My Amityville Horror (2012)

Sex :
Violence :
Director Eric Walter
Writers Eric Walter
Starring Daniel Lutz, Susan Bartell, Laura DiDio, Marvin Scott, Lorraine Warren
Genre Documentary
Tagline I just wanted somebody to believe me.
Country

Review

"It started out as an incredible foul dumpster juice stench" - Danny Lutz

On the night of November 13th 1974 Ronald Defoe Jnr killed the six members of his family while they slept in their house at 112 Ocean Avenue Amityville, Long Island. Mystery has surrounded the murders ever since. Why were all the victims found on their stomachs by Police called to the scene, and how come no one heard the gun shots? There are perfectly logical explanations but naturally the gullible are not prepared to conceive of those explanations, apparently more easy to believe in other worldly explanations!

In 1975 the Lutz family purchased 112 Ocean Avenue for the disclosed discount amount of $80k, murder houses come cheap y'all. George, his wife Kathy, and Kathy's three children by a former marriage duly moved into the Dutch Colonel property ironically called "High Hopes". A mere 28 days later the Lutz clan fled the house in abject horror claiming all manner of demonic activities. The rest is history, a huge industry has grown around those 28 days as this story just won't go away no matter how many times problems are found with the Lutz accounts of their ordeals. Some 37 years after the events in 1975 film maker Eric Walter has got the older Lutz child, Danny, to talk about his experiences.

The word "Amityville" has become synonymus with horror for all the wrong reasons. Residents of the quaint Township are heartily sick of people visiting the area to gawp at that house, and have gone out of their way to point out the errors and mistruths in Jay Anson's account of the Lutz's tenancy which the author claims to be a true account. Proponents of the story can say what they like but five different families have lived in 112 Ocean Avenue since the Lutzs vacated and not one report of anything supernatural has been made. The local Diocese has on numerous occasions stated no Priest visited the house while the Lutz family were in residence. And investigations immediately after the 28 days have not turned up the damages George Lutz claimed the house suffered under demonic onslaught. In fact not a single shred of evidence exists to support the claim of supernatural shenanigans in the house. Though we have had almost four decades of the Amityville Horror House being systematically debunked the gullible keep claiming it's all real because, well, the book said it was real and all those people said things went down of a demonic nature. Which brings us to Danny Lutz and his account of the Amityville house, for sure something very disturbing went down at 112 Ocean Avenue but even Danny doesn't realise exactly what it was.

Eric Walter allows the viewer to get to know Danny Lutz, and the dude comes off as damaged goods, shell shocked to the extreme, still trying to come to terms with what life has thrown at him. Walter allows Danny to tell the story in his own words with a bit of direction from former investigator reporter Laura DiDio, more on her manipulations later, and with the occasional cut to other people involved in the original investigations. It should be noted that neither of the other Lutz children wanted to be interviewed for the documentary and a number of other people who were closely involved declined to talk to Eric Walter. If you are going to make a documentary therefore that pretty much needs to be carried by one person talking to camera then you need that person to be interesting, surprisingly Danny Lutz comes across as an intensely damaged person who has his own story, but where Walter really nails it is by slowly bringing out the real horror that went down in Amityville as the movie unfolds.

Absolutely chilling on first viewing without Hollywood's over exposure of the central premise

Danny has a lot to say about his father, and very little of it is complimentary. According to Danny, George Lutz was a control freak who regularly belted his kids and wife while playing mind games on them. Apparently George would have the kids marching around the house like soldiers to the beat of whatever whimsy he had, and wouldn't tolerate any disobedience. Danny openly admits he tried to kill George on a number of occasions, though that of course is subject to conjecture as it sounds more like the memory of an angry pre-teen who had no power over his step father. More telling for Amityville apologists Danny claims George had quite the occult library at his house prior to marrying Kathy and would regularly discuss various supernatural subjects with his wife to be; this is in the face of George and Kathy claiming no knowledge of the occult prior to moving into 112 Ocean Avenue.

