So, as a kid who was raised on horror movies, I’ve watched the original “Amityville Horror” and its remake tons of times. Not to mention all its original sequels and then all the other movies where they just threw on the “Amityville” name to try to get you to watch.

But, I had never read the book. When I was younger, the original movie scared me. My first exposure to a “based on a true story” horror movie, and it left me genuinely concerned about my house getting possessed by demons. The red eyes in the window...the babysitter trapped in the closet and her bloody hands...the window shutting on the boy’s hand. Stuff of nightmares. As I grew older, it started to come to light that George and Kathy Lutz were hard up for cash, so the whole “horror” was all a made up scam.

Listening to the book, it’s interesting what was used for the movie and what was left out. It was evident the movie was written for scares. The book, although scary in its own right, seems to go more for a psychological horror approach. As George and Kathy realize something isn’t right in their house - the impact seems more like depression, marriage troubles parental issues, financial problems and career failure - with the additional presence of demons. The author seems to make the connection between the horror in the house the horror all adults experience in our lives. Combine them, and you get a pretty creepy novel.

The narrator for the Audible version reads it almost as a straightforward forward news report, which adds to the creep factor, but also the supposed reality of the situation. The books takes on an even chillier dimension as we hear how the demonic infestation also impacts the priest, Fr. Mancini, who attempted to help. Although, some of the elements seem a bit of out left field and better support the idea the Lutzes made this all up...like green ectoplasmic goo, lion statues that move and bite people, and toilets that randomly just fill with a black substance. It also comes across as they are trying to provide a million different haunts and thus reasons for the possession.

There’s the off-handed reference to the witchcraft peddling preacher Catchum, who is a major plot point in the remake. It doesn’t go anywhere in the book. There’s also poltergeist behavior, but also demons in the fire, and demons terrorizing the children. It’s just a whole lot which makes it more evident that they were trying to make this as sensational as possible to get the most attention.

But, I could understand if anyone read this book when it was first published why they would be scared - and also why it became the subject matter for such a popular horror movie (and tons of subsequent movies.)