Vitals

James Brolin as George Lutz, surveyor and stepdad

Long Island, New York, Fall 1975

Film: The Amityville Horror
Release Date: July 27, 1979
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Men’s Costumes: Richard Butz

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Fifty years ago next month, George Lutz and his family moved into 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville on the south shore of Long Island. Amity, as you know, means friendship (as the mayor in Jaws has made clear), but there’s nothing friendly about the paranormal activity that drove the Lutz family from that Dutch Colonial Revival house after only 28 days.

Though the veracity of the events have been called into question (and, I believe, generally debunked), they remain in the forefront of public consciousness thanks to Jay Anson’s 1977 book The Amityville Horror and its subsequent film adaptations—the best-known and best-regarded of which being the 1979 horror thriller of the same name starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as George and Kathy Lutz. Continue reading →