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Amityville Horror: Where Do You Stand?

Did Something Supernatural Happen in Amityville?

  • No, it's a Hoax all the way and the Lutz family lied through their teeth

    Votes: 43 46.2%

  • No, but the Lutz family convinced themselves & the Warrens it was real over the years

    Votes: 28 30.1%

  • Yes, but it wasn't at all to the level of the book, just a minor haunting

    Votes: 20 21.5%

  • Yes, and it was exactly what was in the book

    Votes: 2 2.2%

  • Yes, but only the psychic impressions of the case were real - no material haunting

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    93
sherbetbizarre said:
The O'Neil family (87'-'97) had them changed, and a documentary crew heard they kept them (not that they said anything publicly to confirm this.) Sad follow up - the son who lived in the house went on to work at the WTC and died on 9/11.
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Christ ... and I thought I was unlucky.
 
Watching this, I, perhaps mistakenly (?), thought that Ronald DeFeo's rifle was found hidden elsewhere nearby and not in the family swimming pool and that it was the DeFeo family who'd originally had the 'High Hopes' sign made and not George and Kathy Lutz .. other than that, this is a fairly decent entry level short documentary into the Amityville horror legend from the Paranormal Scholar channel .. (awaits sherbert's critique)

 
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Swifty said:
Watching this, I, perhaps mistakenly (?), thought that Ronald DeFeo's rifle was found hidden elsewhere nearby and not in the family swimming pool and that it was the DeFeo family who'd originally had the 'High Hopes' sign made and not George and Kathy Lutz .. other than that, this is a fairly decent entry level short documentary into the Amityville horror legend from the Paranormal Scholar channel .. (awaits sherbert's critique)
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Lol, you are correct on both counts. Although there's a pic of a police diver in the pool, Ronald threw the rifle in the creek down the street.

df695a383a3528fafbce202f77d6ea74--horror-house-real-life.jpg


The High Hopes sign was the DeFeo's sign - removed by the time the Lutzes had moved in.

And the Lutzes didn't leave in the middle of the night "in their night clothes".
 
I read the book as a kid but haven't thought much about the case since. So my immediate thought is, why would you move into a house like that in the first place? It was a big posh house, it wouldn't be that 'ah well we will have to because it's cheap'. I don't really believe in the dead spirits of murder victims sticking about to annoy you, but it wouldn't be very nice sitting down to eat your tea thinking 'bloody hell, a whole family were murdered by their mad son upstairs'. So you have to wonder if Mr Lutz did have some strange interests (as mentioned in the Paranormal Scholar video) and then that makes you think, well maybe he moved in for precisely the reason it was a murder scene. And then anyone that weird is certainly not beyond being crafty enough to drum the whole story up to make some money?

Also if that's Lutz Junior in the video, Ms PS suggests he looks really convincing in his delivery - personally to me it looked like the worst type of TV acting imaginable when he describes the Cartoon Pig Face?? If he was sent to a catholic school afterwards where he got exorcised for a year then I think he's probably a bit screwed up now... how messed up would your memory be when you'd been over and over the experiences (whatever they were) a hundred times and more.

The angle about 'how did Defeo shoot his family without them waking up' is an interesting criminal mystery. Blaming his behaviour on demons didn't wash with the courts and rightly so, he couldn't keep his story straight and even tried to blame his sister! But the whole Demonic Possession thing and its reappearance with the Lutzes is very American, because they're religious in a particularly hellfire and angels sort of way. Meanwhile the Enfield poltergeist case (which Ms PS mentions) is very British and the 'spirit' is supposed to be some miserable old bloke sitting in his armchair. Interesting contrast! We're not so into 'possessions' here (unless you count hilarious Degsy on most haunted :) )
 
Eponastill said:
Blaming his behaviour on demons didn't wash with the courts and rightly so, he couldn't keep his story straight and even tried to blame his sister!
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Interestingly, Demonic Possession wasn't part of the court case, it was retro-fitted by his lawyer.

DeFeo did say some crazy things in court - including hearing voices - but this was put down to him "acting crazy" to avoid a prison sentence, and doing less time in a mental institute.

