Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Tie Ins: Amityville Horror

The Amityville Horror franchise is based on the alleged haunting experienced by the Lutz famiy, and the real life murder of the previous tenants by Ronald Defeo Jr.  We begin with:

1977: The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson (presented as non-fiction, filmed in 1979)

There are a few branches off this tree, as books become movies with sequels with novelizations and book sequels have movie made from them.  I'm only going through the early 90s with this one - since you can't copyright a town's name, there's been a glut of self published books (some by sequel writer John G. Jones) and indie horror films over the last couple decades.

1982: The Amityville Horror Part II  by John G. Jones (presented as non-fiction)
1985: Amityville: The Final Chapter  by John G. Jones (still "based on" but with even less connection to the Lutz' account)
1985: Amityville Horror: Untold Stories by John G. Jones
1988: Amityville: The Evil Escapes by John G. Jones (presented as fiction. TV movie made in 1989 and Direct to Video movie Amityville 1992: It's About Time released in 1992)
1989: Amityville: The Horror Returns by John G. Jones
1991: Amityville: The Nightmare Continues by Robin Karl

A separate branch of books written by Hans Holzer concentrated on Ronald Defeo Jr.

1979: Murder in Amityville (re-released as Amityville: Fact or Fiction?; filmed as Amityville II: The Possession)
1981: The Amityville Curse (filmed in 1990)
1985: The Secret of Amityville

And the only novelization of a film:

1984: Amityville 3-D by Gordon McGill

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