Director: Eric Walter
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Film Pulse Score: 7/10
Unidentified Flying Objects. Alien visitors. Bigfoot. The Loch Ness Monster. Are they just folklore or did they actually appear? For generations it has been debated if they are real or just someone’s idea of a good yarn to spin. Research has been conducted to seek definitive proof of their existence and said research has been presented to the public. Despite what most would argue is real it has always been met with skepticism and will remain that way until the end of time. That is of course until someone can prove without question they are real. The Amityville Horror is arguably one of the most infamous hauntings to have ever been documented. However the lingering question of whether or not it was real remains. Only three people in the world remain that know what occurred during those frightful twenty-eight days in that peaceful Long Island town and none of them have talked about. In Eric Walter’s engaging documentary My Amityville Horror one of them speaks out.
Daniel Lutz is the oldest of the three Lutz children; his two siblings declined to participate. Now middle-aged he is a man who shows scars, psychological, emotional and physical, from that traumatic event in 1975. For decades he has always been irritated and angered by the fact that he’s been labeled “The Amityville Guy.” Always met with skepticism and under scrutiny he reached a point where he simply doesn’t want to talk about it and would often become emotional when he does actually discuss it. At one point in the film he says he just wants someone to believe him. In the end you may not believe in the vents of The Amityville Horror but you may believe him.
Walter doesn’t set out to make Lutz look like a charlatan. We are presented with a man who clearly experienced something traumatic when he was ten years old. Whether or not the events occurred as he describes is only known to the Lutzes. However his recollections of events are fascinating and convincing. There are times where what he’s saying is hard to believe like when he recounts George Lutz’s telekinetic abilities. Others are quite chilling like when he describes seeing a ghost in the kitchen or his encounter with hordes of houseflies. Walter gathers a series of psychologists, paranormal experts and a few journalists who covered the story back in 1975. They present many theories and explanations of not only the haunting but about what Daniel Lutz is experiencing and what may be the underlying meanings of his story. Their psychological analysis of him doesn’t debunk him or his claims but actually brings forth a new spin on not only the event but the Lutzes themselves. It’s a very interesting analysis that truly makes this film feel closer to a definitive version of The Amityville Horror.
In the end there is still room for skepticism. However you cannot deny that Lutz clearly believes what occurred to him. You can really see the emotional scars that it left behind and that he is still troubled by it which truly adds weight to the argument that it was true. We may never know what actually occurred in that house but thanks to Walter’s documentary we have new insight into the horror itself and what is theorized is more terrifying and somber than the supernatural itself.
