1979's "The Amityville Horror" still sits atop many critics' lists of scariest movies of all time. From the opening choral notes of Lalo Schifrin's compositions (which earned him an Oscar nomination), it's clear that something wicked lies in the spacious Dutch colonial at 112 Ocean Avenue, once the DeFeo home before the Lutz family moves in. It's a house with bad residue after Ronald DeFeo, Jr. slays his entire family with a rifle in the early hours of November 13, 1974. A year passes before George and Kathy Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder) move into the house with their three young children; the clan lasts 28 days before fleeing with claims of a haunted house. The house retains that dark energy, and the movie knows it; each room that the Lutz parents tour with the realtor is interspersed with imagery of the DeFeo murders before the kids even move in. As the 118-minute runtime powers forward, George battles for domain supremacy, even shouting "This is my house!" to the malevolent spirits in the climax.
