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In 1974, Ronald Defeo Jr. shot to death his parents and four siblings in their Amityville, N.Y., house. Afterward, he claimed that voices had told him to commit the murders. About a year later, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house and quickly moved out again in a few weeks.
That much of this story seems to be fact.
Seeing an opportunity in the public’s fascination with the grisly murders, Jay Anson’s 1977 book embellished the Lutzes’ story to create the now infamous haunted house saga. That spawned a 1979 film and a handful of sequels. And now, to quote another '70s horror franchise, “It’s baa-aack.”
In this remake, George Lutz has just married the widowed Kathy, joining her family of two sons and a daughter. Although it will stretch them financially, George and Kathy buy the house in Amityville, priced low due to the murders. Almost immediately, they start noticing strange things—doors and windows that seem to open by themselves, disturbing visions and little Chelsea’s “imaginary” friend Jodie.
Worse, formerly nice-guy George starts getting harsh with Kathy and the kids. He’s sick all the time. And he spends a lot of his day in the creepy basement. When her daughter is endangered and things go badly for the Catholic priest who comes to bless the house, Kathy knows they have to “get out!” But George won’t let them.
Positive Elements
Evil is portrayed as genuinely evil. Kathy refuses to give up on her husband, even while he's under an extremely negative influence. Kathy puts her children's safety above her own. And I guess you could say that haunted house movies might spur the economy by motivating spooked home buyers to lean toward new construction instead of buying existing homes with “a history.”
Spiritual Content
Dark evil. Possessions. Occult images. Preternatural phenomena. Kathy goes to a local Catholic priest for help. But when he comes to bless the house, the holy water sizzles on whatever it touches, a door closes inverting a doorknob with a cross on it and he is attacked by a swarm of flies. He flees in terror.
Eventually, we learn that the property was used in the 1600s by a Reverend Ketchum as a mission for Indians, whom he secretly imprisoned, tortured and killed. The priest explains that Ketchum slit his own throat in the basement to ensure that his spirit would never leave. George apparently becomes possessed by Ketchum’s spirit.
When asked what he prayed for before bed, little Michael tells his mom he can’t say or his wish won’t come true. Billy, 12, says praying doesn’t work because he prayed for his dad not to die. Mom replies that some things happen for reasons we can’t understand. Later, when Chelsea says Jodie was going to “show me Daddy,” her mom tells her that Daddy is in heaven with the angels.
Violent Content
The movie opens with a depiction of the original crime, made more disturbing by the fact it actually happened. Blood gushes and splatters as we watch Ronald Defeo Jr. shoot five of his family members in their beds as they sleep. He finds his youngest sister (maybe 6 years old) hiding in her closet, tells her he loves her, and we hear the fatal shot. The crime scenes, including shots of Jodie’s dead body, are flashed onscreen throughout the film.
George sees glimpses of Jodie hanging dead in a noose. Chelsea (who is about Jodie’s age) interacts with the girl’s ghost, whose ashen, veiny face has a prominent bullet hole in the forehead. George dreams that he sees himself shooting the boys in their beds with a shotgun. Blood flows from the walls, and a gruesome, bleeding face appears next to Michael’s in a jump cut. Jodie is seen held struggling to the ceiling by disembodied arms. Later, Jodie torments the babysitter by locking her in a closet, appearing to her and forcing her to put her finger in the bullet hole in her head. The sitter has a mental breakdown.
Little Chelsea is led by Jodie to the high top of the house’s roof, forcing George and Kathy to risk their own lives to save her as she jumps. Confused by a vision, George kills a dog with an axe, with bloody results. Later, George forces a terrified Billy to hold logs as he splits them with the same axe.
George is grabbed by disembodied arms in the bathtub, pulling him down. He has visions of Rev. Ketchum’s torture chambers, including images of men with backs splayed open on an altar, lips stapled shut, etc. George eventually “sees” Ketchum slit his own throat, spurting large amounts of blood all over George’s body. Fully possessed, George attacks the family, trying to kill his wife with the propeller of a speed boat, by choking her, and eventually by swinging an axe at her and at Billy. (In his mind, he sees himself hit her with the axe.) Billy and Kathy both hit George with blunt objects. George falls from a roof. Toward the end of the movie, we’re “treated” to a speed-cut montage of all the most gruesome, bloody images in the film.