The Horror Returns - THR: Amityville Watch - Ep. #1: The Amityville Horror (1979)

Episode Date: August 3, 2022

We are here! Episode #1 - because you asked for it! Brian begins his journey through all of the Amityville Horror films (and we mean ALL), beginning with the 1979 original. Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR Twitter: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= SK8ER Nez Podcast Network https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 ESP Anchor Feed: https://anchor.fm/mac-nez E Society YouTube Channel https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A Music By: Tommy Mutiu  

What's up, everybody? This is your host, Brian. I'm finally here. Finally doing it. The Amityville Watch. I'm going to keep these short and sweet. As most of my solo recordings go, this is really hard to do this by yourself.

I don't have my boys with me, my brothers, man. And it's really fucking hard. Everybody that does a podcast by themselves, man, salute to you. but yeah we're here episode one of my Amityville Watch series

Amityville Watch series I'm going to cover all of them so let's get right into it I had to go back to the beginning the OG the Amityville horror 1979

July 27th you know the story but if you don't here's a synopsis newlyweds and their three children move into a large house where a mass murder was committed. They start to experience strange inexplicable manifestations which have strong effects on everyone living in or visiting the house. The star is of course James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steger, Dan Stroud and others. This is directed by Stuart Rosenberg.

screenplay was written by Sandor Stern this is based off of the book of the same name by Jay Anson and uncredited writers were also George Lutz and Kathy Lutz Now if you've heard our review of the Amityville Horror years ago when the show first started

you know that a bunch of us I think most of us other than as a shout out to my brother knows was not big fans of this. It's taken me very, very many, many, many, many, many watches to grow a respect for this movie. This is just not one I grew up with. A lot of movies that are my all-time favorite classics, I was introduced to them young and constantly watched them over and over, whether I had the VHS copy,

Or it was just on cable all the time. Now, this was on cable all the time, but it just never caught my eye and was never a big fan of it. Re-watching it, though, I do recognize that Margot Kidder and especially James Brolin, I think we're on point, especially James Brolin, as far as acting, was on point. just his transformation in appearance and his, I guess his mood, just his overall demeanor was spot on to somebody that's just going through it mentally and physically in this possessed house. I just loved his performance and Margo Kidder. not a big fan of a lot of stuff she does um i do like her in the original superman

the first one i do like her in uh the original black the original black christmas not not the remake of the remake uh fuck that movie um but yeah just uh overall just watching this movie it is a fucking creepy movie the stuff that goes on in this house just uh you start out with the um the original murders happening in the house um and then you get the

uh police immediately there was way too many way too many uh police officers and paramedics and forensic guys on the scene is just like over 50 people walking around contaminating evidence it was it was crazy i never really noticed it and i've never really noticed principal strickland showing up as one of the lead detectives. But then you get introduced to the Lutz. And I pose this question on Facebook. Would you take this house if the price was right? Would you live in it?

And so far, it looks like pretty much everybody would live in this house. But another person that really sold it for this, how creepy of this house was, was the real estate lady. She was completely, trying to sell this house, trying to get out, get it done, get it over with, move on. And then I think a month later passes, and then that's when all the creepy shit starts to happen in the house. Got to listen to the dog. Dog senses things.

They don't listen to them. The priest shows up, which is kind of weird. There's something I noticed when the priest shows up. walks into their house and as far as I know watching this movie they were new to the area and the scene where

he is about to hang up across he's asking her what do you want to do with this and he really comes off as somebody not religious so it was just kind of weird that the priest shows up and walks into their house and goes into the bedrooms looking for everybody I thought it was just super

weird um but that house did not want any religious figures in there whether it be the priest or the nun that was Margo Kidder's sister did not want them there great creepy scene with the with the flies all over the priest and the door opening with the voice saying get out the creepy scene overall what am I trying to say here great starts is something that obviously created a franchise.

Did it keep my attention through most of it on this rewatch? Yes, it definitely did. I was noticing a lot of little things that were just catching my eye. I think that was always the problem. I don't think I ever really gave this movie enough attention, but this time I really sat there and just watched it from beginning to end this movie runs almost two hours

and I got to say on this rewatch I was fully entertained I don't know what it was I just was maybe it's just I've seen so many bad Amityville movies I'm just finally able to appreciate this one and possibly the next few I don't know where it takes a dip but I mean we'll see

let's get into a little bit of trivia because of the movie was made with a modest budget a relatively modest budget James Brolin took less money up front but with the promise of 10% of the gross sales after its release after the movie became an unexpected

blockbuster at the time it was the top 10 of all time he eventually received about 17 million. If adjusted to inflation, that would be the equivalent of little over $55 million as of 2014. Now that's a come-up. There was a scene in the movie where he discovered the red room hidden downstairs in the cellar, and when he opened it up and looked in, he saw his reflection.

That was actually his brother. wearing a beard they needed they wanted somebody to that looked kind of like him and then they found out he had a brother that looked like him and they just slapped a beard on him and called it

today uh James Brolin and also Margot Kidder have gone on record saying they don't believe the Amityville story um which is uh kind of crazy because

uh James Brolin became friendly with George Lutz and his children, but he still is highly doubtful of the story, even being true. Because of a lot of people coming to check it out because of the book and the movie, the people that own the house have changed the windows, the evil eyes on the window on the front of the house. They are no longer there. They're just regular rectangle square windows or what have you. Um, the city of Amityville, New York did not want them filming there at all. So a majority of the filming was done in Tom's River, New Jersey, um, except for a few outside shots, I believe. So, yeah, they did not want that bad publicity. They didn't want tours coming around, you know, trying to look for the house and all like that. So not only was the windows changed. but yeah, they just was like, uh, you're not filming here. Let's see.

The Lutz family went on to live a relatively normal life free of paranormal activity after escaping the house. But their peace was short-lived. George and Kathy Lutz divorced in the 1980s. George died of heart disease on May 8, 2006 in Clark County, Nevada, as Kathy died of Ampazine. on the 17th of August in 2004 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The three children, Daniel, Christopher, and Missy are adults in remaining out of the public eye, and their names were changed in the film.

Well, that's good. It can't be hassled. Harrison Ford was in consideration to play George Lutz after an unexpected success of Star Wars episode. for a new hope which is just Star Wars to me I'm assuming that that's why he turned that down Bert Reynolds James Kahn and Christopher Reeve were also considered for the role all great actors but James Brolin killed this role just like I said to the mannerisms that changed the looked, he just looked sick near the end. The house was just draining him of life. Um, the, the terrible dreams he was having, uh, not so, Margot Kidder didn't do bad, but the, the old

person makeup that was on her was not, not really working with me. So it, it was all on James Brolin that carried it. I know, I know I'm just all on James Brolin, but he, he made this movie for me the house in James Brolin. That is why I recommend the Amityville Horror in 1979. You've got to see the performance

of James Brolin. It's a classic story, classic movie, and I'm going to rank these on letterbox. If you don't follow me on letterbox, go ahead. Just look up my name.

I'm on there. I'm going to rank these and every episode I'm going to update my ranking and since this is the first episode this has to go to the number one spot so yeah I'm rambling longer than I wanted to probably made no sense but like I said I appreciate everybody that supports me and our show I'm going to continue to do these I'm trying to like I've said many times I probably should stop saying it but I'm trying to get better, trying to get more comfortable doing this. And this is only episode one of the Amityville Watch. So until next time, everybody, please be good to each other.