The Amityville Horror is a 2005 American supernatural horror film directed by Andrew Douglas and starring Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, and Philip Baker Hall. It also featured the debut of actress Chloe Grace Moretz. Written by Scott Kosar, it is based on the novel The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, which was previously adapted into the 1979 film of the same name, while also serving as the ninth film in the Amityville Horror film series, which documents the experiences of the Lutz family after they move into a house at 112 Ocean Avenue, Long Island. In 1974, real-life mass murderer Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six members of his family at the same house in Amityville, New York.

The film was released in the United States on April 15, 2005, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Dimension Films. It received negative reviews, with many calling it derivative to the original film but saying it didn t deliver anything new. It grossed $108 million on a $19 million budget.

Plot

At 3:15 AM on November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family at their house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. He claimed that he was persuaded to kill them by voices he heard in the house.

One year later, a married couple George and Kathy Lutz move into the house along with Kathy s three children from a previous marriage, Billy, Michael, and Chelsea. The family soon begins experiencing paranormal events in the house. Chelsea claims that she has befriended a girl named Jodie, a name belonging to one of the murdered DeFeo children.

One night the couple decide to go out, and they hire a babysitter to watch the three kids. When the babysitter, Lisa, arrives, they come to find out that she had previously been hired to babysit for the DeFeo s. Lisa tells them about the murders that took place in their house. When she goes to Chelsea s room, Chelsea tells her that she is a bad babysitter, claiming that Jodie told her so. Lisa begins to scold Jodie for being the reason behind her getting fired. Then Billy dares Lisa to go inside the closet (the same closet where Jodie was murdered), and she gets locked inside. After a few seconds, she encounters Jodie herself and begs to be let out. She goes into shock and the paramedics arrive to take her away; on the way to the hospital, Lisa tells Kathy that she had seen Jodie.

George s behaviour towards Kathy and her children becomes abusive and the paranormal activity continues. One night, George hears Harry barking in the boathouse. Seemingly possessed, he grabs the axe and proceeds to murder the family dog. The children look for Harry the next day, with George denying he knows where he is, despite Billy s suspicions.

Kathy asks the priest Father Callaway (Philip Baker Hall) to bless the house, as a protective measure to prevent any future paranormal incidents, but Father Callaway flees the house when he encounters such occurrences himself. Kathy discovers that the house once belonged to a cult preacher named Reverend Jeremiah Ketcham, whose evil actions towards Native Americans during his mission in 17th-century Amityville are said to be the cause of the haunting. Meanwhile, as George is walking through the basement of the house, encounters the apparitions of the various Native Americans who were tortured and killed there by Ketcham centuries ago. Entering a dimly-lit room, George encounters Ketcham himself (though he is not aware of who he is), and the ghostly figure of the evil missionary turns around, picks up a knife, and slits his throat in an act of recreating his suicide, covering George with blood, and causing him to become nearly completely possessed.

Kathy becomes convinced that George s abusive behavior is owed to a spiritual possession. Following urgent advice from Father Callaway, Kathy tries to evacuate her children from the house and escort them to safety, but the possessed George attempts to kill her and the children; Kathy knocks him out to prevent him from doing so and transports him away from the residence via boat. Subsequently, George is released from the spirit s control and the family permanently leaves the house. A title card states that the family left within 28 days of arriving and never returned. Jodie is shown standing in the now-empty house and screaming in terror while the house rearranges itself back to its original state before the family s arrival. Subsequently, she is pulled beneath the floor by a pair of disembodied hands.

Cast

• Ryan Reynolds as George Lutz
• Melissa George as Kathy Lutz
• Jesse James as Billy Lutz
• Jimmy Bennett as Michael Lutz
• Chloë Grace Moretz as Chelsea Lutz
• Rachel Nichols as Lisa
• Philip Baker Hall as Father Callaway
• Isabel Conner as Jodie DeFeo
• Brendan Donaldson as Ronald Ronnie DeFeo Jr.

