Any movie or horror fan in recent years knows the name Amityville. Depending on age, the very name conjures anything from eye-like windows, scary pigs to possessions, mirrors and murder. It’s probably the longest running move-franchise ever, challenging even 007 for sequel supremacy. That is if ‘every’ movie bearing the name is counted, and that’s A LOT of illegitimate cinema offspring. Though after the original two, a handful at most have stuck to the original true-crime basis of the Defeo’s and subsequent Lutz entry and exit story.
Rob Levinson, writer, producer and director of several recent short films including Outlaw and Therapy found inspiration for his initial Amityville vision in a similar house design resembling the Defeo home. “About seven years ago I saw this house, a Dutch colonial reminding me of the home. It made me start thinking about the case again. I started toying with an idea for a script. The original concept I had was completely different than what I’m doing now.”
The original story was to take place 25 years after the murders in 1999. Levinson would’ve added Y2K paranoia to the script with reporters getting permission to have Ronald Defeo Jr. temporarily released from prison to spend the night in the house on New Year’s Eve. Paranormal, supernatural and horror elements would’ve been added. After a small outline Levinson abandoned the idea in favor of the current court production titled The People of New York VS Ronald J Defeo.
To date 40-something movies with Amityville have been released, with several more scheduled this year, including Amityville in Space and Amityville Shark House, even Amityville Thanksgiving. Yes, they’re real. “I watched the first two when I was a kid. I saw the reboot. With the exception of a couple things that were kinda cool, they missed the boat and could’ve done more but didn’t.”
He decided, “Why not write a story about the investigation. Defeo gave it all up within 24 hours of being taken into protective custody, the next morning, when interrogated by different detectives. I believe that’s the most honest moment of his life. He said, when I started, I couldn’t stop.”
His story changed soon after putting blame on everyone from his sister, to the mob, and his friends with him as a bystander. “Once he realized, holy cow I’m gonna spend the rest of my life in prison, I gotta start changing my story so maybe, after 25 years I’ll be eligible for parole and have a chance of getting out. Which thank goodness, never happened.” Levinson decided to write a story about the trial adding his own ideas and narrative to it.
Defeo’s passing in March, of 2021 had no effect on his schedule and plans. “The fact he died didn’t make any difference to me. I had no intention of contacting Defeo, what would be the point? There’s enough source material out there, enough interviews he gave where he lies predominantly through them, in my opinion.”
Levinson was 10 when the original came out. “I was too young to go see it. A couple years later it came on cable and scared me. As a kid you want to believe everything you see in the movie. It says, based on true events you automatically think, oh this is a true story, this really happened. It wasn’t until my late teens when I realized it was probably a bunch of BS.”
Levinson’s movie takes place a year after the murders. “Or 11 months to be exact. October 14, 1975, the trial began. It lasted, they say nine weeks, the longest trial at that point, in Long Island history.”
To bring the beginning of his vision to life, several useful and practical locations were offered to him free or at low cost. “I was able to capture the ‘70s, pretty decently. That was very important. As best I could. I had extras go out and get clothing that resembles the ‘70s and for the most part thought they did a decent job.”
He provided retro clothes for his main cast. “We really captured the vibe of what a ‘70s courtroom looked like. We had a beautiful courtroom built in an old police station that was like 100 years old.”
The cast is spread around New England, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Some of the main cast includes Eddie Neson as Gerald Sullivan, Ethan Rodgers as Ronald Defeo Jr. and Kris Salvi as William Weber. Several background and bit part cast actually drove farther to be involved in filming.
Joe Larsen who plays a jury member knew the Cromarty’s (the owners after the Lutz’s) giving Levinson valuable insight into the house and time period. “I was in that house in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. It was nothing like the Lutz’s said.” The Cromarty’s said it was all rubbish. “The room under the stairs wasn’t even a room. They saw stuff through the keyholes of the skeleton keys. Every lock and door had regular locks. The Lutz’s were opportunists. As soon as they fled the house they moved to California and made the movie. The house was nothing like they described or what was in the original Amityville Horror.”
Larsen says Defeo definitely had issues with certain substances. “He was into hallucinogenic drugs and admitted what he did but said he had help and voices telling him to do it.” He says the house wasn’t spooky, no spirits, none of that. It was just a normal Victorian house by the South Shore on Long Island, by the water.
The Cromarty’s stayed for four or five years. Larsen says, people used to knock on their door on a Sunday morning and ask to see the house. Cromarty said, “You can see my house if next Sunday morning I can come see your house. It finally withered away.”
