Ultimate haunted house horror is revisited

15 April 2005

Amityville Horror

IN 1974, police were called to a house in Amityville, Long Island. Inside, they found a family slaughtered in their beds.

In the days that followed, Ronald DeFeo, J., confessed to shooting his parents and four siblings, claiming "voices" in the house drove him to commit the grisly murders.

One year later, the Lutz family moved into the house. And after a month they fled, lucky to escape with their lives.

The tale became one of the classic horror movies, made all the scarier because it's based on a real incident.

And now it's been remade.

This time Ryan Reynolds (pictured left) and Melissa George play George and Kathy Lutz in THE AMITYVILLE HORROR.

Confused and frightened by her daughter Chelsea's cryptic interaction with an imaginary friend named Jodie, Kathy struggles to hold her family together as George's increasingly strange behaviour finds him spending days and nights in the basement of the house. He soon discovers a passageway to a mysterious and gruesome "Red Room."

With lucid visions and evil voices swirling through George's head, the house comes alive in a terrifying climax.

And Reynolds says there were some spooky goings-on while making the film.

" A lot of the crew were waking up at 3.15 in the morning, which was when all these atrocities in the house took place each time.

"I think it was a subconscious thing. You read the script and suddenly pop awake at 3.15 in the morning.

"The real Kathy Lutz died while we were making the movie. There were a few weird things.