The Amityville Horror by Anson

If you have never heard the story, or one of the two most famous ones, for 112 Ocean Avenue, I would say you more than likely have lived under a rock. This case was still super popular when I was a young girl. If you somehow skipped an essential part of this novel and the background, the story is the eldest DeFeo son, Ronald Jr., murdered his family in their sleep one night. During his trial and prosecution, he repeatedly claimed that voices told him to do it. He believed angels and god were talking to him, or the devil possessed him (depends what account you read/also later recanted). These claims were after his first outcry when he claimed to a local that his family was murdered in their sleep, assumingly by a mob. Soon after that, the Lutz, who we follow in Anson's novel, moved into 112 Ocean Ave. I have read some people describe this work as a true crime novel? I'm not sure where they draw that. We do not encounter Defeo's life up to the murders here. 

Anyway, does this novel work as a ghost story? Absolutely. There are intense moments of terror and fear: levitating over the bed, windows being forced open, huge doors being ripped apart or off their hinges, creepy pig eyes, imaginary friends, the house is always cold, eerie feelings and moments of invisible contact, talks of animal and human sacrifice on the land, I could go on. This book hits just about every ghost story trope you can think to nail. My problem with it is a fact it revolves around "based off true events," as told by George Lutz. If you have read anything about him, you would understand my lack of faith in the novel's entire accounts being factual. George was known to be in some money troubles. In fact, when is then brother-in-law's money went missing, it would not surprise me if he took it. Do I believe there was some haunting experience they lived through? It's possible. Did it happen in the way this book claims? I doubt it. 

Not only was Lutz in some trouble with money, but he was known to be into the occult. Years later, his step-son, Chris, came forward to dispute many details of this book. Chris was, in return, sued by his former stepfather. He claimed his father was into summoning spirits of all sorts when they moved. Chris believes his stepfather either summoned or intensified whatever existed in the Amityville home, and I cannot say I disagree (if something did exist). He also claimed that one of the most notorious scenes in horror fiction/film, the green oozing from that walls, was a false and fabricated creation of his then stepfather (Kathy and George divorced in 1988). If it were "true," I don't doubt for a second George Lutz thought it out to intensify the spooky if he could get a penny out of it. 

Let us not also forget that Melissa has never commented on the experiences of the house to this day (that I am aware of, please correct me if you have seen or read anything about her talking about her experience as a young girl). 

Daniel has declined plenty of interviews and polygraph tests but does have a documentary out of his version done through IFC. However, there isn't much touched on his actual experience. It's clear he is disturbed, hated George Lutz, and did not like being known as a person of the haunting that the book and films set for him. The documentary is much more of how the publicity affected him and still does as an adult. There are no in-depth answers to questions you may have about the house's phenomena from this documentary.

Finally, to that point, Ed and Lorraine Warren, known to prey on the gullible, also were the ONLY investigators of the house to claim something evil and bad-natured existed in it. I have a lot to say because I took hours out of my life over the last few years of my high school journey to really look into the Amityville House of Horror. Plenty of investigators were sent to the house. Some detected nothing, others felt slight presences. Only the Warrens claimed something malevolent and dangerous existed.

Various articles also claim both George and Kathy passed all polygraph exams given to them about the encounter. If you know much about crime, you can control your bodily reaction to fake positive results to pass these tests, especially in the pre-tech era. 

Now that my rant on the Lutz is over let me touch on the book as a haunting. As I said before, there are great paranormal tropes mashed together here: swarms of flies, marching band/music in the middle of the night, an agitated dog, and even a medium and priest that refuse to reenter the home. 

I want to touch on the idea of possession. Demons are generally the supernatural that is known to possess the living. We notice a lot that the book points out the kids sleep on their stomachs, similar to how the DeFeo children were shot in their sleep, and overall a lot of DEEP sleeping happens in this novel. Am I claiming the book is saying the spirits of those murdered possessed the new house inhabitants? No. I am saying it feels a bit overdone. That is why I spent so much time sharing what I know of the Lutz and Amityville first. This novel seems so dazzling to the point it is trying to break and use every trope in paranormal fiction. It was fascinating and easy to read, but it was exhausting to get through, one thing after another. It just seemed like too much to all be real. Too many staples of hauntings mixed to act as if ONE force held power to do it all.