When I was a kid I went on a summer camp trip to Adventureland, an amusement park on Long Island. I spent a couple of days working the counselors and my fellow campers, and I convinced everybody to take a side trip to the Amityville Horror house, a place I had longed to visit. That summer day, sitting in a school bus full of kids who had to pee and who wanted to ride roller coasters, the Amityville Horror house was pretty disappointing. It was just a big old house, even if the exterior remained the same from the movie.
But that exterior has been changed, as owners since then tried to reduce the number of schoolbuses full of city kids that showed up in front of their house. And now that famous house is for sale, and it can be yours for just a hair over 1 million dollars.
There’s real tragedy connected to the house – Ronald DeFeo massacred his family there in 1974. But the legend began when the Lutz family moved in, and they claimed that they were being not just haunted but flat out terrorized by demonic spirits. A book followed, then a movie, then a bunch of sequels (including one in 3D that nobody remembers) and eventually a remake that served mostly as an excuse to get Ryan Reynolds topless.
The haunting is probably absolute BS, completely made up by the Lutzes and unverifiable in any real way, but the Amityville Horror is now a part of American pop history, and if I had the money I’d probably try to snatch this baby up myself.
10 comments
I thought it was outed as a hoax made up by the author and staged by the Lutz family.
If I buy it, will my sister strip down to her underwear for me?
Total hoax. The story behind the murders is fascinating, however. I live in Seattle and it still blows peoples minds when I tell them I grew up down the road. I'm always like big whoop yo.
It sounds weird to use the term "topless" for guys. I think stick to "shirtless" in the future. Topless is for ladies only.
I find it rather disconcerting that such incidents actually need to be exposed as hoaxes, rather than just being generally assumed to be exactly that by any and every rational adult human who hears about it. Even if you insist on believing in a mystic being who watches and judges everything we do and then rewards or punishes us after we die, the very concept of hauntings and poltergeists and such is patently absurd and so short-sighted, it could only be cooked up by limited, religion-addled human minds. Sure, that shit's fun in movies, but come on…Fuck, we've got a lot of evolving to do!
I'm with you, Devin. A few years ago I found myself with a few hours to kill in the early morning hours before catching a flight out of Islip. I went to Amityville and tracked the house down using nothing but vague knowledge of the address and geography. I was sort of proud of myself for finding it until I realized I was parked in front of somebody's house at 3 in the morning staring at their lawn and starting to feel sort of stupid. I don't believe the story either, but it was such a huge thing growing up I'm still glad I got to see it. And if I had the dough, I'd get into a bidding war with you over it.
There's a lot of bohunk rumor and speculation about how the town and the current residents or whatever have "changed" the address to throw people off. Nowadays, the only way to tell which house it is is to scope it from the water, which I've done, having lived my entire life here on the Island.
It's one of those "you must do it"-things as a kid, break into the King's Park Mental Hospital, go to the Amityville House, find Satan's Trail, etc.
My dad was actually the first DJ on the radio to broadcast the news, as he was working the overnight at the time.
Man, there was a time where the word "Amity" = Terrible Bad Things, thanks to this and JAWS. The original and remakes are both terrible but there's something about the story that gets under your skin, and the design of the house was brilliant of course. @#7: Sounds like the whole place is a hotbed of spooky shit – awesome childhood!
#8: Yeah, I mean, every town has their own urban legends, we just seem to have a bit more, lol.
I've seen this movie once and I still don't feel good when I remind myself of this scary house… As far as I know Ronald Defeo actually killed his familly in this house, right? I've searched the net and I've read sth when he claims that some bad spirits or whatever they were made him kill his familly. it's kinda creepy… so what is the truth? is the house haunted or what? reply if you can, I would like to be more informed. btw I'm from Europe, Serbia and that's why I'm interested so. thanks guys 🙂 greetings from RastaCat
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.