The Amityville Horror

"For God's sake, get out!"

1979 1h 58m EN

😐

6.3

MID

★6.3TMDB · 1,076

Horror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“For God's sake, get out!”

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Cast

James Brolin
George Lutz
Margot Kidder
Kathy Lutz
Rod Steiger
Father Delaney
Don Stroud
Father Richard Bolen
Murray Hamilton
Father Ryan
John Larch
Father Nuncio
Natasha Ryan
Amy
K.C. Martel
Greg

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Writers: Sandor Stern
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $4.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $86M — a 18.4× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

47 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Amityville Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Stuart Rosenberg, shot by Fred J. Koenekamp. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Lalo Schifrin. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Robert Brown shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

James Brolin and Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Stuart Rosenberg directs. Fred J. Koenekamp behind the camera. Lalo Schifrin scores. Robert Brown cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $4.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $86M — a 18.4× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
347 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Part of the "The Amityville Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Stuart Rosenberg, shot by Fred J. Koenekamp. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Lalo Schifrin. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Robert Brown shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8James Brolin and Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "For God's sake, get out!".
10IMDB entry: tt0078767 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 16 themes, including "halloween", "haunted house", "possession", "long island, new york".

The technical file

Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp
Original score: Lalo Schifrin
Editing: Robert Brown
Makeup / hair: Stephen Abrums
Sound: John Wilkinson
Stunt coordinator: Roger Creed
Runtime: 118 min · 1h 58m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $4,700,000
Box office: $86,432,488
Return: 1839% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Amityville Horror (1979)

Part of

The Amityville Collection

The Amityville Horror film series is a series of American supernatural horror films centered on events in a haunted house in Amityville, New York.

Also by

Stuart Rosenberg

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2021-05-15
★ 7/10
That iconic creepy house on Long Island A newlywed couple moves into a shoreline house on Long Island with their three little kids. The house was the scene of a mass killing a year earlier but the parents (James Brolin & Margot Kidder) didn’t think it mattered and, besides, it enabled them to purchase the homestead at a much reduced price. Then strange things start happening. "The Amityville Horror" (1979) was arguably the best haunted house movie up to that point in time and was hugely successful at the box office, inspiring a gazillion sequels, remakes and documentaries. There are similarities to "The Shining" (1980): Both movies were based on books published in 1977, but the film version of "The Amityville Horror" was released a year prior to “The Shining” and was based on the supposedly true story of what happened to the Lutz family whereas Stephen King’s novel was purely fictional. The 2005 remake with Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George deviates even further from the book and is a brisker, more modern version of the story. Yet this classic version still works as a moody and mysterious drama with horrific touches. Unlike the remake, the movie takes its time to establish and develop the characters and I appreciated this; for instance, Mr. Lutz's employee (Michael Sacks) and his spiritually curious girlfriend (Helen Shaver), as well as the two priests (Rod Steiger and Don Stroud). Gene Siskel criticized it on the grounds that it wasn’t enjoyable. Seriously? Since when are horror flicks supposed to be enjoyable? This is a realistic drama with some creepy paranormal things thrown on top, based on an allegedly true account. I don’t think the filmmakers were shooting for “enjoyable.” That said, underneath the darkness the picture has a good, warm heart. Was the actual Lutz’s account true or not? They seemed to have experienced some troubling things at the house during their month-long stay and passed a Polygraph by two top polygraph experts but, assuming their story wasn’t concocted for profit (which many believe was the case), the events were certainly amped-up for the book & movie for the purpose of an entertaining tale. By the way, the large Dutch Colonial house still stands in Amityville, albeit the exterior was remodeled and hence the two distinctive windows appear standard. The film runs 1 hour, 57 minutes and was mostly shot in New Jersey as follows: Toms River (house), Point Pleasant (church), Georgian Court University in Lakewood (meeting with the hooded priest), Ocean County and Scotch Plains; as well as indoor scenes done at MGM Studios in Culver City, California; plus some shots done in Long Island, Connecticut and Glendale, California. GRADE: B
Sierbahnn2026-05-01
★ 6/10
This movie set a lot of ground for other horror movies and did a lot of heavy lifting. The overt religious themes might have aged poorly. But the character work and the effective use of the flashbacks and dream sequences make this movie still work as a vehicle for tension. It is a very good horror movie with a great cast and lovely direction and a legacy that you really can't deny.