A cousin of Larsen’s went to school with their daughters and played and hung out in the house. “There was nothing, the room under the stairs was a small closet.” No experiences with flies, late night music, or doors opening and shutting.
It’s one of those old Long Island stories. The Amityville Horror, Larsen says. Levinson’s vision is very different. “This is the first movie about the trial. That’s big. About what happened and what was said. This is gonna be so different than any other Amityville film. You got transcripts and raw evidence they used. I was looking through the photos, holy Jesus, this is real stuff. I think it’s gonna spike interest and uncover a lot of stuff that’s gonna answer a lot of questions that were never asked.” He’s glad he did it and was able to give Levinson a little insight on what went on inside and outside the house.
He says, the best part is, it’s based on fact, not hearsay or people making stuff up. “The facts have never been put out there to my knowledge.” It was a different time in society when the original movie opened. If it happened today, it probably wouldn’t have the same public effect but was big news in Long Island at the time. “It’s gonna be interesting,” On set he joked to the jury, they should say not guilty at the end, rewrite history and do a sequel about the retrial. When the movie happens he hopes to be a big help to Levinson. “I’m looking forward to this project coming to completion.”
Levinson’s goal for the end of summer is a proof of concept piece which will appear on YouTube and other outlets. “A lot of indie producers will make a proof of concept and piece it together anywhere from a few minutes to several as a tool to get people and potential investors interested in the product. If we raise enough money for a feature film, it would be great to begin production, maybe in the fall or end of the year. It would take, a solid month of filming to complete a feature for me.” What the public will see, potentially this summer is a 10 minute extended trailer of his vision.
Levinson lost any desire to see the house, long ago after countless YouTube videos surfaced. “It doesn’t look like the house anymore. Plus, I don’t believe it was haunted, at all.” He’s gotten flack on Facebook, and from Amityville groups saying he thinks the Lutz’s were charlatans and liars. “They did profit from it, to some extent.”
Many directors and writers took advantage of the Amityville name not being subject to copyright. So in the last few years, a non-stop tidal wave of movies good, bad, decent and unwatchable have poured out like blood down the walls, oozing onto YouTube and DVD like green slime covered distant byproducts.
Levinson eventually decided to add the eye-catching name for marketing and media muscle, “I was on the fence about putting it on there. Originally I put The People of New York VS Ronald J Defeo. From a marketing aspect a lot of people might not know who Ronald Defeo was. The murders happened 47 years ago. By the time the movie would come out it would probably be 50 years by the date of the murders.”
His movie will tie to part II in story and a few others that address the Defeo family. The script is still in progress, written from the perspective of Gerald Sullivan, the prosecutor of Defeo. “That’s something that’s never been done before. We’ve never seen William Weber; we haven’t seen them in any of the Amityville movies.” Though, Weber did appear on a History Channel Amityville documentary in 2005.
He’s trying to keep the story as factual as possible while adding his own narrative to parts that warrant creative license. “You want the movie to be interesting and want people to feel something for these characters. You have to make it cinematic, not all textbook.”
There are several books, documentary’s (TV and DVD) and movies about the Defeo family. The most recent, The Amityville Murders (2018) about the Defeo’s, by name, might be considered as a more factual remake or retelling of Amityville II: The Possession (1982), a highly fictionalized account of the story. The Possession starred Diane Franklin as Patricia Montelli (Dawn Defeo) and Burt Young as Anthony Montelli (Ronald Defeo Sr.). The Amityville Murders brought Franklin and Young back with Franklin playing matriarch Louise Defeo and Young playing Brigante, her father.
Levinson watched it, “I definitely give the writer/director props. Luckily he got Franklin. It’s nice she was in part II. I liked it. I know a lot of people didn’t but I liked the CGI. It is what it is, but I liked it” He didn’t care for the supernatural aspects. ”You opened the door into something that’s complete speculation. We’ve already seen that with the original Amityville Horror. Do we need to see it again? I’m sure people liked it. It had its moments. ” It also addressed the red room for the first time prior to the Lutz’s.
In 2012, documentary filmmaker Ryan Katzenbach released the Shattered Hopes docu-drama series detailing the events leading to the murders and alleged plot, “I watched it and really appreciated a lot of the stuff he did. He got backlash on social media, granted he took a documentary approach. Though they did some recreations, which was pretty cool.” He also interviewed Defeo in prison which can be found on YouTube.
