'Amityville: An Origin Story' brings 'documentary rigor' to familiar events
Christopher Quaratino, who as a child lived in the Amityville home after the DeFeo killings took place, appears in "Amityville: An Origin Story." Credit: MGM+
Long Island’s most famous haunted house is back in the spotlight thanks to a new four-part documentary series, “Amityville: An Origin Story,” which premieres April 23, at 10 p.m. on the streamer MGM+.
The series will bring a “documentary rigor” to the events behind “The Amityville Horror,” the bestselling 1977 book and 1979 hit movie adaptation, according to Brooklyn-based executive producer and director Jack Riccobono. “There’s been over 40 films now made with ‘Amityville’ in the title,” he said, “and they keep spinning further and further away from any factual reality.”
The chilling story of the now-legendary Dutch Colonial in the quiet suburb of Amityville began in late 1974, when Ronald DeFeo Jr. fatally shot his parents and four younger siblings in their beds. The following year, the house was purchased by George and Kathy Lutz, who moved in with Kathy’s three children from a previous marriage. What the Lutzes were said to have experienced there — demonic voices, ghostly apparitions, the presence of an evil pig named Jodie — served as the basis for an ostensibly nonfiction book written by Jay Anson. The subsequent movie, starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder, earned $86 million and an Oscar nomination for Lalo Schifrin’s score.
Journalists poked holes in the Lutzes’ story, and one lawyer involved with the book said it was all a hoax concocted “over many bottles of wine.” Lawsuits followed; the Lutzes divorced. Nevertheless, the word “Amityville” became an enduring horror-movie brand, slapped onto sequels, spinoffs and countless projects with little or no relation to the original material. Most recently, the “Conjuring” film franchise has centered on Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal investigators who were among the first to look into the Amityville haunting.
According to Riccobono, “Amityville: An Origin Story” includes several interviews with people connected to the events, including Tommy Maher, a childhood friend of DeFeo; Carol Soviero, a family friend of the Lutzes; and Kathy’s son Christopher Quaratino, who was 7 when he lived in the house. The series was filmed in Brookhaven, Glen Cove, Old Westbury and Amityville itself, though viewers won’t see the original house, which no longer features its distinctive jack-o’-lantern windows. Riccobono says he used a similar-looking Dutch Colonial in Douglaston, Queens, as a stand-in.
Rather than attempt to confirm or debunk the Lutzes’ tale, “Amityville: An Origin Story” will place it in the context of the faddish 1970s, says Riccobono, when the hippie mysticism of the '60s began giving way to a fascination with the occult. (He cites the hysteria around the 1973 horror film “The Exorcist” as one example.) The unfathomable tragedy of the DeFeo murders, Riccobono suggests, may have led the public to search for answers outside the realm of provable facts.
“There’s some really interesting resonance between the '70s and our current moment,” Riccobono says. “I think we’re living in a moment with a lot of anxiety. And horror is such an incredible genre for exploring and expressing anxieties that are both personal and societal.”
