Amityville: An Origin Story

Those of us of a certain age will remember the 1979 movie, The Amityville Horror with Margot Kidder and James Brolin as George and Kathy Lutz.  The movie was based on a book of the same name which in turn is based on real life events.  The movie was a sensation and was the most successful film produced by an independent studio at the time (losing this honor to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1990).  Its tagline on the poster read, “For God’s sake, get out!”.  I saw this film in the theatres and it was atmospheric, tense and horrifying, and I loved it! But the critical response wasn’t quite as warming as the financial success or my own personal views, with mostly harsh reviews mixed in with some favorable ones.  The popularity in the box office, of course spurred the studios to turn this into a franchise and there have been numerous sequels and a 2005 reboot starring Ryan Reynolds.  How much of the movie is true and how much was created for theatrical sensationalism is explored in the new documentary series on MGM+, Amityville: An Origin Story. 

The basic story remains consistent in both the fictionalized versions and the real life accounts.  George and Kathy Lutz and Kathy’s three children from a previous marriage move into a very large house in what was usually a quiet neighborhood in Amityville, NY.  They bought the house fully aware, that a year before Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his entire family with a rifle.. Soon after moving in, the family begins experiencing strange paranormal activity.  The youngest child begins talking with Jody, an unseen pig like creature, unseasonable swarms of flies appear in several rooms, strange smells without a source permeate, extreme temperature shifts and audible disembodied voices to just name a few of things that have been described by the family.  One of DeFeo’s defense arguments was based on self-defense as he believed he heard the voices of his family conspiring to kill him.  It has been conjectured and dramatized that DeFeo, may have been influenced by the evil spirits in the house.  The Lutz family lived in the house for 28 days during December and January of 1975-76 before eventually fleeing their property never to return.

The first episode of the new documentary series largely involves Christopher Quaratino’s George Lutz, the middle child of the Lutz family, and what he experienced in those 28 days.  Other friends of the Lutz family are also interviewed stating what they witnessed, providing character background on the family, and what experiences they observed to corroborate the story.  It goes through both George and Kathy’s histories and what their personalities were like before and during the events of those 28 days and shows scenes from the resulting talk show and news interviews they gave after the fact. In addition, comparative video from the 1979 movie, but not from any of the sequels or remakes, is used as a dramatization of what the family experienced.  There is a lot of talk about George’s involvement with the motorcycle club and the mental taxation in being a Vietnam War Veteran. His practicing of transcendental meditation was mentioned a lot and it is even stated that while meditating he was possibly calling on spirits that he should not have been calling upon.  The notion that the house was built on a native American burial ground is also mentioned as something George and Kathy found while researching the history of their house.  All the information that is given is very interesting if you enjoy hearing about “real life” paranormal activity and the possibility of the supernatural existing.  Only the first episode has been released at the time of this review and it does not really compare the book / movie to the actual events yet, but from the interviews they do begin to a paint a picture of what the family truly experienced versus what was fictionalized for the films.