Horror's Hallowed Grounds: The Amityville Horror By: Sean Clark
The Amityville Horror
By: Sean Clark
In 1979 MGM Pictures released a film version of Jay Anson’s book The Amityville Horror. The book was said to be a true account of the Lutz family’s twenty-eight day stay in the home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. What George and Kathy Lutz claim to have happened in that house is a topic that has been debated for years. However on November 13th 1974, Ronald DeFeo did murder his mother, father, two brothers and sister inside the home. Did demonic voices tell him to do it? I guess only Defeo himself knows the answer to that question.
The house is a large Dutch Colonial built by Jesse Perdy in 1925 and still stands today. The biggest misconception about the movie is that people believe it was filmed in the actual house. That is not true. The actual home in Amityville has not appeared in any of the films. The current owners of the home as well as most of the people of Amityville do not take too kindly to tourists. The owners got so fed up that they changed the famous eye-like windows to regular ones and even went as far as changing the actual address. The home once known as 112 Ocean Avenue is today 108 Ocean Avenue.
The 1979 film The Amityville Horror was filmed in Tom’s River, New Jersey which is a two hour drive from the real Amityville. The original film was shot mostly on location at the house in Tom’s River. The sequels Amityville II: The Possession and Amityville 3-D were also shot in Tom’s River but the interiors of the house were not used. The interiors were filmed on sets in Mexico.
The first location we will begin with is the intersection where the two priests crash the car after evil spirits make the car’s hood pop up and obstruct their view of the road. This happens at the intersection of Hooper Avenue and Oak Avenue in the city of Tom’s River. There is a TGIF’s restaurant right at the corner. Please excuse the bad photo I didn’t have a recent one and had to take a screen grab from video footage I shot back in 2002.
Next we move on to when James Brolin’s character George Lutz rides his motorcycle into town and goes to Town Hall to pick up some plans. This was filmed at Tom’s River’s actual Town Hall located at 33 Washington Street.
He then speeds off on his motorcycle to the library. If they did use the town’s library in Tom’s River he would have been heading in the right direction however he wouldn’t have had to drive because it is right next door to the Town Hall. I didn’t have a chance to go inside the library because it was closed, but there is a very good chance it was the same one used in the film. I peeked through the window and it was under major construction so odds are it will not look the same today as it did in the film.
The one location I could not find was the church. I drove all over looking for it and just had no luck. This church was used in both the first and second films in the series. Recently a fan e-mailed and informed me that the church used was St Peter's Roman Catholic Church located at 406 Forman Avenue, Point Pleasant Beach in New Jersey. I haven’t had a chance to go see it for myself, but several other fans have e-mailed me this very same information since so I believe it to be correct.
Next was by far the hardest location to find. This is where Father Bolen visits the now blind Father Delaney. It is located on the campus of Georgian Court University located at 900 Lakewood Avenue in Lakewood, New Jersey. The area is known as the Sunken Garden and lagoon. Information on this area can be found on the University’s website here. Also a campus map can be found here.
The bench where Father Delaney (Rod Steiger) sat.
This trip wouldn’t be complete without at least one Rod Steiger impersonation.
Next we visit the cemetery from Amityville II: The Possession. It's Riverside Cemetery located at 12 Market Street in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. For directions visit their website. This is where they have the funeral for Sonny’s family in the film.
And finally the bread and butter of this article; the house. Again, it always seems to confuse people that the house in the movie wasn’t the real house. The house used in the first three Amityville films is located at 18 Brooks Road in Tom’s River, New Jersey. It is near the corner of Brooks Road and Dock Street where you see neighbors running towards the house in the scene below from Amityville II: The Possession.
There have been many changes made to this location which can make things even more confusing. I'll try my best to clear all of this up for you. First off the house has been moved one lot over. It used to be on the lot to the right which is closest to the corner of Brooks Road and Dock Street. Currently there is another home there. Because of this it has caused major landscaping changes and the back yard area of the home looks nothing like it does in the film.
The main boathouse from the film appears to be gone but the other one just next to it may have been moved. This one that looks very similar is located behind another home close where it would have been in the film.
The current residents do still have an amazing view of Tom’s River. In the photo below you can see a water tower just at the left of the boat house. That same water tower can be seen in my photo taken from the dock.
The neighbor’s house directly across the street can be seen when Margot Kidder pulls in the driveway as James Brolin is chopping wood. It can also be seen when the two priests arrive in the sequel.
Other neighboring homes can be seen in this scene from Amityville II: The Possession.
You can see where the horse shoe shaped driveway used to lead up to the left side of the movie house but now leads up to the neighbor’s house next door.
Not only was the house moved but it was also turned clockwise 90 degrees. The left side of the house used to face the street. Now the front of the house faces the street.
It appears that the garage has not moved much at all. It may have been moved over a bit but it is still positioned as it was in the film.
You might be wondering why the house looks so different today. Well this was a preexisting home that they built a façade on to recreate the look of the real house in Amityville, Long Island. A fake roof was built with three fake windows coming out of it above the front of the house. The iconic eye-like windows were also fakes built over pre-existing windows in the house.
In 1986 Bob Randolph purchased all four eye-like windows as well as the construction plans and has had them ever since. Below is a picture of Bob with two of the windows.
Here is also a glimpse of the construction plans where you can see how the façade was built.
Here is an old newspaper article showing the house under construction for the film.
In the film when ever they would show the famous side of the house it would always be the right side of the house which faced the water. That is the side that has the balcony unlike the left side that does not. It is hard to get a good photo of the right side of the house now because of the trees and neighboring home.
I was able to get some good pictures of the left side of the house that used to face the street.
At the very end of the film as the Lutz family are fleeing the house in their van George (James Brolin) stops in the middle of the street and runs back to save the family dog. Now in reality the direction they are heading in is going into the neighborhood and towards a dead end rather than out which would have been the opposite direction. In the film they are heading away from Dock Street on Brooks Avenue. You can still see the yellow DEAD END sign in both pictures.
I wasn’t going to bring up the 2005 remake but I figured to avoid unnecessary e-mails I better address it. While getting ready for the remake the film’s producers did speak to the owners of the house in Tom’s River about using it but decided to do something different and built a façade onto an existing home with a more gothic design on a lake in Wisconsin.
I hope this all has shed some light on the mysteries surrounding the Amityville house. Until next time, happy hunting!
