#jay anson

The Amityville Horror will be released on 4K Ultra HD on October 25 via Vinegar Syndrome. Robert Sammelin designed the new cover art for the 1979 haunted house classic; the original poster is on the reverse side.

Inspired by a true story, Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke) directs from a script by Sandor Stern (Pin), based on Jay Anson's 1977 book. James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and Rod Steiger star.

The Amityville Horror has been newly restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative. It's presented in 4K with HDR and the original theatrical surround mix and stereo audio options. Extras are listed below.

1. The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

I read this in middle school and I would often read it before bed and it legit terrified me. It’s the typical, family moves into a new house and finds out it’s haunted. A friend gave it to me as a gift and I actually hid it when i finished it because it scared me so bad. 

2. Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Ok, so to some this book may not count since it’s a young reader book, but the story is way scarier than the movie. Anyone who has read it can agree. The depictions of the Other Family and the eerier illustrations by Dave McKean really create a creepy and scary atmosphere. For those who don’t know, Coraline moves into a new house and when she’s bored she discovers a crawl space that leads into the Other World. But not everything is as it seems. 

3. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

This book freaked me out so much when i was reading it that when I was done I had to get rid of the book. I felt like it just being on the shelf was going to cause trouble. I’m not too easily scared, but anything with ghosts or Satan make me jump. And in this book, a young girl ends up becoming possessed by a demon and two priests try to exorcise her. I still refuse to have this book anywhere near me to this day. 

Honorable Mention: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

These books were legit scary shit. I read them again as an adult and they’re still scary. The one that scares me the most is either the spider zit one or the black dog. 

One mental exercise I'm putting myself through--while I'm stuck inside with nothing to exercise but my mental meat--is, reading texts written by, or on behalf of people who are now historically known to have lied. (Or who a headshrinker could more generously describe as functionally delusional) I'm starting with the three earliest books on the Amityville Horror. Before I dove into Jay Anson's elaboration on the folklore created by George and Kathleen Lutz, and the probably-incredibly-sleazy coattail riding book by quack psychic Hans Holzer (on which the fabulously disgusting AMITYVILLE 2 is based), I thought I should read the book about the DeFeo murders perpetuated at the iconic Ocean Avenue home before it was haunted by the "horror". High Hopes was written by prosecutor Gerard Sullivan, and though I expected this to be the truest of the "true" stories, it presents its own evidence of extreme bias.

Let me say first that I'm a bit of a crime buff, and that means I have to be hypervigilant about copaganda. For instance, I'm gaga for Ann Rule, who was not only an ex-cop--I thought I read that she was the first female officer in Seattle?--but she described the cops that figured into her reportage with a kind of intensely seductive poetry, transforming them into something like heroes of the old west. It's incredibly convincing, and I have to remind myself that Rule was from a whole family of cops with a very particular perspective, one that many people would find troublesome--including myself.

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson