Return to Amityville

[Commander CMG]

The eldest son in the 'Amityville horror family' has revealed how his experiences in the haunted house in the 1970s ruined his life.

Now a 47-year-old Queens UPS driver, Danny Lutz, was just a 10-year-old boy when his family moved into the Long Island property which had previously been home to a brutal murder.

He and his parents reported 'paranormal activities' at the two bedroom property and fled - their experience inspiring a book, a 1979 movie and plenty of column inches disputing their claims.

Read more

[coolguy]

I live 25 minutes from this house.there could have been some paranormal stuff going on

[Thylacina]

Didn't they determine that the whole thing was a hoax?

[Rafterman]

Didn't they determine that the whole thing was a hoax?

Yep. Danny needs a payday.

[Moon Gazer]

I'm guessing he is now short of cash? If something troubled you so and you just wanted to forget about it, why do a documentary on it and go back to the house (even just to stand outside)??

[Keel M.]

I live 25 minutes from this house.there could have been some paranormal stuff going on

Nah, I don't think so. I think they learned after they bought the house that a brutal series of murders took place there and it spooked 'em. If paranormal stuff was going on, why didn't it happen to any of the subsequent residents of the house?

[Wyverna]

I thought this whole thing was proven to be a hoax...?

[Keel M.]

It was.

[Simbi Laveau]

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/amityville-horror-explores-house-hell-former-resident-223555994.html

[No Censorship]

The original crime was evil and terrifying enough. The mass murder of your ostensible loved ones doesn't need any embellishments to make it worse. Who needs demons when you have depraved, disturbed people like this? A no-holds-barred documentary on the crime would be much scarier than a vault full of dishonest Hollywood straight-to-DVD schlock.

[Kowalski]

Check out their website for the movie: http://www.amityvillemovie.com/

If you can, read the Wall Street Journal story on the documentary.

Here is some of it in part:

Now a new documentary, "My Amityville Horror," makes it personal, introducing a man who is still living through that nightmare. The film, which will have its New York premiere Saturday at IFC Center as part of the third annual DOC NYC festival, features the first-person testimony of Daniel Lutz, the eldest of the Lutz siblings, who was 9 when the events occurred. A recluse who had a troubled, combative relationship with his stepfather and claims to have been homeless for a period after leaving his family in his early teens, Mr. Lutz has kept his secrets to himself until now.

"He's been carrying around this weight for nearly 40 years," said Eric Walter, the young filmmaker who devoted three years to making the documentary, amid a decade of obsessive amateur research into the case. "It's not easy to talk about."

Nor is it easy to hear. Whatever happened, Mr. Lutz, now 46, appears to have suffered from it for much longer than the month he spent in the house. He recounts stories of abuse and family dysfunction, combined with claims of continued paranormal disturbances that he has struggled to move beyond. The film revisits the original "haunting" and its many complicated tangents—including its ostensible source, the murder of six family members by one of the home's previous residents, Ronald DeFeo Jr.—through TV footage and newspaper clippings, but its focus remains on Mr. Lutz, both as an adult and as a child.

If I remember correctly, there was abuse and family dysfunction going on in the Defeo home as well. If there was a lot of abuse and family problems going on when the Lutz's moved in, and George was messing around in the occult as Daniel Lutz claims, that may have acted as a type of catalyst. Maybe the house itself isn't haunted, but the family was. I believe I read somewhere that the activity followed them after they moved. Anyway, I would really like to see this. It looks interesting.

[Keel M.]

If I remember correctly, there was abuse and family dysfunction going on in the Defeo home as well. If there was a lot of abuse and family problems going on when the Lutz's moved in, and George was messing around in the occult as Daniel Lutz claims, that may have acted as a type of catalyst. Maybe the house itself isn't haunted, but the family was. I believe I read somewhere that the activity followed them after they moved. Anyway, I would really like to see this. It looks interesting.

Look up City Confidential on YouTube. There's an episode about the DeFeo family.

[Kowalski]

Look up City Confidential on YouTube. There's an episode about the DeFeo family.

Look up City Confidential on YouTube. There's an episode about the DeFeo family.

I'll check that out, Thanks!

[Keel M.]

Think it's called something like Horror in Amityville or something like that. I think if you look up City Confidential and just Amityville you'll find it.

[Kowalski]

Okay. Thanks Lady Kasey!

[scowl]

It was.

In the world of the paranormal nothing ever remains a hoax, at least not completely. An old hoax will be in people's minds for months or years just waiting for someone to revive it and cash in on it. Hardly anyone will remember that week a year ago when it was revealed to have been a hoax.

Anyone believe in fairies? I got some photos!

[No Censorship]

Look up City Confidential on YouTube. There's an episode about the DeFeo family.

I saw that. It disturbed me more than any horror movies based on hoaxes. An evil and insane person murdered his parents and his siblings. He was worse than any ghost.

[DancingCorpse]

I've read through the original events several times without taking much notice of the supposed demonic overtones and that is downright creepy and unsettling in itself, I don't care much for the furore surrounding the later years of the property. There was a family living there who'd reported absolutely nothing if I remember correctly. The one aspect of the original murders that outright disturbs me is how ALL of the famly members didn't awake from the gunshots to the others, they all seemed to die without much struggie, correct me if I've recalled that wrong?

Edited March 16, 2013 by DancingCorpse

[Kowalski]

I've read through the original events several times without taking much notice of the supposed demonic overtones and that is downright creepy and unsettling in itself, I don't care much for the furore surrounding the later years of the property. There was a family living there who'd reported absolutely nothing if I remember correctly. The one aspect of the original murders that outright disturbs me is how ALL of the famly members didn't awake from the gunshots to the others, they all seemed to die without much struggie, correct me if I've recalled that wrong?

Yes, I know!! How does someone go through a house and murder a whole family, with a high powered rifle, and NO ONE WOKE UP.

If you have ever looked at the photos of the house and the neighboring houses, you notice that these houses are EXTREMELY close together. YET, no one heard gunshots! I have a VERY hard time understanding that.

[DancingCorpse]

Yeah I think it's all sketchy whether there were ALL murdered in their beds, I am sure somewhere I remember there being a struggle at some point, I think the mother and daughter but everyone else apparently undisturbed which is really bizarre, it wasn't exactly a mansion and the neighbours obviously were not roused since the guy done the police call. Very odd.

[No Censorship]

Yes, I know!! How does someone go through a house and murder a whole family, with a high powered rifle, and NO ONE WOKE UP.

If you have ever looked at the photos of the house and the neighboring houses, you notice that these houses are EXTREMELY close together. YET, no one heard gunshots! I have a VERY hard time understanding that.

Was there a loud storm that night? I can't recall whether or not there was any rain or wind that might have muffled or silenced the sounds of gunshots that night. Maybe the shots corresponded with claps of thunder. I could be *way* off base with this theory, but the weather *might* help to answer some mysterious questions.