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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
Three stars mostly because others have turned this into a pretty good scary movie. This account of the Lutz family’s 28 days in the Long Island murder house is oddly matter-of-fact and sometimes even unintentionally funny, despite giant pig “friends” with glowing eyes, hooded figures, a room full of winter flies, inexplicable illnesses, and windows that open and close by themselves. Father Mancuso, a family friend and reluctant exorcist, provides the comedy by his constant avoidance of the Lutzes in their hour of need. Anson really doesn’t provide any easy answers for the reader and in the end the book sort of becomes one damned thing after another. The end.
The phenomena described in this book is entirely made up. But it’s still a scary book regardless if you would like to read it. The switching between the Priest’s perspective and the families perspective helped to amplify the tension, but around halfway through the book the Priest’s story just started to drag on and didn’t really do anything for the story. The book is a mediocre haunted house tale, nothing more nothing less. I think you’d get a lot more spooks out of a Stephen King novel (since both are fiction) but that’s just my personal opinion.
A lot of good horror has to do with submerged trauma, ambivalence, and pushing the boundaries of the human psyche. I see it as Hemingway’s iceberg theory, but on steroids. Books such as “The Shining,” “Doctor Sleep,” “The Haunting of Hill House” have in my mind less to do with ghosts and spirits, but the tangible vulnerability of characters and how they try to navigate life, the choices they make, and the paths they choose to follow which ultimately is the true test of their character — whatever ‘true’ might mean. Whether plagued by alcoholism, obsession, paranoia or what have you, a good ghost story (and the scariest of its kind) brings to the forefront a fundamental truth: that true horrors lie within — which after all is the main takeaway of the DeFeo family murders. It was Ron DeFeo who killed his family — and how can one reconcile with that simple fact?
all the lutz's know is be sleepy, hit their children, get spooked and lie
I don’t know how authentic the events that took place in this story are, but either way it’s a chilling ghost story that had me on my toes the whole time.
Yeeaaah i know this is a monument but more Avatar than Mona Lisa if you know what i mean. It did its best, it was momentous, but it really doesnt hold to scrutiny nor age well.
Funny too how every single one of those stories always has the same lesson at its core : beware cis het dudes, they just might decide to kill you.
Funny too how every single one of those stories always has the same lesson at its core : beware cis het dudes, they just might decide to kill you.
I picked this up long ago and never got round to reading it but needing something light and quick, this fit the bill.
Given it's clearly all a big hoax it's frankly impressive the lasting legacy this story has had. I was aware of the story and original film back as a kid, and even quite liked the remake. The book however, is pretty badly written. The style is semi-investigational, ham fisted and overwrought, switching tenses and perspective with nary a thought for the reader.
The concept is great though, even if it is just a haunted house story and the details are compelling but with hindsight it's strange to think that everyone bought into it to such an extent. I will admit feeling a little freaked out for the first third, read alone at night in the house but by the midpoint it becomes a little too ridiculous to be effective. There's no way anyone would have stayed through all of that if it 'actually' happened. There's a great bit over half way in where after another freaky event the parents sit down and say 'something weird is going on'. It took that long to figure it out?!
So yeah, I still quite liked it despite the writing and if you're a fan of the genre it's worth a few hours reading.
Given it's clearly all a big hoax it's frankly impressive the lasting legacy this story has had. I was aware of the story and original film back as a kid, and even quite liked the remake. The book however, is pretty badly written. The style is semi-investigational, ham fisted and overwrought, switching tenses and perspective with nary a thought for the reader.
The concept is great though, even if it is just a haunted house story and the details are compelling but with hindsight it's strange to think that everyone bought into it to such an extent. I will admit feeling a little freaked out for the first third, read alone at night in the house but by the midpoint it becomes a little too ridiculous to be effective. There's no way anyone would have stayed through all of that if it 'actually' happened. There's a great bit over half way in where after another freaky event the parents sit down and say 'something weird is going on'. It took that long to figure it out?!
So yeah, I still quite liked it despite the writing and if you're a fan of the genre it's worth a few hours reading.
There were some very creepy parts in this book, but mostly I felt it was poorly written and not very captivating.
dark
tense
medium-paced