Production

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Although the film is set on Long Island, it was shot in Chicago, Antioch, Buffalo Grove, and Fox Lake, Illinois, and in Salem and Silver Lake, Wisconsin. The house used is a real 1800s home that was temporarily converted to add the famous quarter moon eye windows. The house is in Salem at 27618 Silver Lake Road. The movie facade cost $60,000. After production the movie facade remained on the house for a while and was eventually carefully removed. The famous quarter moon evil eye windows were preserved in sections of the walls which still have the movie bedroom wallpaper on the inside and siding with old looking movie paint on the outside. The windows were in good shape but were aged to match the house using peeling paint. In 2017 an estate sale was held at the movie mansion and the famous quarter moon eye windows, which had been in the attic since filming, were sold. The buyer lives in the same neighborhood and has the windows on display.

MGM claimed the remake was based on new information uncovered during research of the original events, but George Lutz later claimed nobody ever spoke to him or his family about the project. When he initially heard it was underway, his attorney contacted the studio to find out what they had in the planning stages and to express Lutz s belief they didn t have the right to proceed without his input. Three letters were sent and none was acknowledged. In June 2004, the studio filed a motion for declaratory relief in federal court, insisting they had the right to do a remake, and Lutz countersued, citing violations of the original contract that had continued through the years following the release of the first film. The case remained unresolved when Lutz died in May 2006.

Release

Box office

The Amityville Horror opened on 3,323 screens in the United States on April 15, 2005 and earned $23,507,007 on its opening weekend, ranking first in the domestic box office. It eventually grossed $65,233,369 domestically and $42,813,762 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $108,047,131.

Critical reception

The film received negative reviews. It holds a 23% score on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 163 reviews, with an average rating of 4.13/10. The site s consensus states: A so-so remake of a so-so original. Metacritic reports a 33 out of 100 rating, based on 31 critics, indicating generally unfavorable reviews .

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said, Low-key creepy rather than outright scary, the new Amityville marks a modest improvement over the original, partly because, from acting to bloody effects, it is better executed, and partly because the filmmakers have downgraded the role of the priest, played in all his vein-popping glory by Rod Steiger in the first film and by a considerably more subdued Philip Baker Hall here.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film one star and commented, First-time director Andrew Douglas crams in every ghost cliché, from demonic faces to dripping blood. This house springs so many FX shocks it plays like a theme-park ride. Result? It s not scary, just busy. For the real thing, watch Psycho . . . The Shining . . . The Haunting . . . or The Innocents . . . What all those films have in common is precisely what the new Amityville Horror lacks: They know it s what you don t see in a haunted house that fries your nerves to a frazzle.

Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle thought the truly shocking thing about the new version is that it s not bloody awful . . . The decision to use minimal computer-generated effects, made for monetary rather than artistic reasons, works to Amityville s advantage. It retains the cheesy look of the 1979 original, pure schlock not gussied up to appear to be anything else.

Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle stated the original film was an effective little tingler whose frights are steady, implied, and cumulative . . . but in the remake the frights are such that you’re wondering why the stubborn Lutzes don’t flee after the first night. Obviously, the filmmakers were keen to remake this film exactly because the technological advances of the last 25 years now permit more graphic displays of horrific imaginings and computer enhancements that can render the invisible world visible. Strategically, the new Amityville never intended to go for the subtler, implied horror of the original; this one would be all about scaring the pants off viewers. And in this, the movie generally succeeds as sudden scares and flashes of yucky imagery cause audience members to yelp aloud as if on cue . . . The most irritating aspect of the new movie, however, has nothing to do with comparisons but rather with some of the inherent illogic of the story. Why are we seeing images of a hanged girl when we know she’s been shot in the head? Images seem to be grafted into the film that have little to do with the actual story. Maybe it’s a technique that succeeds within quick advertising spots, but it piles confusion onto the art of storytelling.

James Christopher of The Times observed, There is something pleasurably batty about the way the family blunders on. The chills are satisfyingly creepy. The gory special effects are lavish and effective. And the wooden house itself is a sinister architectural pleasure. It’s total nonsense of course, but I left the lights on that night anyway.

