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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Best haunted house story I've ever read. Read it in one afternoon.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a horror staple that I'm glad I've now read for myself, however, knowing that the Lutz's have admitted to fabricating at least some of the story makes blaming the poltergeist for hitting your kids and not buying them Christmas presents really sus. It was written atmospherically, enhanced by the audio narration, but I think I'd be more interested in the Warrens' investigation than the the second hand way this story of the Lutz's is told.
I am not sure if this should be reviewed as the True Crime/True Mystery Non-Fiction it pretends to be or as horror fiction that it may actually be. As such, I'm going to do both - so strap in, I guess. Firstly, it is written as a True Crime story of it's era, which is a style I really dislike, right down to the written internal monologues of interviewees and the fixation with noting the race and ethnicity of everyone not a white American. Secondly, even as true crime, it isn't the most excitingly written book and it makes for even less exciting horror fiction. Those points aside, lets get into the book, first as true crime and then as horror fiction.
True Crime Non-Fiction
Let us set out the facts of the case as they are presented in the book (we will return to them all, so keep them in mind). These facts are, as Anson tells us, true and corroborated and lead to the conclusion that "the more rational the explanation, the less tennable it becomes". None of this is made up or imagined because why would people leave the house in such a fashion never to return and at a financial loss if they were just imagining it (once again, we shall return to this later).
The important facts are as follows:
1. The house is cheaper than it should be because of the Defeo murders, but still at the top end of the Lutz's price range.
2. The Lutz's are facing financial difficulties because the US property market is not strong.
3. George is a relatively new step-father, only recently being seen as "dad" by the kids.
4. This is the first move of the new family and it their big new start, but everyone starts acting differently.
5. There are tax issues. (In fact we get a lot of information about the finances and other non-haunting things)
6. A priest blesses the house and begins feeling unwell, eventually developing stigmata, pnuemonia, and a fixation and fear of the house - all unknown to the family.
7. The Murders were allegedly caused by demonic pocession, or at least that is the belief of the killer and his lawyers are trying to prove that belief to be sincerely held.
8. The house is built on a site used by the Shinnecock to abandon their mentally ill tribe members.
9. There is a mysterious red room in the basement not on any plans and an unmarked well. These are related to unspecified dark spiritual things.
10. The boat house is significant... for some reason.
11. So is the sewing room.
12. Kathy has a dream of both the affair of the Defoe mother and of her being shot in the head.
13. Things keep moving. Including a porcelan tiger.
14. It snowed around Christmas in 1975.
15. Missy befriends a pig-entity. We are told at the end there are three entities in total, but nothing beyond generalities.
16. The Defoe killer appears in the fire.
17. All the windows and doors are significantly damaged and repaired at various points.
18. The family leave "never to return".
19. The Catholic Church is apparently very keen on spiritual researchers investigating places and not as keen on jumping to demons.
20. Spiritual investigators researched the house (including Ed and Lorraine Warren) and confirmed the family's experiences are in line with other paranormal phenomena - but the family couldn't have possibly known this to fake it.
21. There is a bar called the Witch's Brew near the house.
Ok, there are a lot of other facts given too, but these are the ones that are important for what I want to discuss. So, if we look at this as True Crime to figure out "what really happened", if it was a real haunting or a mass delusion of a family of five and one priest.
So, points 1 - 5, the Lutz family are over extended financially, they're adjusting to a new environment, moving is very stressful, and everyone they meet is telling them something spooky or unsettling about their new house. This seems like a perfect enviornment to cause stress, changes in behaviours, becoming anxious, etc. This is not evidence one way or the other, but it is never explored by the author and since it is only used in the end to show that it must all be true because why would they open themselves up to financial ruin by abadoning the house, I'm really not sure what use it is to the actual core of the mystery.
Point 6. The priest has flip-flopped on this so much, I'm not sure we can trust anything here, but all his version end after at most the first visit to the house.
Point 7. Feeding back to the earlier points, the demon angle is in the news and something of interest to the defense. It is almost like this book is trying to show the murderer wasn't entirely responsible...
Point 8. This is just weird American racism against the Indigenous Tribes and a recurring trope of US horror. The Shinnecock have said the land is nothing to do with them and has never been used by them.
