Film
My Amityville Horror
- Haunted-house horror
- Mystery
- Very dark
This isn't a ghost story—it's an interview. Daniel Lutz, now middle-aged and visibly volatile, sits across from a documentarian and finally says out loud what growing up as 'the boy from Amityville' actually did to him. It's uncomfortable, unresolved, and far more interested in psychological damage than demons. For true-crime obsessives and anyone who's wondered what happens to child witnesses once the cameras leave.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you have followed the Amityville legend for years and want the haunting told from inside the house, by the one person who lived through it as a child, with all the doubt that brings.
Skip it if you came for jump scares or a dramatized chiller, since this is a sit-down documentary where the frights come from memory and disputed claims rather than staged set pieces.
What it asks of you: It runs a brisk 88 minutes of talking heads, archive material and investigation, so it asks you to weigh testimony and decide for yourself what you believe.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Capturing the Friedmans2003
The gold standard for this exact discomfort—a family destroyed by allegations, home movies that contradict everyone's testimony, and a filmmaker who refuses to hand you a verdict. Nothing else nails the queasy feeling of not knowing who to believe.
But It's about real child abuse allegations, not ghosts, and offers no closure—some viewers find that unbearable rather than fascinating.
Cropsey2010
Two filmmakers who grew up believing a local boogeyman story go digging and find something stranger and sadder than the legend—institutional neglect, missing children, a real killer wearing a myth's face.
But Low-budget and meandering in places; the investigation wanders before it fully pays off.
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst2015
A true-crime docuseries built entirely around one magnetic, unreliable man talking about himself for hours. Robert Durst is Daniel Lutz's rich, murderous cousin in temperament—you can't look away from either.
But It's six episodes, not ninety minutes, and the ending's fame means the surprise is mostly gone now.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from My Amityville Horror
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Grey Gardens1976
Both are studies of a real family flattened into a legend by outside attention, filmed at close range with no interest in flattering anyone.
The Maysles brothers move into a decaying East Hampton mansion with 'Big Edie' and 'Little Edie,' two women swallowed by their own legend, and simply watch. Nothing else captures the discomfort of a family performing itself for cameras this well.
But No plot, no narration, no resolution—purely observational, and some people find that suffocating rather than mesmerizing.
More like this (8)
Beware the Slenderman2016
A modern myth convinces two children to nearly kill a friend, and the documentary asks the same question Amityville does: what happens when a story becomes realer than the people living inside it?
But Distressing subject matter involving children and violence; not an easy Friday night watch.
Three Identical Strangers2018
Starts as a feel-good reunion story and turns into something far darker about experimentation, secrecy, and what families do to protect a narrative. The tonal whiplash is the whole point.
But The twist is genuinely upsetting, and some feel the film exploits it a little too gleefully.
Wormwood2017
Errol Morris blends interview footage with dramatized reenactment to pick apart a son's decades-long obsession with his father's mysterious death—another grown child still fighting to be believed.
But It's long, six episodes, and its hybrid style, actors performing scenes alongside real interviews, won't suit purists.
The Nightmare2015
Rodney Ascher interviews sleep paralysis sufferers and stages their hallucinations like a horror film, blurring documentary and nightmare the same way Amityville blurs fact and folklore.
But It's more sensory experience than investigation—if you want answers or skepticism, this won't give you either.
Casting JonBenet2017
A wildly unconventional true-crime documentary that auditions actors to play the people involved in a notorious case, exposing how badly a media-hungry public wanted its own version of events.
But Deliberately uncomfortable and formally strange; some find the concept clever, others find it distasteful.
The Amityville Horror1979
The original fictionalized version of the story Daniel Lutz spent his life living down—slow-burn haunted house horror with James Brolin sweating through every scene, and a huge box-office hit in its day.
But Dated pacing and effects; it's more a curiosity now than a genuinely scary watch.
The Babadook2014
It's the fictional version of the theory hovering over Daniel Lutz's whole story: the monster in the house was never supernatural, it was a parent's own unaddressed damage.
A grieving single mother's exhaustion and rage take literal monstrous shape in her home, and the film never lets you fully separate the demon from her own unraveling.
But It's genuinely frightening in a way that's about dread more than jump scares—not for anyone wanting a comfortable watch.
Amityville II: The Possession1982
Same house, same allegations of family abuse, laundered through the horror genre—except this one leans all the way into exploitation instead of asking hard questions.
The gloriously trashy sequel that takes the abuse subtext of the real case and turns it into full demonic-possession spectacle, incest implications and all. It's the tabloid version of what Daniel Lutz lived through, dialed up for a drive-in crowd.
But It's cheap, exploitative, and treats real trauma as B-movie material—entertaining only if you can stomach that discomfort.
People
Cast
- Daniel LutzHimself
- Susan BartellHerself
- Laura DiDioHerself
- Marvin ScottHimself