The Amityville Horror

Name: The Amityville Horror
Genre: Horror
Released: July 27, 1979
Duration: 117 min
Rating: 28
Cast: Don Stroud, James Brolin, John Larch, K.C. Martel, Margot Kidder

1979

METASCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	Your Score
6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Ratings

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The Amityville Horror (Trailer 1)

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Movie Details & Credits

American International Pictures (AIP) | Release Date: July 27, 1979 | R

Starring: Don Stroud, James Brolin, John Larch, K.C. Martel, Margot Kidder, Meeno Peluce, Michael Sacks, Murray Hamilton, Natasha Ryan, Rod Steiger

Summary: Once the scene of a grisly mass murder, a family's dream house turns into a nightmare from hell when the dead come back for revenge.

Director: Stuart Rosenberg

Genre(s): Horror

Rating: R

Runtime: 117 min

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Critic Reviews

Staff (Not Credited)

Flies swarm where they shouldn't, pipes and walls ooze ick, doors fly open, and priests and psychic sensitives cringe and flee in panic. It's definitely a house that audiences will enjoy visiting, especially if unfamiliar with the ending.

Nick Schager

Of all the questions raised by The Amityville Horror, the most vexing one revolves around the external range of a haunted house’s supernatural powers. Because while it makes sense for a demonic abode to slam windows shut on small children’s fingers, let loose with swarms of buzzing flies, and turn bearded wood-chopping fathers into homicidal paterfamilias, it’s not quite as clear why such a structure would have the ability to sabotage the brakes of a sedan driving on the highway, or to cause a woman’s briefcase, sitting on her car’s passenger seat, to magically burst into flames. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

Executive produced by B-movie veteran Samuel Z. Arkoff and indifferently directed by TV-trained Stuart Rosenberg, the film's reputation exceeds its achievements, and the true story angle has been vigorously disputed. Read full review

Stephen Godfrey

Films about haunted houses have come a long way since the days when things simply went bump in the night, but The Amityville Horror may make you wish things would get back to basics. Peppered with visual red herrings, fast editing and cheap shocks, this is a product that promises an apocalypse of horror, delivers a few vague samples, but trails to an ending without providing a meaty climax. [28 July 1979]

Keith Phipps

In happier times, director Stuart Rosenberg confidently helmed Cool Hand Luke. Here, he resorts to one spookhouse cliché after another, and even the original touches are more puzzling than startling. Read full review

Janet Maslin

So many horror-movie clichés have been assembled under the roof of a single haunted house that the effect is sometimes mind-bogglingly messy. There is apparently very little to which the director, Stuart Rosenberg, will not resort. Scary things do happen in the movie, but they're always telegraphed in advance and make too little sense to have a cumulative effect. Read full review

Dave Kehr

A tedious, lamebrained horror movie, which begins with the promising premise of a haunted house in the suburbs (poltergeists in the barbecue pit?) and quickly degenerates into a display of pretentious camera angles by director Stuart Rosenberg. Read full review

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User Reviews

robertoiglesias

Nov 3, 2018

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I enjoy the Amityville Horror. It's a classic horror film about a house with horrors in it unleashed. I don't think it's perfect, but it's good enough for me.
Just adding this in: There are 19 sequels and 1 remake of this film so far.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

JPK

Dec 22, 2019

Scary Enough
Though not a classic, The Amnityville Horror has a lot creepy moments and scares to keep you satisfied.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

TheQuietGamer

Oct 11, 2018

Does a lot considering the era and budget, but the first hour is a drag of hokey haunted house tropes. Doors that close by themselves, black cats, and windows that slam shut on fingers. This movie has them all. It's not like they're something the genre has moved away from over the years, butDoes a lot considering the era and budget, but the first hour is a drag of hokey haunted house tropes. Doors that close by themselves, black cats, and windows that slam shut on fingers. This movie has them all. It's not like they're something the genre has moved away from over the years, but in most of the other options out there these things are the build up to something bigger. The stuff that lets you know that evil is on the way and some real scares too. For the majority of the movie I never got that feeling. Somewhat wasting an uncomfortable atmosphere and one of the creepier houses in cinema (don't the windows look like eyes?).

At least until the last 45 minutes...

What kept me watching until that point was the subplot about the priest who keeps trying to save the Lutz family at great personal cost. This sort of selfless bravery reminded me of The Warrens from The Conjuring series and a depiction of the kind of warmth so few get to experience with religion. Of course it also depicts the less open side of the church as well when the larger diocese refuses to even investigate the case. Instead brushing it off as a bunch of hooey. So much for the outreach program I guess...

With paranormal afflictions keeping anyone of the cloth from being able to intervene, it's up to the family's friends to try and get to the bottom of George Lutz's increasingly antisocial behavior. That's when the movie starts to get really good. Demons lurk outside windows, blood leaks from the walls, and a satanic burial ground is found in the basement. The evil that seemed like a non-presence for about the first half of the film rears it's malevolent head and the chaos begins. As a sucker for possessed house films (demons are way scarier than ghosts!) this is when I started to enjoy myself.

As a classic of the genre it should be watched by anyone who calls themselves an enthusiast. You can see how it influenced the countless other movies that followed. The first half+ hasn't aged well, but the final act does a lot to make up for that. Plus the no man, woman, child, or animal ending shows the world what a REAL man looks like. For once I wasn't ticked to see someone run back into danger. Instead I cheered them on.

6.9/10… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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