Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family with a high powered rifle during their sleep in 1974, and since then the horrific incident has been in the public eye, even being recreated in films and books. DeFeo claimed during his court hearing that he’d murdered his family because of the voices he’d been hearing in his head, which instructed him to do so. Despite his claim, DeFeo was convicted on six counts of second degree murder.
In 1979, Jay Anson’s book the Amityville Horror was adapted into the American supernatural horror film of the same title and directed by Stuart Rosenberg. James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, and Murray Hamilton starred in the movie. The book and film centers around the Lutz family, who move into the Amityville property one year after the DeFeo murders and last only 28 days inside the home. The family claims to have been terrorized by paranormal activity. Since then, a 2005 remake directed by Andrew Douglas hit viewers, garnering only a 24 percent rating on the Tomatometer, cites Rotten Tomatoes . In fact, several Amityville featuring films and television series have been created.
Most recently, a trailer dropped for the newest addition, the Amityville Murders , which does not focus on the Lutz family, but centers on 23 year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. and his family inside the Amityville home. This film will in fact be a prequel to the incident, written and directed by Daniel Farrands, reports Movie Web . The film stars John Robinson, Chelsea Ricketts, Paul Ben-Victor, Diane Franklin, Noa Brenner, Zane Austin, and Kue Lawrence as the DeFeo family.
John Robinson will play the character of Ronald DeFeo Jr. in the Amityville Murders . In the trailer, he can be heard stating, as DeFeo Jr., that they do not live in the house by themselves, a reference to DeFeo’s court claim of hearing voices telling him to murder his entire family.
The Amityville Murders is set to hit only select theaters, but will be available on Video On Demand beginning February 8, 2019. Daniel Farrands hails from Providence, Rhode Island in the United States. He is also known for various other horror films and television series, and documentaries such as Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th, Scream: The Inside Story, and The Fear Is Real: Reinvestigating the Haunting (in Connecticut.) His work directing thus far has been of the documentary format, so it will certainly be interesting to see his rendition of the Amityville Murders .
Besides tackling the Amityville Murders , Farrands is also in post-production for the Haunting of Sharon Tate and the Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, according to IMDB .