After hearing the Lutzes story, his lawyer then announced an appeal to the guilty verdict would be based around Demonic Possession, and cited the voices mentioned in court.

However, the book High Hopes: The Amityville Murders quotes an interview between DeFeo and a court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr Zolan, revealing that he felt these voices actually belonged to... God!
DeFeo: “To this day, I honestly believe – you might laugh about it – I honestly believe sometimes that I’m a secret agent for God... So I fell with a gun in my hand, the way I was going lately, I feel that I am an ultimate supreme being. I was God when I had a gun in my hand.”

Zolan: “You thought you are an agent for God in what way?”

“Them voices, they were voices always talking to me.”

“Whose voice would it be?”

“I don’t know. I told you in the beginning I used to turn around and look – who the hell is calling me? – and there would be nobody there. Later on, I realized it was a voice telling me what to do sometimes."

“How do you know it was God who was talking?”

“I believe it’s God because I can’t see who else it could possibly be.”
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catseye said:
Those curtains are the most horrific thing about the place! Really? Swoopy tasselled pelmets with a bare wood floor? Pass me the eye bleach...
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It's the tassels. Nasty.
 
Ms Popper is from New England. It took me a while to decypher comments like, "I stopped at a tag sale on the way to the package store..." which means she stopped at a yard sale on the way to the liquor store. People from the upper Midwest find great deals on used stuff at rummage sales.
 
Ghostly podcast did a session on the “Amityville Horror”, show No. 50. It came out Wednesday. Can’t tell you how good it was as I dropped off within the first few minutes.
 
DeFeo, convicted killer in 'Amityville Horror' case, dies
https://apnews.com/article/new-york...-rod-steiger-519ff4fc8dc4173d567354b95ff6a41d

The man convicted of slaughtering his parents and four siblings in a home that later inspired the “The Amityville Horror” book and movies has died, prison officials said Monday.

Ronald DeFeo, 69, died Friday at Albany Medical Center, where he was taken Feb. 2 from a prison in New York’s Catskill Mountains, the state Department of Corrections and Community Services said. The cause of his death wasn’t immediately known.

DeFeo was serving a sentence of 25 years to life in the 1974 killings in Amityville, on suburban Long Island.
 
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The press coverage on Defeo's death is a bit wonky. I'm not sure it's quite right to say his crimes inspired the book and movie. They may have inspired the Lutz' who were at the core of the story but was Defeo? There is too much left out of quick news stories like this and they open space for so much misinformation and misinterpretation.

What do you think?
 
Sharon Hill said:
The press coverage on Defeo's death is a bit wonky. I'm not sure it's quite right to say his crimes inspired the book and movie. They may have inspired the Lutz' who were at the core of the story but was Defeo? There is too much left out of quick news stories like this and they open space for so much misinformation and misinterpretation.

What do you think?
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The Amityville Horror (movie) was based on the book and insists the demonic presence was down to DeFeo being possessed and now possessing Mr Lutz, but doesn't labour the point (though it does labour everything else). Amityville II (movie), however, is a fanciful recreation of DeFeo's crimes, one of the most bad taste horror movies ever and in that respect an improvement on the first if you're not offended, though you have every right to be.

Not sure DeFeo gets much of a mention in the following sequels, though - they just go on about demons and shit. The remake has even less connection to reality than the original.
 
GNC said:
The Amityville Horror (movie) was based on the book and insists the demonic presence was down to DeFeo being possessed and now possessing Mr Lutz, but doesn't labour the point (though it does labour everything else). Amityville II (movie), however, is a fanciful recreation of DeFeo's crimes, one of the most bad taste horror movies ever and in that respect an improvement on the first if you're not offended, though you have every right to be.

Not sure DeFeo gets much of a mention in the following sequels, though - they just go on about demons and shit. The remake has even less connection to reality than the original.
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A large amount of the "lore" of the Amityville circus includes the DeFeos. They are almost as infamous as the Lutzes these days.
 