The real George Lutz denounced the film as drivel and was suing the filmmakers at the time of his death in May 2006.

Home media

The film was released on DVD in separate widescreen and fullscreen editions on October 4, 2005. Bonus features include commentary by Reynolds and producers Form and Fuller; eight deleted scenes; On Set Peeks, a seamless branching feature with nine behind-the-scenes vignettes; Supernatural Homicide, with discussions about the murders that are the basis for the film with police and local residents; The Source of Evil, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film; and a photo gallery.

A VHS version was released the same day and was the final Dimension film released on VHS. Paramount Home Entertainment (via Miramax) handles the digital distribution rights, including its own logo (though Warner Bros. Home Entertainment handles the home media distribution rights to the film along with the rest of MGM s post-April 1986 library).

Condition

New

Age Group

Adult

Rating MPA

Not Rated

Format

DVD

Brand

Tcfhe/Mgm

Amazon ASIN

B003YYY0I2

UPC / EAN

027616909374

Year

2005

ReleaseDate

2005-04-15

RuntimeMins

90

RuntimeStr

1h 30min

Awards

Awards, 2 wins & 4 nominations

Directors

Andrew Douglas

Writers

Scott Kosar, Jay Anson, Sandor Stern

Stars

Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jimmy Bennett

Produced by

Michael Bay, Matthew Cohan, David Crockett, Randall Emmett, Ted Field, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, George Furla, Paul Mason, Stefan Sonnenfeld, Steve Whitney

Music by

Steve Jablonsky

Cinematography by

Peter Lyons Collister

Film Editing by

Roger Barton, Christian Wagner

Casting By

Lisa Fields

Production Design by

Jennifer Williams

Art Direction by

Marco Rubeo

Set Decoration by

Daniel B. Clancy

Costume Design by

David C. Robinson

Makeup Department

Chad Atkinson, Howard Berger, Kamar Bitar, Mark Boley, Michael Deak, Mitch Devane, Anthony Diaz, Justin Ditter, Robert Freitas, Jake Garber, Grady Holder, Steve Katz, Kara Kransnoff, Derek Krout, James Leonard, Gil Liberto, Dominic Mango, Helen Marchfield, Bruce D. Mitchell, Greg Nicotero, Suzi Ostos, Scott Patton, Ben Rittenhouse, Shannon Shea, Veronica Torres, Howard Berger, Ross Martucci, Bart Mixon, Douglas Noe, Andy Schoneberg

Production Management

David Crockett, Wileen Dragovan, Tim Pedegana

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

Thomas Coe, Jeremy Oswald, Craig A. Pinckes, Vince Duque, Mark Palansky

Art Department

Kimberly Clancy, Patrick Connely, Kevin Cross, Frank D. Dambra, Jeff Dieter, Phillip Ellman, Pam Gauss, Jonathan Gesinski, Michael D. Gianneschi, Stephanie Gilliam, Joeseph H. Gilmartin, Gary Happ, Ashley Eden Kessler, Ellen Lampl, J.D. McCarthy, Matt McKinney, Freddie Mikels, John Mikels, Jon Nicholson, Tom Osman, Tyler Osman, Kerry Sanders, Timothy W. Tiedje, Scott Troha, Thomas J. Cabela, Guillaume DeLouche, Craig Denham, Matthew Ferreira, Shannon Fortune, Jonas Kirk, Nathan Mack, Quentin Matthys, James P. Meehan, Mike Monckton, Russell O Connor, Jorge Paris, Clint Schultz, John J. Slove Jr.

