The over the top acting from James Brolin, Get out!, the photoshopped pig with red eyes painted on, The little girl saying, "Jodi doesn't like George!", I could go on. Anybody agree?
Rod Steiger did a great job as the priest. Steiger was the only one of the regular cast members who believed the Lutz story about the haunting and stayed friends with the real Lutzs after the movie finished it's run.
Yeah, I read a short version of the story in a kid's 'true horror' stories book my brother gave me when I was about eight. It really scared the bejesus out of me! My Dad finally tracked it down in the local rental shop and I watched it about a year later. I wasn't impressed sadly. There just wasn't enough happening to maintain my nine-year-old attention lol.
Twitter @SkiesChloe Violence is Italian art and Italian art is beautiful.
I love Rod Steiger in this! Indeed, the film would be so much duller without him. That doesn't mean I think it's a good performance. In fact, it's rather terrible, with Steiger using every Method Acting trick in the book to whip up fire in a cynical, moneygrubbing exploitation film. I'm often in hysterics from the lengths he goes to wrench every bit of anguish in his part. He devours the scenery even in catatonia! Less entertaining perhaps was Margot Kidder, who gave such a lifeless performance first time viewers might actually think she's a bad actress, though I would point anyone in the direction of Kidder's performance in Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974) in which Kidder steals the movie despite having a small part. Apparently, she had no conviction in what she was making with Amityville and it definitely shows. I enjoy Amityville today purely as an unintentional comedy.
A little too late but Rod Steiger was pretty hilarious too. I laugh at the scene in the church where the earthquake happens and he's yelling at the top of his lungs. Also I did find this movie scary as a young teenager seeing it for the first time but now just find it laughable.
I think the music sells it actually. Try watching it with the sound off and see if it still creeps you out. The opening credits where the house fades into view and those low and squeaky strings come in used to scare the living crap out of me when I was little.