The Amityville Horror

Jay Anson’s The Amityville Horror (1977) is a purported nonfiction novel that became a major bestseller and cultural phenomenon. The book claims to be the true story of the Lutz family, who, in 1975, moved into a Long Island house where a mass murder had been committed a year earlier, only to flee in terror after 28 days of escalating supernatural events. Capitalizing on the occult revival of the 1970s, the novel explores themes of The Corruption of the American Dream, How Pressure Reveals the Fragility of the Domestic Sphere, and The Failure of Modern Institutions.

Anson, a writer with extensive experience creating documentary scripts, structured the narrative as a factual account, which contributed to its impact and sparked a public debate over whether the events were a hoax. The book’s success led to a popular 1979 film adaptation, followed by numerous sequels and remakes that have cemented its place in American popular culture.

This guide is based on the 2019 Gallery Books trade paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of physical abuse, emotional abuse, animal abuse, animal death, death, and graphic violence.

Plot Summary

On December 18, 1975, George and Kathleen (“Kathy”) Lutz move into a large Dutch Colonial house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island, with Kathy’s three children, Daniel, Christopher, and Melissa (“Missy”). They purchased the home for a bargain price, aware that a year earlier, Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his parents, two brothers, and two sisters there.

That afternoon, their friend Father Frank Mancuso, a Catholic priest, arrives to bless the home. While in a second-floor room, he hears a disembodied masculine voice command, “Get out!” Shaken, he leaves without telling the Lutzes. Later, Father Mancuso experiences a series of bizarre accidents: His car’s hood flies open on the expressway, and a fellow priest who helps him finds his own car’s windshield wipers activating on their own.

After the family moves in, their personalities soon begin to change. George becomes irritable, stops showering, neglects his business, and develops an obsession with keeping a fire roaring in the fireplace to combat the constant chill that only he feels. He begins waking every night at 3:15 am, feeling compelled to check the boathouse. Kathy becomes tense and short-tempered, reluctant to leave the house, even for Christmas shopping, and one night, she and George beat the children for accidentally breaking a window.

Things escalate when Kathy feels a disembodied, motherly embrace in the kitchen. Later, the children show her the upstairs toilet, which has been stained with an indelible black substance, a phenomenon that soon extends to all the toilets in the house. One of the upstairs bedrooms is plagued by swarms of flies in the dead of winter, strange odors, and there is a sour smell in Kathy’s closet, where she finds her crucifix hanging upside down. One morning, George finds the massive front door torn from its hinges, bent from the inside, with no clue as to what is responsible.

On Christmas Eve, Father Mancuso, who believes he is suffering from the flu, feels an urge to warn the family about the second-floor sewing room. His phone call to George is cut off by loud static, and neither can get through to the other again. Kathy’s mother and brother visit and comment on the house’s chill and George’s unkempt state. The next morning, at 3:15 am, Kathy wakes up screaming that she heard gunshots. She reveals that she had a dream about Louise DeFeo, who was shot in the head in bed, unlike the rest of the family, who were all shot in the back, a detail never made public.

George then sees the face of a demonic pig with red eyes behind Missy in her bedroom window, after which her small rocking chair begins moving on its own. Missy later introduces her new imaginary friend, a pig named Jodie, whom she believes is an angel.

The family’s troubles intensify. While cleaning the basement, Kathy discovers a hidden room behind a closet, painted solid red, which smells of blood. George researches the property’s history and learns the land was believed to have been used by the local Shinnecock people to isolate the sick and mentally ill, believing it was infested with demons. He also finds that a 17th-century Devil worshipper, John Ketcham, was allegedly buried on the property.

On New Year’s Eve, George and Kathy see the image of a horned, hooded demon with half its face blown away appear in the fireplace soot. The next night, they see a pair of red, pig-like eyes at the window and find cloven-hoofed tracks in the snow outside.

The house’s physical destruction continues when the garage door is torn from its frame, and a massive oak banister is ripped from its moorings. Kathy is physically assaulted by an unseen presence and passes out. George is awakened one night by the sound of a marching band downstairs, only to find Kathy levitating above their bed. He pulls her down, and she awakens with no memory of the event.

Fearing for their safety, Father Mancuso consults with the Chancellors of his diocese, who forbid him from returning to the house and advise the Lutzes to seek scientific help. Later, another priest tells Father Mancuso that he received an anonymous phone call that said to tell Father Mancuso not to return to the Lutz house or he will die.

Acting on a tip from a colleague, George contacts a young medium named Francine, who visits and senses multiple spirits, confirming that a demonic presence is concentrated in the sewing room and basement. She states that the house needs an exorcism and leaves, refusing to return.

The next night, Kathy’s sister-in-law, Carey, who is visiting with Kathy’s brother James, is awakened at 3:15 am by the apparition of a sick little boy who asks for Missy and Jodie. In response, George and Kathy attempt to bless the house themselves with a crucifix, but a chorus of voices thunders, “Will you stop!” (167). The house’s supernatural phenomena begin to target the children directly: a window slams on Danny’s hand, crushing his fingers flat, though miraculously, no bones are broken, and green slime oozes from the playroom door. Missy reveals that Jodie, the pig, is an “angel” who told her she will live in the house forever.

George and Kathy decide to leave, but when they put the children in the van, it won’t start. They reluctantly return to the house, and a violent storm traps the family inside. The temperature in the house soars to over 90 degrees before plummeting. The house erupts in chaos: Dresser drawers fly open and shut, the sound of a marching band ascends the stairs, and doors throughout the house slam violently. Paralyzed in bed, George feels the hooves of a large, unseen animal walking over him.

At dawn, the boys run to their parents, screaming that a faceless monster is in their room. George looks up the stairs and sees a gigantic, white, hooded figure pointing at him. This is the final straw; George grabs Kathy and the children, and they flee in their van, abandoning the house and all their possessions on January 14, 1976, their 28th day.

That night, at Kathy’s mother’s house, both George and Kathy experience levitation again and see a line of greenish-black slime moving up the staircase, realizing the presence has followed them. A later investigation of the Ocean Avenue house by a team of psychics and a news crew confirms a demonic, non-human entity. The Lutzes eventually move to California, and Father Mancuso is transferred to a new parish.