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The Amityville Horror has turned from a real suburban American tragedy into a horrific myth. It has become the source of bestselling novels and the subject of several movies.
These are some of the facts as they are known.
On November 13, 1974, in the house at 112 Ocean Ave., Amityville, 24-year-old Ronald DeFeo murdered his family. DeFeo used a high-powered rifle, shot to death his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters. All six members of Ronald DeFeo’s family were killed as they slept and all, said police, were found lying in the same position, on their stomachs with their heads resting on their arms.
At his murder trial, Ronald DeFeo testified that he had killed his family because he had heard voices. "Whenever I looked around, there was no one there, so it must have been God talking to me," he said.
On December 18, 1975, more than a year after the terrible murders, a family of five moved in. They were George and Kathy Lutz and their children Daniel, 9, Christopher, 7 and Missy 5. Twenty eight days later the family fled the house, claiming it was haunted.
According to the Lutzes and their priest, the following events took place during the 28 days the Lutzes lived at 112 Ocean Avenue:
"While the priest was blessing the house as the family move in, a strange masculine voice clearly said to him "Get out!" As he drove back to the rectory, the hood of the priest’s car flew open, smashing against his windshield. One of the welded hinges tore loose. The right door flew open. The car stalled. The priest summoned a friend for help and later the friend called the priest and said, "Do you know what happened to me after I dropped you off? The windshield wipers, they began to fly back and forth like crazy! I couldn’t stop! I never turn them on! What the hell is going on?"
•In the house windows flew up and down and doors were repeatedly ripped off their hinges in the house even though they were securely locked.
•Mrs. Lutz levitated a foot above her bed on several occasions and floated toward an open window. On one of the occasions, when her husband pulled her back, her 30-year-old face had been transformed into the face of a 90-year-old woman - "the hair wild, a shocking white, the face a mass of wrinkles and ugly lines and saliva dripping from the toothless mouth.
Growing up in a small town you would never expect for a family to get murdered. Many people have the perception that in a small-town things, never happen. Well I’m sure that’s what Herbert and Bonnie Clutter thought to until the night of their death. Herbert and Bonnie Clutter lived in Holcomb, Kansas with their two kids Nancy and Kenyon on their family farm. The Clutter family was very respected within the community and in Garden City. Herbert was also a very respected employer. The Clutter family lived a very disciplined but still enjoyable and well provided for.
Once the Germans occupied, they moved the Jewish population of Buczacz into mass ghettos. Alicia and the rest of her family had to share a house with several other families which had also been driven out of their homes. The only source of income in this situation was to sell things at the marketplace, and even there, Jews were forbidden. Alicia went anyway and sold what she could for food and money. One day
The book Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?, written by independent journalist and private investigator Ethan Brown, tells the horrific true story of the bayou town of Jennings, Louisiana located in the heart of the Jefferson Davis parish. During the four year duration between 2005 and 2009, the town of Jennings was on edge after the discovery of the bodies of eight murdered women were found in the filthy canals and swamps. The victims became known as the “Jeff Davis 8.” For years, local law enforcement suspected a serial killer, and solely investigated the murders based on that theory alone. The victims were murdered in varying manors, but when alive they all shared many commonalities and were connected to
On October 23rd, 1998 Janet R. Maslin, an American journalist, best known for being a movie a book critic for The New York Times, wrote a review on the film Pleasantville. This film offers juxtaposition between two worlds: the life the characters desire and the life they actually have. David was an unhappy teen living with a promiscuous sister and a divorced mother in a very modern, almost unorganized household. Thus he viewed his life as one lacking structure and stability. David used the sitcom Pleasantville as a way to escape his reality and enter into a word of stability. Pleasantville depicted a life of perfection for him with an idealized image of a pleasurable life. In fact, almost immediately we see the juxtaposition of the current life versus the desired life when the film begins.
“Do you like scary movies?” purred a sinister voice over the telephone, and immediately Scream had marked itself out as something new in a tired genre. When it was released in 1996, the classic slasher franchises had all pretty much ran out of steam. Scream was different, it was a breath of fresh air: smart and self-referential, it reminded horror fans what they loved about the genre in the first place, and scared them silly at the same time.
