz echos the original story as told by his mother and step-father. He also makes additional claims that both he and George Lutz were possessed, that George Lutz demonstrated telekinetic abilities, and strongly suggests that George's dabbling in the occult may have initiated the demonic events.
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April 16th, 2014
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Comments (17)
Ed Weidman
thanks to digital designs and lyric for the features in faa portrait gallery,and out of the ordinary!
Ed Weidman
thnk you joseph and jim for the great features in psychedelic art,and what question mark!
Ed Weidman
honored by the features of Svetlana,lisa,john and jim in their groups the world we see,in the mood,images that excite you,and what question mark?
John Bailey
Congratulations on being featured in the Fine Art America Group "Images That Excite You!"
Alec Drake
Congratulations Ed on your feature in "How Bold Thou Art"...we are very pleased to share this vibrant, colorful work with our group members and visitors. like/fav
Luke Moore
Ed, very nice description. Love what you did to this image... the intentional zoom blur and partially blurred trees! Really captures something mysterious, deep and dark. Fav/Like
Ed Weidman replied:
thanks luke-its a beautiful waterfront home here on the island,with a very infamous past.wanted to try and convey a feel of its haunted history