Points 9 - 11, 13, 15, 16. None of these things are ever really explained and because the author is so focused on the family, he doesn't seem interested in actually doing background research to fact check them. Nor does he even try to explain anything beyond the surface level. The three entities are brought up in the end as part of a bit of hand waving to explain why nobody else has experienced similar since - All paranormal experts know that moving things can make it stop, apparently, but the Lutz family bought the existing furniture... but not all of it, so...? What are the ghost rules again?
Point 12. I don't think this dream is correct.
Point 17. All the damage detailed seems not to have been noticable by any of the following owners who said everything looked original, but maybe those Amityville handymen are real professionals.
Point 18. Never returned... unless you ask neighbours who say them afterwards selling things.
Point 19. This may not be important in general, but it is interesting how the Catholic Church is portrayed in this. Exploring every other possibility first, much like in the Exorcist (published 1971, movie 1973 as all this was going on, but definitely well known by the time the book is being written). I dunno... maybe pre-Exorcist, the Catholic Church were pointing everyone towards parapsychologists and the Warrens and not doing spiritual warfare themselves, I don't know.
Point 20. The problem with this whole premise is that it is hard to prove and we have to just accept it. Like they might not have known at the time, but if they're reflecting on it afterwards and relaying the story to the author, they may have known since and been reshaping their memories to fit the wider narrative.
Point 21. Look... the bar didn't exist then, it might now.
All these are without even getting into the core problem, which is, we actually have no solid evidence that can be verified outside this book that any of the phenomena detailed happened, even aside from them being explained by another cause. So, as true crime, the book is lacking. It feels more like an attempt to capture a moment in the publishing market, than an investigation or relaying of events. But what if we set all truth aside, and explore it as horror fiction inspired by events...
Horror Fiction
This will be a lot shorter. It's not great horror fiction. The prose is too non-fiction, the tension is not really there, and while you can have a great horror novel where the lurking evil is never explained, this whole mystery cries out for an explanation of what all these different entities and forces are. The reason you avoid doing this, is because you want to lean into the horrific murders as a premise, but realise everyone will be mad at you and you'll lose your "true story" card if you try and explain the mythology behind the evil entities on account of the mass murderer claiming to be motivated by those dark forces.
Look... I dunno, people love this and maybe the movie is better, but it isn't great. It's obviously fiction, or a hoax, but it doesn't have the courage to be interesting fiction. Go read The Exorcist or something, it's better. I am, though, very interested in reading The Amityville Horror Conspiracy at some point. And yes... this is probably a bit much to write about something I listened to on 2x speed while waiting for and travelling on the bus, but we are where we are.
True Crime Non-Fiction
Let us set out the facts of the case as they are presented in the book (we will return to them all, so keep them in mind). These facts are, as Anson tells us, true and corroborated and lead to the conclusion that "the more rational the explanation, the less tennable it becomes". None of this is made up or imagined because why would people leave the house in such a fashion never to return and at a financial loss if they were just imagining it (once again, we shall return to this later).
The important facts are as follows:
Spoiler
1. The house is cheaper than it should be because of the Defeo murders, but still at the top end of the Lutz's price range.
2. The Lutz's are facing financial difficulties because the US property market is not strong.
3. George is a relatively new step-father, only recently being seen as "dad" by the kids.
4. This is the first move of the new family and it their big new start, but everyone starts acting differently.
5. There are tax issues. (In fact we get a lot of information about the finances and other non-haunting things)
6. A priest blesses the house and begins feeling unwell, eventually developing stigmata, pnuemonia, and a fixation and fear of the house - all unknown to the family.
7. The Murders were allegedly caused by demonic pocession, or at least that is the belief of the killer and his lawyers are trying to prove that belief to be sincerely held.
8. The house is built on a site used by the Shinnecock to abandon their mentally ill tribe members.
9. There is a mysterious red room in the basement not on any plans and an unmarked well. These are related to unspecified dark spiritual things.
10. The boat house is significant... for some reason.
11. So is the sewing room.
12. Kathy has a dream of both the affair of the Defoe mother and of her being shot in the head.
13. Things keep moving. Including a porcelan tiger.
14. It snowed around Christmas in 1975.
15. Missy befriends a pig-entity. We are told at the end there are three entities in total, but nothing beyond generalities.