Sound Department

Robert Althoff, Steve Bartkowicz, Michael Broomberg, Harry Cohen, Robert Deschaine, Victor Ray Ennis, Paul Flinchbaugh, Hector C. Gika, Chris Hogan, Daniel S. Irwin, Kenneth L. Johnson, Michael Kamper, Diane Marshall, Bob Myers, Robert Bruce Myers, Kelly Oxford, Alan Rankin, Blair Scheller, Brad Sherman, Unsun Song, Greg Steele, Jim Stuebe, Lucy Sustar, Jon Taylor, Jon Title, Tami Treadwell, Karen Vassar Triest, Trevor Ward, Greg Zimmerman, Kerry Carmean-Williams, Onofre Ortega, Pieter Schlosser

Special Effects by

Michael Ahasay, Jay Appleberry, David J. Chamerski, William D. Kennedy, Steve Koch, John D. Milinac, Lindsay Vivian, Jenny Wallace, David J. Barker, Ryan Evans, Steven Munson, Dirk Rogers, Patricia Urias, Chip Williams

Visual Effects by

Kimberly Adams, Andy Barrios, Judith Bell, Elissa Bello, Kevin Bouchez, Timothy Clark, Brandon Criswell, Kevin Culhane, Brian Cuscino, Amit Dhawal, Sean Andrew Faden, Adam Frazier, Roger Guyett, Matthew Hackett, Steven Hawkins, Tommy Hooper, Jen Hutchinson, Joni Jacobson, Zach Justman, Joe Ken, Bill Laverty, James Do Young Lee, Janet Lewin, Michael Lori, Kathleen Lynch, Cornelia Magas, Emma McGuinness, Nathan McGuinness, Ryan Meredith, Derek Milner, Sébastien Moreau, Steve Muangman, Perri Pecora, Kosta Saric, Hilary Sperling Stauffer, Marty Taylor, Jessica Teach, Patrick Tubach, Zachary Tucker, Aaron Vest, Steve Vojkovic, Jeff Werner, Yuichiro Yamashita, Tonia Young, Beth D Amato, Claas Henke, Tony Meister, Gerald Ragland, John Scheer, Adam H Stewart

Stunts

Tommy Bacini, Kenny Bates, Kurt Bryant, Stacey Carino, Brian Christensen, Laura Dash, Tobiasz Daszkiewicz, Shauna Duggins, Richard Epper, Mark Harper, Rick LeFevour, Tom Lowell, James R. Mammoser, Larry Nicholas, Carl Paoli, Linda Perlin, Jodi Starnes, Tom Vicini

Camera and Electrical Department

Steve Alessi, Cortland Boyd, Kevin Boyd, Fernando M. Briones, Robert C. Carlson, Flor Collins, Chris Dame, Chris Freres, Gregg Gannett, Chris Glomp, Peter Iovino, Shane D. Kelly, Mark E. Matthys, Peter Mercurio, Faires A. Sekiya, Dean M. Simmon, Kurt E. Soderling, Rick Thomas, Dan Urbain, Mark N. Woods, Joe Carpita, Mark Castelaz, Christopher M. Collar Jr., Dawn Copeland, Erik Curtis, Jaime Dawkins, Darrin DeLoach, Rachel Donofrie, Ronald Dragosh, Christopher Duskin, Joe Gajewski, Joseph Guerino, Kyle Holden, Timothy Jipping, Matt Johnson, Dennis J. Leahy, Matthew LeCrone, Rashaad Lewis, Ken Little Jr., Helmut Luchs, Anthony J. Lullo, Joseph M. Lyons, Blake E. Matthys, Bradley T. Matthys, Steven Matthys, Chris Mulsoff, Wilson Mylander, Ray Patrick, Mark Pickens, Keith Pokorski, Stephanie Power, Christopher Rejano, Chris Ryerson, David Schmalz, Andrew Shulkind, Andy Smith, Scott Thiele, Billy Wauer, Kevin Wisor

Casting Department

Jacquelyn Conard, Elise Dagley, Meagan Lewis, Caitlin McKenna, Matt Miller, Mickie Paskal, Marisa Ross, Danny Roth, Jennifer Rudnicke, Ne Yanta, Danielle Aufiero

Costume and Wardrobe Department

Patrick Caulfield, Miriam Hoffman-Durand, Gina Panno, Ellen Ryba, Jonathan Kinnas, Heather Pollock

