The Amityville Horror
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George Lutz (Ryan Reynolds) is a young contractor who doesn’t work. He just married Kathy (29 year-old actress Melissa George). She has three children: 12 year-old Billy (Jesse James), Michael (Jimmy Bennett) and the youngest, Chelsea (Chloe Moretz). The kids have no friends and do not go to school. George and stay-at-home Kathy cannot afford the rundown Defeo mansion but it has a rock-bottom price, a boathouse, and it is right on Long Island Sound.
The Lutz family stayed in the house for only 28 days. Voices and poltergeist activity forced them to move out without taking any of their belongings. The original owner, Ronald Defeo Jr., killed his entire family, his parents and four siblings, and, after blaming the murders on everyone including the mob, said he was forced to do it by a voice in the house.
Well, if you need a defense why not blame it on angry demons?
I happen to be reading “An Exorcist Tell His Story” by Gabriele Amorth. I believe in demons, possessed houses, ghosts and imaginary friends. But this defense – “The Voices Made Me Do It Defense" – never works with juries! And Mr. Defeo is still in prison.
George doesn’t wear underwear. His jeans barely cover his private parts – but the kids don’t mind! While it is Chloe who is the first to see and befriend a murdered sibling, it is George who is driven to insanity. He has to kill the family because they are really Demons-In-Disguise. (My son had a Demon-In-The-Flesh girlfriend.) And since George has a lot of time on his hands hanging around the house, we get to see his quick descent into Crazytown.
Reynolds is terrific and is not afraid here to show how mean George becomes. Kathy and the kids should have left as soon as George starting acting violent but the kids patiently endure George’s increasingly weird outbursts. I do hope the real Kathy Lutz had a bit more common sense. We get a countdown to Day 28. All Hell breaks loose and the house wants blood to spill!
I screamed out loud a few times. The preview audience loved it. THE AMITYVILLE HORROR works because of director Douglas’s use of frightening images and a cold steel approach to the material. Where there could have been suggestion and inference, here we see the messy Defeo murders and the medieval torture chamber hidden below the house.
We, the audience, especially liked the realtor knowing all about the house, but keeping the information to herself while showing the Lutz’s around. What else could she do? These two rubes in love had a good credit rating and a down payment.
If you enjoy horror movies that make you scream with creepy images and scary people who turn into frightening demons, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR delivers.
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