The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

 "In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. Twenty-eight days later, the entire Lutz family fled in terror."

So reads the back of Jay Anson’s Amityville Horror, the classic “true story” of benevolent spirits terrorizing a young family. So terrifying and dark were the powers in that house, even the local diocese and priests were afraid to visit the house… 112 Ocean Avenue.

This review will be a little different than past reviews, because Amityville Horror is billed as non-fiction. The characters in the book are true, and the DeFeo murders are also true. There is also a house at 112 Ocean Avenue (Now 108 Ocean Avenue to hide from looky-loos and tourists… you know, because tourists are dumb), and it is as described in the book and on the book/movie covers: A Dutch Colonial.

The haunting that occurred to the Lutz’s after they moved in? That has been debated, and mostly refuted by the local diocese, William Weber (Ronald “Butch” DeFeo’s defense attorney), and convicted murderer Ronnie DeFeo himself.

Everybody knows the story of the Amityville Horror, either through the book or the original film and the TWELVE additional films, that include sequels and remakes. But what is the book if not non-fiction, as claimed by so many?

It’s God-awful. If we look at the book as a work of fiction, it is poorly written with awful character development. Jay Anson, a documentary writer who hadn’t written a novel until Amityville, was extremely brilliant when it came to writing the book. He acquired the book rights before writing and publishing, and was able to embellish slightly the haunting the Lutz’s experienced. But, he wasn’t a very good novelist, and his book reads more like the transcript of a campfire story, replete with unnecessary exclamation points and zero creative prose. Without the “true story” tagline, Amityville Horror could be the worst novel ever written. In fact, it’s opening line is a fine contender for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest: “George and Kathy Lutz moved into 112 Ocean Avenue on December 18. Twenty-eight days later, they fled in terror.”

But, before I abandon it there and move on, let’s look at the whole package. It was sold as a true story, and the simple writing of Jay Anson goes a long way toward selling it. If you look at Anson’s other work, (he followed up Amityville with the novel 666) you see he is capable of creativity, and not just fact regurgitation. But really, that’s all Amityville Horror is.

Is it by design? Is there genius in the way Anson marketed the book? After all, he was a documentary writer, so he knew the power of non-fiction. If he could harness the demonic horror that was popular during that time (The Exorcist – 1971, Rosemary’s Baby – 1967). Books of that ilk were also becoming big-money movies.

So here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to give Anson the benefit of the doubt: He set out to create a raw, realistic story of Satanic haunting. In that regard, he succeeded. Its rawness and lack of creativity definitely lend an air of authenticity, much as The Blair Witch Project (1999) did with movies.

Fortunately, Amityville Horror didn’t create its own literary sub-genre like Blair Witch did with the “found footage” style of horror we see in film.

Here’s what I did enjoy about the book: Its simple writing, paired with its low page count, resulted in a great read during a morning-time power outage courtesy of the Pacific Northwest weather.

Is Amityville Horror fact, fiction, good, bad? I don’t know! If it’s fiction, it’s bad. If it’s fact, it “is what it is.”