George Lutz, his wife Kathy, and their three children have just moved into a beautiful, and improbably cheap, Victorian mansion nestled in the sleepy coastal town of Amityville, Long Island. However, their dream home is concealing a horrific past and soon each member of the Lutz family is plagued with increasingly strange and violent visions and impulses.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.2/10
IMDb: 6.2/10
Letterboxd: 2.98/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
Metacritic: 28
TMDB: 6.3/10
Director
Stuart Rosenberg
Production
American International Pictures
Cast
James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, Murray Hamilton, John Larch, Natasha Ryan, K.C. Martel, Meeno Peluce, Michael Sacks, Irene Dailey, Helen Shaver, Amy Wright, Marc Vahanian, Elsa Raven, Eddie Barth, Hank Garrett, James Tolkan, Val Avery, Peter Maloney
Where to watch
fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A foundational haunted-house movie with a strong autumnal mood, a few genuinely eerie images, and clear influence on later family-in-peril horror. It’s also slow, repetitive, and more interesting as a template than as a fully satisfying film.
Best for
viewers curious about horror history and genre blueprints
fans of slow-burn haunted-house atmospherics
people who enjoy 1970s domestic dread and real-estate nightmare stories
watchers who like eerie practical imagery over constant jump scares
Skip if
you want tight pacing or a lean runtime
you need a deeply developed family drama
you prefer modern, high-intensity haunted-house horror
you’re looking for a movie that fully pays off its mysteries
Overview
The Amityville Horror is one of those movies whose reputation can outshine the actual experience, but the experience still has value. It helped define the modern haunted-house template: a family, a beautiful home, and a creeping sense that the walls themselves are turning hostile. The film’s best moments are all atmosphere and suggestion, with a few striking images that linger longer than the plot does.
Worth noting
What holds it back is the pacing. The movie stretches a relatively simple premise across too much runtime, and the family dynamics never become as compelling as they need to be for the dread to really land. When it works, it’s because the house feels like a pressure cooker and the film understands how ordinary domestic spaces can become uncanny.
Bottom line
Seen now, it plays more like an influential prototype than a top-tier horror classic. If you love haunted-house movies, especially the quieter, colder kind, there’s enough here to appreciate. If you want a sharper, scarier, more emotionally involving film, this one may feel like a blueprint in search of a better draft.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems (2★) · 1552 likes
So wait does this evil house only attract inhabitants who look like James Brolin or does it use its evil powers to make every man who moves there look like James Brolin
siobhan (3.5★) · 1030 likes
and i’ve been meaning to tell you i think your house is haunted
your dad is always mad and that must be why
Maddy Flowers Sheehy (3★) · 995 likes
pros: + james brolin truly looking like a snack throughout + the dog was safe + very cozy autumn vibes + thermal + flannel = a power combo in fashion tbh + seemed a little like the exorcist lite (i haven't seen the exorcist)
cons: + did not need to be two hours+ it just kind of... ENDED? lot of loose ends there (goo pit, is the daughter cursed, etc) + why why why was margot kidder doing almost… more
Alan H 🐳 (4★) · 883 likes
Probably the only dead-serious horror movie to feature a basketball playing nun. Whatever haters, I love this flick.
eely (2★) · 741 likes
I want someone to love me as much as the director of this movie loved that shot of the back windows of this house.