It's 1979, and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR has just hit the theaters. Being nine year olds, none of us are allowed to see it, but that doesn't keep us from endlessly discussing Satan-possessed houses. One of my classmates is reading the paperback (strange parental logic---you can't see the movie, but you can read the book?). The cover has the house all in red in one corner, the H points down into a devil's tail, and the kicker is "A TRUE STORY." We're all sure our houses were possessed, and one of my friends insists that the eyes of Bo and Luke Duke on the DUKES OF HAZZARD poster in her room GLOW AT NIGHT!!UNK SEZ: Dear Tracy, I read THE AMITYVILLE HORROR book when I was about 13 and all I can say is that it scared the living crap out of me. At that time I took the whole "true story" claim to be unquestionable. How could they put that on the cover if it wasn't true? As an adult I have come to the conclusion that even if the tales are false it does not matter. The fact that an entire family got murdered in their sleep there is scary enough and I don't care what anyone says, there is something terribly wrong with that house! All you gotta have is a pair of eyes to see that! I mean would you ever spend the night in a room that looks like this:
Other glowing eyes you should be scared of:
Blake from THE FOG...
GEOFFREY LEWIS in SALEM'S LOT...
The guy in the FEAR NO EVIL POSTER and "Grouch" the cat...
And last, but not least,
You know bad shit is going to go down in a house where anyone is forced to wear velour (re: the DeFeo bros. painting). Â My mom bought me a couple of velour shirts in the 70's too and my rage knows no bounds.
While I never read the Amityville book, my parents (one of them at least) DID take me (and my younger brother) to see the movie at a drive-in. Scared the crap out of me! I have vague memories of being frightened beyond belief, especially something about the stairs turning to blood as they were trying to escape and rescue the dog and…
Needless to say, I have never attempted to rewatch the film as an adult. Probably would be disappointed that it isn't as scary as I remember, but then again…
I remember that particular cover to AH…another book cover that gave me the willies was Salem's Lot. The all black cover and that single drop of blood. My Auntie Linda tried to tell me it was Kool Aid…but I knew it was blood!
Daisy Duke underoos…and I thought I was inappropriate. Wow.
Oh shit…I screwed up my link! 🙁
@Corey Convex: auntie john's got your back… the link is fixed.
Next time I pop over to my Mom's place I'll take a polaroid of the Amityville House today and send you guys. It looks way different. Barely recognizable.
I NEVER found that movie particularly scary , even as a kid. And I was FURIOUS when I found out (as an adult) the whole thing was a "hoax". BUT……I was watching one of those E! specials that talks about famous crimes and murders and such recently and they told the story about the family that lived in the hosue BEFORE the goofballs who wrote the book…and, yeah, now THAT was an interesting story! They should have just made a movie about that guy gettin' effed up on drugs and offing his family. Maybe not as much hocus pocus as pigs with glowing red eyes and such…but some scary stuff right there!
I read the book when I was nine and it wasn't the cover that scared me but that damn ghost/demon pig, Jodi. THOSE are the glowing eyes I used to think I saw in my closet staring out at me.
Fancy,
I agree Jody was the shit. Jody the pig should have got it's own movie! We did a thing on scary pigs a while back and Jody was the star…
https://www.kindertrauma.com/?p=325
I remember the book cover. A friend of mine got it when we were in the eighth grade (1979). I never actually read the book, but I remember seeing the movie a couple of times, most recently a few months ago. What made it so frightening was that it was supposedly a "true story" but I've heard a lot of stories debunking that…