AMITYVILLE HORROR 1979 in '70s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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AMITYVILLE HORROR 1979

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Rick		#21	[-]
May 21 12 10:36 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have seen the remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and it's no good. But by then I didn't expect it to be good. I actually had hopes for the original. I can't remember how much King liked AMITYVILLE, but it was too much for me. I do recall, as you do, that he liked the scene with the lost money. I thought it was an uncomfortable scene, yes. But I went to the theatre to be scared, not to worry about people paying their bills. When THE SHINING was first released, I was disappointed, as most folks were. But, like most folks, I've come over the decades to appreciate it for what it is and not what it isn't (which is to say, it's wasn't what I had wanted it to be.) Nicholson, though, I didn't like then and I don't like now. The fact that the film succeeds as well as it does -- in spite of the lead actor -- is testament to all the stuff that Kubrick did so well.
Spoiler II		#22	[-]
May 22 12 1:59 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rick wrote: I have seen the remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and it's no good. But by then I didn't expect it to be good. I actually had hopes for the original. I can't remember how much King liked AMITYVILLE, but it was too much for me. I do recall, as you do, that he liked the scene with the lost money. I thought it was an uncomfortable scene, yes. But I went to the theatre to be scared, not to worry about people paying their bills. When THE SHINING was first released, I was disappointed, as most folks were. But, like most folks, I've come over the decades to appreciate it for what it is and not what it isn't (which is to say, it's wasn't what I had wanted it to be.) Nicholson, though, I didn't like then and I don't like now. The fact that the film succeeds as well as it does -- in spite of the lead actor -- is testament to all the stuff that Kubrick did so well. King wasn't much of a fan of AMITYVILLE HORROR,as i recall he used the great line about the film's poster tagline ("When they said FOR GOD'S SAKE,GET OUT!" i didn't think they meant the theater"). He seemed to appreciate the financial woes drama being shoehorned into such an obvious spookshow but that seemed to end there. Your "people paying their bills" line is pretty apt and pretty funny. Never been a huge fan of THE SHINING. As you stated in regards to AMITYVILLE, i want a powerful horror film experience when i watch THE SHINING but instead i get stock creepy little girls, old naked women, animal suit hi-jinks and Nicholson chewing the scenery like a mechanical shark. There is surely a lot of interesting things to look at but i find very little of it unsettling or frightening. It's the horror film version of the Beatles. If you simply don't like it,people take offense and can't believe how misguided you are.
Koukol 5		#23	[-]
May 22 12 1:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	That's because THE SHINING is a brilliant film. If anyone doesn't like Jack's performance in it...blame Kubrick! He had Jack do over a hundred takes on each scene to get the performance he wanted. I'm aware that a lot of people find the performance by actors in a Kubrick film are too exaggerated. Jack, Shelley, Peter Sellers, Malcolm McDowell etc... This is what Kubrick wanted...larger than life performances! And if you don't like it it's your loss. Film-making IS an Art-form and originality is important in Art. Maybe to understand Kubrick's direction is to realise that James Cagney was his favorite actor.
Hausenfan		#24	[-]
May 23 12 7:50 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I thought the book was genuinely scary. What a major disappointment the movie was. Of course, the book gave me the creeps because I kept thinking, this might have happened. I think the Lutz's story has been debunked by enough sources by now.
Spoiler II		#25	[-]
May 23 12 10:05 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Koukol 5 wrote: That's because THE SHINING is a brilliant film. If anyone doesn't like Jack's performance in it...blame Kubrick! He had Jack do over a hundred takes on each scene to get the performance he wanted. I'm aware that a lot of people find the performance by actors in a Kubrick film are too exaggerated. Jack, Shelley, Peter Sellers, Malcolm McDowell etc... This is what Kubrick wanted...larger than life performances! And if you don't like it it's your loss. Film-making IS an Art-form and originality is important in Art. Maybe to understand Kubrick's direction is to realise that James Cagney was his favorite actor. To some,the meticulous and painstaking painting of a grand living room is an art form,i just don't want to watch that paint dry. That's what THE SHINING has always felt like. A well designed,meticulously crafted film where i watch and wait for something that interests me to happen. The posters boldly touted it as a masterpiece of horror (which i don't find all that horrifying) and it consistently shows up as the favorite horror film of people who are above something as juvenile as a horror film. AMITYVILLE HORROR is some exploitative supernatural junk but it is oddly entertaining exploitative supernatural junk. It does a fairly good job at tapping into my late 70's childhood that was ruled by ghost books,IN SEARCH OF..,paranormal TV exposes and Warren magazines and i can run with it. THE SHINING is like a PBS ghost story set on a space station and is as cold as a pimp's heart. Is AMITYVILLE HORROR better than THE SHINING? Ha! I would never say that,as i know the difference between a good film and a nostalgic one. The difference is i get something i'm looking for out of one and nothing much out of the other. Or in musical terms,AMITYVILLE is the Misfits. THE SHINING is Joy Division i guess haha.
Koukol 5		#26	[-]
May 23 12 1:36 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't "get" the thought that THE SHINING doesn't work. IMO it has some of the most creepiest ghosts of any film. Especially creepy is the attendant in the bathroom telling Jack to take action. The butcher twins along with old woman and the patrons of a costume party from the past (man in the animal suit) are creepy as hell too. Thank GOD Kubrick didn't use the cliche of having them vaporize or disappear. King should thank his lucky stars that Kubrick found something in his book to build upon. Especially since King has NEVER had an original thought.
flashback		#27	[-]
May 23 12 6:10 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	i enjoyed both the shining and the amnityville horror.
