when it was first released . I was born in 1991 so I've seen it re-runs around Halloween and late winter months like January and feb
"Touchdoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooown Auburn"
No, it didn't.
shareNot in terms of people fainting in the theater or becoming traumatized, but there was a media follow up investigation and talk show interviews with the actors and George Lutz.
shareNah, it was scary to me and my friend as kids of 12. First "scary" movie I saw in a theatre aside from Jaws (1975) and Jaws 2 (1878). I was not a seasoned horror movie fan at that point. But coming out of the theatre I distinctly remember hearing some audience members saying "It wasn't very scary".
Although everyone did scream when the eyes appeared at the window, they all laughed immediately afterward. It was nothing like I imagine The Exorcist had affected audiences circa '73/'74. The thing with The Amityville Horror back in the day was that it attracted wider audiences who would not normally go see horror films (all the publicity and claims of "true story"), so it may have scared some people that way, but not the regular horror movie crowd I should imagine. In fact, even two years later, when I was 14 and saw it again, I couldn't understand why it had even scared me at all. By then I had seen so many more classic horror films that this seemed boring in comparison.