16. The Defoe killer appears in the fire.
17. All the windows and doors are significantly damaged and repaired at various points.
18. The family leave "never to return".
19. The Catholic Church is apparently very keen on spiritual researchers investigating places and not as keen on jumping to demons.
20. Spiritual investigators researched the house (including Ed and Lorraine Warren) and confirmed the family's experiences are in line with other paranormal phenomena - but the family couldn't have possibly known this to fake it.
21. There is a bar called the Witch's Brew near the house.
Ok, there are a lot of other facts given too, but these are the ones that are important for what I want to discuss. So, if we look at this as True Crime to figure out "what really happened", if it was a real haunting or a mass delusion of a family of five and one priest.
So, points 1 - 5, the Lutz family are over extended financially, they're adjusting to a new environment, moving is very stressful, and everyone they meet is telling them something spooky or unsettling about their new house. This seems like a perfect enviornment to cause stress, changes in behaviours, becoming anxious, etc. This is not evidence one way or the other, but it is never explored by the author and since it is only used in the end to show that it must all be true because why would they open themselves up to financial ruin by abadoning the house, I'm really not sure what use it is to the actual core of the mystery.
Point 6. The priest has flip-flopped on this so much, I'm not sure we can trust anything here, but all his version end after at most the first visit to the house.
Point 7. Feeding back to the earlier points, the demon angle is in the news and something of interest to the defense. It is almost like this book is trying to show the murderer wasn't entirely responsible...
Point 8. This is just weird American racism against the Indigenous Tribes and a recurring trope of US horror. The Shinnecock have said the land is nothing to do with them and has never been used by them.
Points 9 - 11, 13, 15, 16. None of these things are ever really explained and because the author is so focused on the family, he doesn't seem interested in actually doing background research to fact check them. Nor does he even try to explain anything beyond the surface level. The three entities are brought up in the end as part of a bit of hand waving to explain why nobody else has experienced similar since - All paranormal experts know that moving things can make it stop, apparently, but the Lutz family bought the existing furniture... but not all of it, so...? What are the ghost rules again?
Point 12. I don't think this dream is correct.
Point 17. All the damage detailed seems not to have been noticable by any of the following owners who said everything looked original, but maybe those Amityville handymen are real professionals.
Point 18. Never returned... unless you ask neighbours who say them afterwards selling things.
Point 19. This may not be important in general, but it is interesting how the Catholic Church is portrayed in this. Exploring every other possibility first, much like in the Exorcist (published 1971, movie 1973 as all this was going on, but definitely well known by the time the book is being written). I dunno... maybe pre-Exorcist, the Catholic Church were pointing everyone towards parapsychologists and the Warrens and not doing spiritual warfare themselves, I don't know.
Point 20. The problem with this whole premise is that it is hard to prove and we have to just accept it. Like they might not have known at the time, but if they're reflecting on it afterwards and relaying the story to the author, they may have known since and been reshaping their memories to fit the wider narrative.
Point 21. Look... the bar didn't exist then, it might now.
All these are without even getting into the core problem, which is, we actually have no solid evidence that can be verified outside this book that any of the phenomena detailed happened, even aside from them being explained by another cause. So, as true crime, the book is lacking. It feels more like an attempt to capture a moment in the publishing market, than an investigation or relaying of events. But what if we set all truth aside, and explore it as horror fiction inspired by events...
Horror Fiction
This will be a lot shorter. It's not great horror fiction. The prose is too non-fiction, the tension is not really there, and while you can have a great horror novel where the lurking evil is never explained, this whole mystery cries out for an explanation of what all these different entities and forces are. The reason you avoid doing this, is because you want to lean into the horrific murders as a premise, but realise everyone will be mad at you and you'll lose your "true story" card if you try and explain the mythology behind the evil entities on account of the mass murderer claiming to be motivated by those dark forces.
Look... I dunno, people love this and maybe the movie is better, but it isn't great. It's obviously fiction, or a hoax, but it doesn't have the courage to be interesting fiction. Go read The Exorcist or something, it's better. I am, though, very interested in reading The Amityville Horror Conspiracy at some point. And yes... this is probably a bit much to write about something I listened to on 2x speed while waiting for and travelling on the bus, but we are where we are.
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No