GNC said:
The Amityville Horror (movie) was based on the book and insists the demonic presence was down to DeFeo being possessed and now possessing Mr Lutz, but doesn't labour the point (though it does labour everything else). Amityville II (movie), however, is a fanciful recreation of DeFeo's crimes, one of the most bad taste horror movies ever and in that respect an improvement on the first if you're not offended, though you have every right to be.

Not sure DeFeo gets much of a mention in the following sequels, though - they just go on about demons and shit. The remake has even less connection to reality than the original.
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Ah. I read the books (at least 2) but never saw the movies.
 
What the hell is it with US hauntings and 'demons'? It seems that America doesn't have ghosts or poltergeists, it only has 'demons'. Which means that nobody really goes into any detail or background behind any phenomina, they just stick a 'demon' label on it and shrug. Is this a misperception on my part or is it more general, due to religion?
 
catseye said:
What the hell is it with US hauntings and 'demons'? It seems that America doesn't have ghosts or poltergeists, it only has 'demons'. Which means that nobody really goes into any detail or background behind any phenomina, they just stick a 'demon' label on it and shrug. Is this a misperception on my part or is it more general, due to religion?
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Im commented on this before. I think its down to the bible belt and possibly heavily catholic Latin populations. Even in secular circles. Religion always appears to be much more influential in the US.
 
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catseye said:
What the hell is it with US hauntings and 'demons'? It seems that America doesn't have ghosts or poltergeists, it only has 'demons'. Which means that nobody really goes into any detail or background behind any phenomina, they just stick a 'demon' label on it and shrug.
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Brilliant and I totally agree! Was only contemplating this yesterday...everything gets a "demon" label. So dull and unimaginative.

The religion aspect interests me...I'm a practising Christian and I have no interest at all to label everything weird and potentially paranormal a "demon".
 
Coastaljames said:
Brilliant and I totally agree! Was only contemplating this yesterday...everything gets a "demon" label. So dull and unimaginative.

The religion aspect interests me...I'm a practising Christian and I have no interest at all to label everything weird and potentially paranormal a "demon".
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This story seems to be case and point

maximus otter said:
Priest exorcist warns public on the danger of patronizing horror films

An exorcist priest said patronizing horror films or films that deal with magic and witchcraft is “dangerous” as this could lead to possible demonic possession.

In a Facebook post, Father Ronnie E. Ablong of the Diocese of Dumaguete cited the young woman he has been exorcising as an example.

“I have been exorcising a young woman for many weeks now. Thirty-nine demons have already been cast out. Five of these demons come from the movies the demoniac had watched. The names of the demons are either the primary or secondary characters of these movies,” he said.

“First, Valak ,from the movie The Nun (2018). Second, Esme (Cullen), from the movie Twilight (2008). Third, Sylvia Ganush, from the movie Drag Me to Hell (2009). Fourth, Diana Walter, from the movie Lights Out (2016). And fifth, Annabelle, from the movie, Annabelle (2019),” added Ablong.

He also issued this warning:”Please do not mention or pronounce their names because doing so will empower them or you will be harassed.”

Ablong said the case is still ongoing and that he made his post to warn the public.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/03/05/priest-exorcist-warns-public-on-the-danger-of-patronizing-horror-films/

Edited to add: The good father recently also warned us that we were particularly susceptible to demonic possession while Covid was doing its thing.

maximus otter
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catseye said:
What the hell is it with US hauntings and 'demons'?
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I 'see' your point, exactly. And 'raise' you with it's always Native American burial grounds at the bottom of everything, closely followed by the Civil War. The Warrens were particularly favourable to demons and burial grounds, what with them earning cash by being demonologists.
I also add all paranormal investigations in the US require EVP or "voicebox" evidence.
 
Maybe a part of it is that American houses (by and large) have little history behind them. In Britain you can easily be living in a house that's over a hundred years old, and it's relatively common to be living somewhere that's getting on for a couple of centuries old. So perhaps there's a perception that history gives rise to ghosts, and if a house is modern then it can only be 'infested with demons'?

But it does get on my nerves when I watch US paranormal shows, and they are all about 'possession' and evil demons, which seems to let them off doing any kind of in depth research.
 
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