More disturbing still Danny claims that George and Kathy abandoned him at a "Catholic Church Monastery School" while they went off on a year long speaking tour. This in the face of Lutz insistence that they didn't seek out publicity in regards to their story. Apparently during Danny's stay at the School he was subjected to exorcisms and regularly beatings. The Catholic Church were apparently not contacted to offer their side of of the story in regards this claim, which is an indictment of Eric Walter's credibility if this proves to be the case.

It becomes evident throughout the documentary that Danny believes in the events his father and mother claimed went down and that includes some of the fiction Jay Anson wrote to sensationalise the book. I was rather intrigued by Danny's claim that he saw at 112 Ocean Avenue a cartoon pig that was apparently angry with fangs and red eyes. Furthermore Danny claims that George could control people with his mind, had telekinesis ability, and could thought project. And he could do this before the family moved to Amityville! Anyone getting the impression that Danny as an impressionable tween has been brain washed by George's claims and the out and out lies concocted by people with something to gain from the hoax being perpetrated on the public? Danny is a seriously disturbed individual and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him right up to the time the documentary showed him visited Lorraine Warren for the first time in thirty years.

For anyone not up on Amityville, Ed and Lorraine Warren were self styled "demonologists" who rushed to Amityville to confirm a demonic presence in the house while under the gaze of various Reporters. It should be noted that a number of reporters spent a night in the house during the Warren investigation and none of them report anything happening, not a whiff of demonic bacon. Though apparently one reporter did suffer heart palpitations this can be explained easily as stress induced due to the reputation the house was already achieving.

If the documentary does nothing else it does point out that Lorraine Warren has a whole mob of Roos bounding away in the top paddock! This woman, Ed has died may he rest in peace, keeps a couple of roosters caged up in her kitchen in what can only be described as a scene ripped bloody and raw from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Further Lorraine fervently believes she has a sliver from the cross Jesus Christ was reportedly crucified on in her possession. I've changed my mind about this women, she isn't simply shilling the rubes she's, also delusional.

How this relates to my change of mind on Danny is due to how he changes during the interview sequence with Lorraine. When first entering her house Danny pretty much tells us she is crazy, paraphrasing here, but by the end of talking to Lorraine he is suddenly a fundamental Christian believing everything this woman, who is as mad as a cut snake, is claiming. This either indicates that Danny is trying to manipulate the situation in some why or, as I suspect, is himself easily manipulated.

Regardless of how you view it, and yes film maker Eric Walter does subtly inject his own believes into the documentary, My Amityville Horror is a compelling watch for both believers and sceptics in the Amityville debate. I particularly like how interviewer Laura DiDio, who herself has a vested interest in the Amityville hoax continuing, simply fires off leading questions throughout the documentary, there was no attempt at journalist integrity from the woman. Walter expioses this as he seems to say, see what I mean, who can believe these people!

The final indictment of the Amityville hoax comes when Eric Walter asks Danny if he will submit to a polygraph test, i.e a lie detector. Danny evades the question but is not about to take the test, seems our Danny has learnt something about manipulation from those claiming the events in Amityville did happen. Just what does Danny stand to gain from this hoary old chestnut being resurrected yet again? Once again any chance of proving the stories concocted about Amityville evaporates, just like the flies that Danny killed that subsequently vanished, or the damage to his hand that miraculous healed itself. Polygraph evidence may have been disproven, the test can be manipulated, but Danny's evasion when asked to take one is pretty damning in itself.

There's been a recent surge in Amityville activity after we were all hoping it would die a nature death, The Amityville Haunting (2011) and The Amityville Asylum (2013), this documentary is only going to add fuel to the fire. Eric Walter has bravely gone where few people would want to go, to a member of the Lutz family; the result is a compelling documentary that presents one of the best personal case studies I've ever seen. Unfortunately the legions of believers will use this to somehow claim more evidence for a hoax that is getting sillier by the day, apparently George caused the demonic ructions ergo why no one else has experienced them, completely missing the core of the documentary, a study of a man who had been so manipulated as a child that he now believes whatever outlandish claim being make about his experience, and who has become a manipulator every but as skilled as his father and the Warrens. It's a sad indictment of the exploitation of a child, recommended viewing this documentary is playing for keeps.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  Very solid documentary that delivers a lot more than it promises.