The Amityville Horror, written by Jay Anson was without doubt a great piece of American literature. It has inspired many to write bestselling books, and others to create many excellent movies. Perhaps the most surprising thing about The Amityville Horror is its staying power. There are many possible explanations as to why The Amityville Horror was so popular during the 1970’s and it is no surprise that it is still in print today. The most shocking part of this books history is that it was based on a true story. The story behind the story began on November 13, 1974, when six members of an Amityville, New York, family were killed. This was one of America’s most shocking events during 1974. This is one possible explanation of the popularity of this book. America was changing drastically from 1960-1970 and people were beginning to open their minds to new ideas. One cause of people opening their minds to new things could possibly be explained because of the increased rate of drug usage during this time period. Ther can be many explanations as to why The Amityville Horror was so popular, but the two main causes of the high popularity of this film can only be explained because of what was currently going on in America. The two events in history that may have had the largest impact on this book are the creation of the movie, The Exorcist, and the Vietnam War.
Parker, Sam. Horror Through The Decades. Bauer Consumer Media, 2009. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. .
Usually, their home is silent, but when one day the narrator suddenly hears something inside another part of the house, the siblings escape to a smaller section, locked behind a solid oak door. In the intervening days, they become frightened and solemn; on the one hand noting that there is less housecleaning, but regretting that the interlopers have prevented them from retrieving many of their personal belongings. All the while, they can occasionally hear noises from the other
Are you a fan or horror? Or are you the one that hides under a blanket during a movie? Intense scenes, a little blood and gore mixed with creepy characters and monsters, is what makes a good horror movie, television show or even a book. Many of us wonder why we are attracted so much to these horror elements like foreshadowing, suspense, mystery and imagination within a book, movie and or tv show. There are actual characteristics of this horror related theme that gets our attention, and makes us want to crave more of the story. But the fear, obsession and power is what sets the tone for the monster realm, in both fictional and nonfictional people and characters.
British Horror seems to feature very similar narrative themes and characters. The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005) and Dracula (Terrence Fisher, 1958) are films that present very typical narratives, characters and conventions of British Horror films.
Horror movies have captivated audiences for over a century. People everywhere flock to theaters to view chilling horror movies like Saw, Insidious, or the Conjuring. There is just something about horror that humans can’t get enough of. So why do we pay to scare ourselves sick? Why do we pay good money to watch others murdered and tortured to death? What do we possibly get from it all? In a culture were peace and non-violence is constantly promoted, there is still a part of the human that desires the opposite. So why is it that people watch horror movies in the first place? Experts believe there are different theories on why, but the three biggest are: the thrill, the Gender Socialization theory, and simply just because people actually want a scare.
Amistad is about a mutiny in 1839 aboard a slave ship, La Amistad, which eventually comes to port in New England. The West Africans who have commandeered the ship are taken into custody and the plot revolves around who "owns" them or if, indeed, they should be freed. This sets up the main event of the film, a courtroom drama about rights and origins, with the required flashbacks to the voyage and the gruesome conditions aboard the ship. The problem with this approach is that we learn less about the real conditions of slavery and instead focus on the more sanitized conditions surrounding the courtroom. In addition, we get a film which is largely about the efforts of the whites battling the case and much less about the struggles of the Africans themselves.
a dull grey colour as if it had lost the will to live and stopped
Horror movies generally are all the same. They all have been based off of something that has already happened or a previous movie. Society has paid to be entertained by these gruesome stories that we all truly fear. Before movies, people would purchase books of similar tramatic events to read in their spare time for amusement. Writters such as Bram Stoker created graphic novels that grabbed peoples attention for years to come. But the horror movie, The House Of The Devil(1896), was noted as being the first ever horror movie. And as the years pasted, the industry grew and became stronger. The artist and creative portion of the movies became more gruesume and realistic. Now many of the horror films that have been creatured are said to be based off an events that were real. The fact of knowing that the events could be real attract millions of people, and keep the industy growing. Numerous people spend countless hours perfecting the art of terror for our amusement. Truly, they are looking at previous story lines and methods that had become successfull before.
The Conjuring is a “real” Hollywood horror film based on possession of the human kind by demonic figures. There's a dog that ends up doing the usual thing dogs do in horror films (they act scared and bark constantly or end up dying unknowingly). There's a doll that end up doing what dolls usually do in horror films (taunt the human body). There's some doors banging, some ghost hunters with motion detectors and UV lights, eerie TV static, and some creepy ghosts who appear out of the blue when you expect to least expect them, and to top it off they add creepy music and the spooky makeup that all ghosts wear so you can identify them or recognize them.