Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
George Lutz, his wife Kathy, and their three children have just moved into a beautiful, and improbably cheap, Victorian mansion nestled in the sleepy coastal town of Amityville, Long Island. However, their dream home is concealing a horrific past and soon each member of the Lutz family is plagued with increasingly strange and violent visions and impulses.
The Amityville Horror is a competent late-70s haunted house film elevated by its 'based on a true story' hook and a strong central performance from James Brolin as the increasingly unhinged George Lutz. The plot is fairly episodic and relies heavily on familiar haunted house tropes borrowed from The Exorcist wave, with a weak climax that fails to pay off the dread built earlier. Cinematography is serviceable with some effective atmosphere but nothing particularly distinctive. The film's novelty lies mainly in its real-events framing and cultural impact rather than genuine creative invention. The ending is abrupt and unsatisfying, leaving tension unresolved rather than delivering a cathartic or memorable conclusion.