Levinson’s undecided on the theory that Defeo had help, “I don’t know; could someone have been in the house with him, probably. I think even Gerald Sullivan, mentions he thought, Butch didn’t act alone necessarily. I can’t rule that out, no one can. The biggest mystery is how did six people get murdered in their beds? That’s what everyone always comes back to. How come no one heard gunshots in the neighborhood? Those are questions we’ll never have answers to. We can’t go back in time.”
He says the Lutz’s won’t be mentioned but nods to the way he’s telling the story and the planned ending, “The true hardcore Amityville fans of the 1979 film will appreciate the way I want to end the film. They’ll be like, oh yeah, this is great but I’m not gonna say anything else.”
He’s undecided if he’ll include flashbacks of the murders. “I originally said no. We have crime scene photos but also a makeup artist who recreated some of the makeup for the crime scene pictures. I was on the fence, but on the same token I’m also trying to do a dramatic approach to telling this story. This isn’t tongue and cheek or supernatural.” He believes showing glimpses of the images, isn’t disrespectful. Despite a multi-decade media shelf life, it’s almost a 50-year-old homicide.
Hardcore fans and Hollywood movies have made a big deal out of the family portraits hung above the stairs. “If I had a bigger budget I’d of put more work into it. The way we’re using those pictures, they’re not meant to be close-ups or acknowledged, just in the background. For realism in the house which I think we did a good job of. The location we had was great.”
Creative license will be used but the film starts with the homicides and the police arriving with Butch in the house upset with friends and girlfriend present. “It’s going to lead into the prosecutor story, how Gerald Sullivan, sneaked his way into getting the case.”
Levinson takes us into his personal life during the trial. “He was married with two young daughters. He’d only been a prosecutor for six years maybe. He was young, like 33, just starting out.”
The house itself won’t be shown a lot either. “It’s mostly about what these guys did to get Defeo convicted. William Weber, Butch’s attorney was a good attorney, trying to poke holes in this investigation. I don’t think he necessarily wanted Butch to plead insanity. He wanted to take Gerald Sullivan’s case apart. Saying, from the beginning the interrogation was coerced and Defeo was physically abused into a false confession. Those are things had Weber been able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, the case could’ve been a hung jury and gone Defeo’s way. Thank goodness it didn’t.”
Since the trial there’s been a slew of media about the Defeo case and Lutz story going back to Hans Holzer’s Murder in Amityville book, the more recent My Amityville Horror documentary about Danny Lutz’s recollection of those 28 days and life after.
Ric Osuna’s book The Night The Defeos Died gives great detail on what he thinks happened. Levinson appreciated the extent and effort Osuna went to for content and presentation. Though he believes the material’s a mix of facts and inaccuracies.
In 1995, paranormal investigator, Stephen Kaplan wrote The Amityville Horror Conspiracy, a detailed account of the Lutz’s stay and debunking of their story, with mentions of the Defeo’s “He was an interesting character in all of this.”
Kathy Lutz’s sister also published My Sisters Keeper recounting her POV of George’s behavior and the effect it had on her, the family and the house.
He hopes his movie will clear up longstanding, popular rumors and drama about the Defeo case. “I hope so to some extent. I want to tell a decent courtroom drama story. I want to (show) the relationship between Sullivan and his wife, all that stuff. This is going to be based on true events, not a true story because all the events aren’t true. The only true events would be ultimately what happened at trial.”
As long as more movies with the Amityville name come out, tourism may never end, as long as the house stands. “When you’re a kid you get more excited about these things, about seeing these things. As a 50-something year old man do I care about the people in the Amityville house and what they’re experiencing if anything? It’s none of my business.”
The chances of it happening are non-existent but he agrees that a live stream of the interior by the current owners may help quench and minimize curiosity for people that still drive by. Though finding recent inside images online isn’t hard. The house looks modern and nothing like the Defeo or Lutz periods, including the windows. Also according to online articles, the basement’s been remodeled and the Red Room with it.
Hopefully The People of Amityville will open people’s eyes to what really happened and give a different approach. Those not around in the ‘70s or ‘80s can go back and research the story and the media circus
If he gets his dream budget, he’ll have someone CGI the house back to the foreboding black exterior and triangular bedroom eyes of the Defeo period.
No demon pigs, ghost kids, slime, black ooze, wells, flies, supernatural voices, sensationalism or possessions will be in his movie. Though, they’ll be plenty of nightmares, maybe to the audience but definitely to one of the characters. A recurring nightmare will be shown. They’ll be some jump scares too. We’re definitely gonna make this look oldschool 1970’s.
According to Levinson and production posters, ‘The real horror of Amityville wasn’t the house.’
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