Who has not seen an Amityville Horror film or has no knowledge of the haunting
that occurred in the 70's in the sleepy titular Long Island community? For
those of you who somehow missed this chapter in legendary American hauntings,
the original Amityville Horror and subsequent films are based on the alledged
paranormal events experienced by the Lutz family for 28 days in their newly
purchased home in 1975. What followed the incident is almost more mind-boggling
as the quiet and reserved Lutz family found themselves thrust in the limelight
and immortalized on the big screen. Over the years, patriarch George Lutz's
embrace of the publicity called into question the validity of the family's
spooky claims. Until his death, George was the spokesperson for the family and
submitted himself to public scrutiny- even successfully submitting to a lie
detector test in order to defend the haunting that gained him so much notoriety.
With a fresh twist on the legend, MY AMITYVILLE HORROR finally gives a voice to
one of the children who lived through the tumultuous 28 days in the afflicted
house. Daniel was the oldest of the three Lutz children, and was likely the
most acutely aware of the shift that had recently occurred in his family. His
mom remarried, George adopted him and his siblings, and he moved with his family
to his new, infamous address. The house was actually already notorious, having
been the scene of a gruesome mass murder of the DeFeo family a few years
earlier, yet Lutz bought the home at a cut rate and made it their home anyway.
MY AMITYVILLE HORROR is basically a character study of Daniel Lutz and how those
fateful 28 days have affected the rest of his life. In a stroke of genius,
director and Amityville buff Eric Walter reunites Daniel with some of the
journalists and supernatural experts who originally investigated the case back
in the day. As Lutz painstakingly retells the terror he experienced as a child,
the "experts" also corroborate and/or refute the claims. While some offer the
alleged questionable motives of George Lutz as a catalyst for antagonizing the
dark energy of the home, other specialists point to the power of suggestion in
an impressionable child to explain away the paranormal events. Regardless of
all the speculation, the heart of the film revolves around Daniel Lutz, his
assertion of what he experienced, and the overall hatred he has always harbored
for his step father.
The film is beautifully captured in a cinematic style not always seen in
documentary film making. Beautiful sweeping shots of newspaper clippings and
eery photos of the home help illustrate audio interviews with Lutz. Other segments
feature him rehashing the events interview style, other times with a psychologist,
and also in reunions with investigators from his childhood.
The film gets a bit repetitive at some points, covering some of the same
territory more than necessary. While I understand the film maker's respect for
his subject's emotional investment in telling his side of the painful story, one
look at Lutz's pained expression while regaling his tale is more than enough to
convey his angst without reiterating again and again. That being said, it sure
is interesting to hear another first hand recollection of America's most famous
haunting. It may sound callous, but I would've enjoyed more about the scary
stuff and much less about the emotional fall out.
I really dug MY AMITYVILLE HORROR not only because of my morbid curiosity
of the legendary story, but also because of the insightful observations of the
aftermath of such an event on one of the youngest victims and how that has
informed his life thereafter. It really is such a compelling film on many
levels and I hope everyone gets a chance to check it out.
Annette Kellerman
