The Amityville Horror (1979 film)

In 1979, Stuart Rosenberg directed *The Amityville Horror*, an American supernatural horror film starring James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and Rod Steiger. The story centers on George and Kathy Lutz, a young married couple who move into a house that is plagued by aggressive supernatural forces. The film is adapted from Jay Anson’s 1977 book, which claimed to recount the real-life paranormal experiences of the Lutz family in Amityville, New York—the same house where Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family in 1974. This movie launched the long-running *Amityville Horror* film series and was later remade in 2005.

The project began when executive producer Samuel Z. Arkoff bought the rights to Anson’s book. Originally planned as a television film with a script by Anson himself, the teleplay was rejected by Arkoff, who then hired screenwriter Sandor Stern to rework it as a theatrical feature. The producers wanted to shoot at the actual DeFeo residence, but the owners refused permission. Filming started on location in Toms River, New Jersey, in October 1978, with interior scenes later shot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s sound stages in Los Angeles, wrapping just before Christmas.

*The Amityville Horror* premiered at the Museum of Modern Art on July 24, 1979, and went into wide release three days later. It became a major commercial success, one of the most profitable films ever released by American International Pictures. The movie grossed over $80 million in North America, making it one of the highest-grossing independent films of all time and a top earner in horror cinema history. Although critics largely panned it upon release, Lalo Schifrin’s musical score earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, and Margot Kidder received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress.

Some modern film scholars now consider the movie a horror classic, and it is widely seen as a key work in the contemporary haunted house sub-genre. In his 1981 book *Danse Macabre*, Stephen King interpreted the film as a parable about the anxieties of homeownership and financial ruin, pointing to the economic troubles of the 1970s and the story’s frequent references to money. Other scholars have echoed this reading.

**Plot**

In the early hours of November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murders his entire family with a rifle at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York.

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