The Amityville Horror (1979)

Directed by Stuart Rosenburg.  Written by Jay Anson (book) and Sandor Stern (screenplay).  Based on the story of George (played by James Brolin) and Kathy Lutz (played by Margot Kidder).

Plot: a family moves into a house where heinous murders were committed and begin to experience strange happenings

Amityville-Horror-The-1979-DI

This is a classic!  You have to watch this at some point in life, so why not Halloween?!  We don’t love this one, but we really like it.  And that’s enough.  Really, our only complaint is that it’s just not scary.  The remake was scarier, but it was also not quite as good, so we’re recommending this one first.

This particular clash between a family and a haunted house is the blueprint for all other haunted house movies.  Only in this one, characters endure and they do so beautifully, even going back for the family dog at the end.  Because YES, in this 1979 classic, they have a dog and the dog accompanies them, but the dog makes it to live another day.  For some reason the makers of the 2005 version decided to kill the dog.  Why?  Cause it’s the popular cliche ass thing to do and they wanted me to give it less points.  Wait.  What?  I digress.

James Brolin is at the same time strikingly sympathetic and horrendously scary.  The acting is great.  The soundtrack is super.  And as I already said, the ending is fabulous.

We both gave it a 70/100.

“I’m coming apart!  Oh, mother of God, I’m coming apart!”

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