The Most Iconic Horror House Has New Owners
The home used as The Amityville Horror house in the 1979 classic film has been sold for $1.7 million.
Following the incredible sale of The Goonies home for nearly $2 million last year, another classic piece of Hollywood real estate has a new owner. The New York Post reports that the home used to film The Amityville Horror has been sold for $1.7 million. The house, in New Jersey, was used as a stand-in for the actual location of the bloody murder of the DeFeo family, which was in Rhode Island.
The Amityville Horror was based off of the real experience of the Lutz family, George and Kathy with their three children, that moved into the DeFeo’s home months after the brutal murders took place. The family only stayed in the house for 28 days before fleeing, after attempting an exorcism within the walls of the home to cleanse it of evil spirits. While subsequent owners of the home have reported nothing scary or supernatural ever happened, that did not stop the Lutz’s from selling their story.
While the iconic Amityville Horror house looks much different today, for example the signature windows of the top floor have been redesigned, it speaks to the power of the story that even the movie location was able to sell for an incredible amount. The 1979 film is widely considered to be the best part of the long-running horror franchise, starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder. While it dramatized the events of the novel, which had already embellished the true story, the film became a touchstone in pop culture and serves as the definitive work on the Amityville Horror incident.
Margot Kidder, in a 2005 during an interview at a film convention in The Netherlands, revealed that the film’s producers wanted her and Brolin to share stories about all sorts of strange incidents occurring on the set of the film. Kidder explained that nothing happened while filming The Amityville Horror, even directly expressing her opinion that the actual incident was a result of George Lutz being highly susceptible to parties interested in the murder house.
Though nothing happened at the location that just sold, the 2005 remake starring Ryan Reynolds did have a scary incident on set when the cast and crew found a dead body. Far removed from the actual Amityville Horror house, the remake was filmed on the shores of Chicago and Wisconsin, finding a dead body is still incredibly creepy. No supernatural beings were implicated in the murder, instead it was thought to have been a mob hit.
Purchasing a prop used in a legendary movie is one thing, but buying the house used as the set for The Amityville Horror is far more impressive. While the house has been updated and sports a sleek, modern look on the inside, there’s still something undeniably cool about being able to brag over Kidder and Brolin filming one of the greatest horror films of all time in your new living room.
So while it’s not the real Amityville Horror house, it’s arguably even more impressive as supernatural occurrences have been disproven at the original location, but a very successful film was definitely filmed at the New Jersey home.