Servant of Legendre		#28	[-]
May 24 12 6:26 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I know some people who didn't like THE SHINING...but I 'corrected' them...
auwins57.auburnfootballf...		#29	[-]
Oct 25 12 2:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The Jay Anson book is as terrifying as anything I've ever read. And I read it as a kid, WAY too young to be reading something like that. The '79 AIP film is just that..an AIP film. Made on the cheap, leaving out most everything from the book that made the story so horrific. But when I heard that they were remaking it, and the first interviews with the filmakers said they were going back to the source material (the book), I got all excited. Alas, I have not been as let down and pizzed as I was coming out of that one at the theater. A total hack job aimed at pre-teens. Had absolutely nothing to do with the original story.
Jay Maggio		#30	[-]
Oct 25 12 4:07 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I find this movie w/ Kidder, and Brolin, very well done, but everybody there own, I didnt care for the remake aytall....the orign. had some spooky parts in it for me, the face appearing in the fire in the basement, Brolin going back for the dog.. oh yea.. high on the creep factor..
auwins57.auburnfootballf...		#31	[-]
Oct 31 12 11:11 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Servant of Legendre wrote: I know some people who didn't like THE SHINING...but I 'corrected' them... LOL!! Nice comeback.
ejazzyjeff		#32	[-]
Oct 31 12 2:25 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I enjoyed the movie when it first came out, but there are issues with what happened, especially with Father Pecoraro, supposedly his story has changed various times. He claimed he only dealt with the Lutz's over the phone, then he claimed that he did hear the "Get Out" while at the house and some other stories.
flashback		#33	[-]
Oct 31 12 3:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	accurate to what happened in reality in the house or not THE AMITYVILLE HORROR(1979) is a good horror movie.the remake was not too good unfortunatly.
Servant of Legendre		#34	[-]
Nov 1 12 7:59 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yeah, I kinda have a soft spot for TAH because I'm pretty sure it was the first haunted house movie I saw when I was a kid, long before I saw THE HAUNTING or POLTERGEIST or anything like that.
Mora		#35	[-]
Nov 1 12 8:52 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I, too, was excited when I heard about a film adaptation of the book. But a red light went up once I saw the poster with the bold tagline: FOR GOD'S SAKE, GET OUT! I thought "Cheese", and boy was I right., Interesting, though, how Stephen King feels somewhat fondly towards it. Just watched an interview with him andhe regards it as a pretty good film. Hate to say it, but I actually enjoyed the pseudo-sequel "Amityville 2" much better. No accounting for taste, I reckon. Last Edited By: Mora Nov 1 12 8:55 AM. Edited 1 times.
Spoiler II		#36	[-]
Nov 1 12 9:39 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Mora wrote: I, too, was excited when I heard about a film adaptation of the book. But a red light went up once I saw the poster with the bold tagline: FOR GOD'S SAKE, GET OUT! I thought "Cheese", and boy was I right., Interesting, though, how Stephen King feels somewhat fondly towards it. Just watched an interview with him andhe regards it as a pretty good film. Hate to say it, but I actually enjoyed the pseudo-sequel "Amityville 2" much better. No accounting for taste, I reckon. No shame in that game. PART II is some highly entertaining junk food cinema. Even tho it was made only a few years after the first,it really looks and feels like its from a different solar system.
Koukol 5		#37	[-]
Nov 1 12 12:35 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Haven't the people involved admitted that the story isn't true?
Mora		#38	[-]
Nov 1 12 12:46 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Interesting Koukol. The veracity of the story seems to jump back and forth. Just yesterday I was watching a documentary on The History Channel and they showed a really eerie photograph taken inside the house after the Lutz family vacated the premises that clearly was of a young child peering out from inside a room -- an image that apparently was not there when the picture was taken. The narrator of the show stated that this photo could be positive proof that spirits - demonic or otherwise - did indeed inhabit the house. On the other hand, I remember reading something about Jay Anson admitting that he and George and Kathy Lutz pretty much concocted the story over several bottles of wine.
Jay Maggio		#39	[-]
Nov 5 12 10:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Mora wrote: Interesting Koukol. The veracity of the story seems to jump back and forth. Just yesterday I was watching a documentary on The History Channel and they showed a really eerie photograph taken inside the house after the Lutz family vacated the premises that clearly was of a young child peering out from inside a room -- an image that apparently was not there when the picture was taken. The narrator of the show stated that this photo could be positive proof that spirits - demonic or otherwise - did indeed inhabit the house. On the other hand, I remember reading something about Jay Anson admitting that he and George and Kathy Lutz pretty much concocted the story over several bottles of wine. I saw that docu,but I thought it was a lawyer who was in on the shenanigans, Jay Anson claims he had some creepy experiences w/ the manuscript when he was taking it over to have someone type it, there was a fire in her house; I dont remember if it was part of the same docu. but George & Kathy luzt, now both deceased, claim the story WAS true, in another docu. on Chiller Sta. George stepson, claims he was into occult practices, which is supposed to be an invite for the kind of stuff that went on in the house, guess we will never know the 'real deak'?
Uncle Bingo		#40	[-]
May 31 13 7:12 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Saw the comments on the book...and I have to say I totally agree. I think Jay Anson did a great job on it. It's not literature, but damn, the thing works. The story of the Dafeo family....that is the real tragedy. Something about the murders happening at 3:15....

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AMITYVILLE HORROR 1979