03-011
The Amityville Horror
After trying to fit 2 indie horror movies,
the 2019 The Dawn & 2018 The Amityville Murders, into the open
port at the beginning of The Conjuring 2, it is time to come to the
masterpiece.
Posters of the classic 1979 The Amityville Horror and its 2005 remake
The Amityville Murders ends with a real estate agent showing a couple the very house in Amityville, 1 year after the killing. Their names were George and Kathy, the Lutz. 2 movies cover their story afterwards, the classic 1979 The Amityville Horror and the 2005 remake.
The ending of the 2018 The Amityville Murders
Background of both movies is the same. The
Lutz moved into the house but fled 28 days after, claiming being encountered with
supernatural forces. The Warrens only arrived weeks after they have fled the
house. However, storylines of both movies are quite difference. Which one would
fit with The Conjuring Universe better? I begin with the remake.
1979 The Amityville Horror vs. 2005 The Amityville Horror
I always use Peter Jackson’s The Lord of
the Rings as the dividing range between modern day and yesteryear movies.
Most likely because of the innovation on CG, movies produced after the
millennia always give people a modern feeling.
Overall feeling of the 2005 remake matches
very well with other movies in The Conjuring Universe. The remake is
almost a decade older than the others but they all belong to the same
generation. Watch it and you will agree that it is a modern movie. However, maybe
because it is a remake, the story writer wanted to distinguish it from the 1979
classic. The storyline was alerted a lot and moved far away from factual.
First, the house is in a different address. Lutz’s children names are changed. George Lutz is much more violence in the remake and even killed his dog. But the main problem is on Chelsea Lutz. In the remake, she had an imaginary friend Jodie, who is actually the youngest daughter of the DeFeo’s. In the remake, Jodie was killed by Butch DeFeo inside a closet. But the true Jodie is not a girl. He is a boy. And he was killed on his bed, same as the other family members.
In The Conjuring 2, Lorraine met the ghosts
of the DeFeo children in the basement of the Amityville house.
This very part contradicts with The Conjuring 2. The Conjuring 2 did not mention the exact address of the house or the details of the Lutz or the DeFeo families. But it did show Ronald DeFeo shotting his youngest brothers on their beds. And when Lorraine followed Valak to the basement, there is a scene showing the ghosts of the 4 DeFeo children, which include 2 older girls and 2 younger boys. They all have wounds on their chests, not on their head.
The beginning of the classic 1979 The Amityville Horror
The original 1979 The Amityville Horror follows the fact more. Movie starts with the DeFeo killings. The DeFeo family, father, mother, 2 sisters and 2 brothers were all killed on their beds. Lutz’s youngest daughter also has an imaginary friend called Jody. But Jody is in a form of a pig. Clearly, it is a demon. This setting fits with The Conjuring 2 better.
The ending of the 2005 The Amityville Horror
The ending of the 1979 The Amityville Horror
Another problem is at the ending of the remake. At the end of the remake, it said the Lutz has “never returned for their personal possession”, leaving not much room to have the Warrens sitting together with them in the same house again. The 1979 classic only said they “never reclaimed their house and their personal belongings”. It did not rule out the possibility of seeing them going back to the house for a final time together with the Warrens.
More details also show the classic 1979 The
Amityville Horror align with The Conjuring Universe better. For
example, we can see Annabelle in the movie.
However, fitting a yesteryear movie into a modern era movie universe needs to add a bit of salt to make them harmonize. A modern movie with story background set in the 70s, is different from a movie that was actually shotted in the 70s. You can feel their differences. 2005 is not a distant past. Although 35mm negative is still widely used in those days, background processing and editing had all been shifted to digital. CG was also quite advance at that time. Pictures of the 2005 remake fits better in The Conjuring Universe. But storyline should come first. I will pick the 1979 classic as the missing puzzle piece.
The 1979 classic vs the 2005 remake
From the lighting and the shotting angle, you can tell the difference.
How about connecting with The Dawn
and The Amityville Murders?
Both The Dawn and The Amityville
Murders are indie movies. Their production companies have no relationship with
each other or with The Amityville Horror or the remake. The only common
ground between these movies are that they all based on the same so-called true story.
Contradictions are expected if we try to link these movies together to form a
saga.
Fortunately, we can see the later movies were
trying to shape themselves to link with the originals. And that worked out very
well.
First, let us look into The Amityville Murders. I found that this movie tried to shape itself to link with the classic 1979 The Amityville Horror more. The main reason is the secret red-brick room in the basement. The same room can be found in the 1979 classic. But in the 2005 remake, the room was not mentioned. Instead, the “room” changed to a dungeon in the remake.
Butch's sketchbook in The Amityville Murders
Another evidence is Butch’s sketchbook. In the 2005 remake, Jodie appeared as a girl. But in the 1979 classic, Jody is in a pig form, a demon. In The Amityville Murders, Butch also wrote the word "PIG" in his notebook, together with other satanic symbols. All these shows the 2018 The Amityville Murders fits with the 1979 The Amityville Horror better.
Rev. Jeremiah Ketchum is spelled as "Ketcham" in the remake
The Dawn uses Rev. Jeremiah Ketchum to link itself to Amityville. But there are some problems. In the remake, Rev. Jeremiah Ketchum was clearly referenced but the spelling is a bit different. It is Ketcham instead of Ketchum.
In the original 1979 classic, the movie only showed a picture called “The Ketchum House”. And one of the character in the movie, Carolyn, called him John Ketchum, not Jeremiah.
Jeremiah should be a person living in the 17th century
Except the Jeremiah in The Dawn is an undead,
or else he could not appear in year 1932.
An even bigger problem is the active
years of Ketchum. He is a person living in the era of "Salem witch trials". He
could not appear in year 1932 in Pennsylvania.
Anyway, as I said before, we need a bit of
salt to get things harmonizing with each other. As a conclusion, we can link up
the movies in this way:
- 2019 The Dawn
- 2018 The Amityville Murders
- 1979 The Amityville Horror
- 2016 The Conjuring 2
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