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‘Amityville Horror’ House On The Market: Own A Piece of Movie History For $850K

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 00:53 PST, Jun 6, 2016

The Amityville Horror house is on the market once again. The waterfront Long Island home that inspired the Amityville Horror book and movie franchise has been listed for sale by its owner, Caroline D’Antonio, according to Newsday.

The Amityville, New York, property is 5,000-square-foot colonial-style home built in 1927, and it boasts five bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms. Elegant period details include oak floors, leaded glass, built-in shelves and cupboards, and a heated sunroom. Eleven double-hung windows overlook the water. The house, located along a canal at 108 Ocean Avenue, comes with a boathouse and boat slip and is priced to sell at $850,000.

D’Antonio and her husband purchased the house in 2010 for $950,000 after it was listed earlier that year for $1.15 million. The Amityville home was made famous when it was the subject of Jay Anson’s 1977 book, The Amityville Horror: A True Story.

The Amityville Horror house is still a popular tourist attraction, even for boaters who take photos of the back of the house from the water. Halloween especially brings many visitors to the home despite the “no trespassing signs” posted on the sides of the house facing Ocean Avenue and in back facing the water.

The house became known as The Amityville Horror after a 23-year-old man named Ronald DeFeo killed his parents and four siblings as they slept in the house in 1974. DeFeo is serving a life sentence at an upstate New York correctional facility, and his deceased family’s home was sold to the Lutz family in 1976.

But strange happenings began occurring almost immediately after the Lutz family moved in, which forced them out of the house within a year. The Lutz family sent audio recordings to Anson describing paranormal experiences in the house, including a black, bubbling substance coming from the toilets and mysteriously locked closets and other unexplained activities. The house is thought to have been built atop a Shinnecock burial ground, and a known Satanic worshipper allegedly once lived on the land.

In 1977, Anson published the best-selling book The Amityville Horror: A True Story, and two years later, James Brolin and Margot Kidder played George and Kathy Lutz in the original horror movie based on the book. A remake came in 2005 starring Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George, and a slew of spinoff movies came in between, including Amityville II: The Possession and Amityville Dollhouse. A 15th Amityville Horror movie, titled Amityville: The Awakening, is due out early next year.

While the house’s history could scare some potential buyers away, the realtor says the D’Antonios “enjoyed the house,” including the parade of harmless tourists who happened by. Caroline D’Antonio is selling the house because her husband passed away last year and she no longer needs such a large living space, and for no other reason.

In fact, some have downplayed the house’s horror movie history. According to the New York Daily News, a past owner of the Amityville house went so far as to work with the post office to have the address of the house changed. At the time of the DeFeo murders, the house was worth $75,000 and was listed as 112 Ocean Avenue.

“Local people refer to this story not as the Amityville horror but as the Amityville hoax,” the onetime owner reportedly said. “The only horror about this house was that a family was murdered.”

https://twitter.com/LaurenKassens/status/734451470540627968

As for the current house sale, tourists need not show up. Only serious buyers will be allowed to tour the Amityville Horror house after they fill out an application and provide a potential buyer’s bank prequalification and “proof of funds” several days before their scheduled tour.

Take a look at the video below for more on the Amityville Horror house as described by a Lutz family member.

[Photo by Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images]

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