Editorial Department

Mike Chiado, Rob Doolittle, David Feldman, Leigh Folsom Boyd, Liam Ford, Nicholas Hasson, Jackie Lee, Chris Regan, Erik Rogers, Craig W. Smith, Stefan Sonnenfeld, Fulvio Valsangiacomo, John Brandon, Salvatore Catanzaro, Mo Henry, Mark Todd Osborne, Missy Papageorge, Christopher Reichel, John Scheer

Location Management

Brady Breen, Rosa Yang Kato, Carrie Goodman, Jeff Morris, Maria C. Roxas

Music Department

Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli, Jeffrey Biggers, Sandy DeCrescent, Will Donovan, Clay Duncan, Bruce Fowler, The Hollywood Studio Symphony, Jimmy Hoyson, Tom MacDougall, Tracy McKnight, Alan Meyerson, Bruce Monical, Chris Montan, Suzette Moriarty, Trevor Morris, Pieter Schlosser, Tom Trafalski, Greg Vines, Rich Wheeler, Booker White, Robb Boyd, Jim Dooley, Clay Duncan, Jay Flood, Frank Macchia, Ryan Robinson

Script and Continuity Department

Dru Anne Carlson

Transportation Department

James Hogan, Brian McQuery, Armand Paoletti, Joseph Paoletti, Joey Freitas

Additional Crew

Anthony Beaudoin, Jeremy Beiermann, Allison Bergstrand, Senica Billingsley, Adam Boor, David Boyle, Beth Casey, Bill Casey, Jack Clancy, Jason Cosgrove, Patrick Cunningham, Barbara Doherty, Joli Eberhart, Ira Gerber, Miranda S.H. Inganni, Bradley Kettlety, Scott Litsinger, Sara Nudelman, Jansen Panettiere, John M. Pisani, Bennett Pozil, Martha Provenzano, James Reem, Sandy Sfeir, Michele Soefer, Stefan Sonnenfeld, Helen Stergiou, Jules Sylvester, Laura Torrance, Jeff Valeri, Desiree Varni, Olivier Agostini, Edward Albolote, Robert Amico, Melissa Bickerton, Maurice Brunson, Jeffrey Caruso, Rosie Charbonneau, Graham Geraghty, P.J. Haines, Virgil E. Hammond III, Sheryl L. Hammond, Clayton Hauck, Jose Jaime, Judith Jecmen, Perry M. Kimura, David Kreger, Disha Patel-Webb, Diane Perry, Katie Pruitt, B.J. Rayniak, Angelo Renardo, Robert Rizzolo, Marco A. Rodriguez, John J. Sahlberg, Edgar Sandoval, Brian Chung-Hung Secrest, Jenny Siff, Andy Spellman, Max Votolato, Kenneth Yoder

Thanks

The Hollywood Studio Orchestra

Genres

Horror

Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Dimension Films, Platinum Dunes

Countries

USA

Languages

English

ContentRating

R

ImDbRating

5.9

ImDb Rating Votes

113156

Metacritic Rating

33

Short Description

The Amityville Horror is a 2005 American supernatural horror film directed by Andrew Douglas and starring Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, and Philip Baker Hall. It also featured the debut of actress Chloe Grace Moretz. Written by Scott Kosar, it is based on the novel The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, which was previously adapted into the 1979 film of the same name, while also serving as the ninth film in the Amityville Horror film series, which documents the experiences of the Lutz family after they move into a house at 112 Ocean Avenue, Long Island. In 1974, real-life mass murderer Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six members of his family at the same house in Amityville, New York.

The film was released in the United States on April 15, 2005, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Dimension Films. It received negative reviews, with many calling it derivative to the original film but saying it didn t deliver anything new. It grossed $108 million on a $19 million budget.

Box Office Budget

$19,000,000 (estimated)

Box Office Opening Weekend USA

$23,507,007

Box Office Gross USA

$65,233,369

Box Office Cumulative Worldwide Gross

$107,516,369

Keywords

Murder,basement,haunted house,priest,paranoia