Well, I believed it was all true until a few decades later when I heard it was all made up for Hollywood...no green slime oozing from the walls, no swarms of bugs blocking out daylight, no ghosts...but it was still one of my favorite movies as a kid.
The movie on Blu-Ray
The murders were real...in 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot his parents and siblings to death, and got six concurrent sentences of 25 to life.
Now the three-story 1927 home is on the market for $850,000--$100,000 less than its last selling price in 2010. This surprises me, though: its horrific past hasn't deterred any prospective buyers, according the Coldwell Banker listing agent. One previous owner had the address changed to 108 Ocean Avenue, however.
The whole 'horror' phenom grew out of DeFeo's lawyer's claim that DeFeo heard voices in the home that convinced him to murder his entire family. Jay Anson's novel became a best seller with the help of subsequent owners George and Kathy Lutz, and Hollywood took that ball and ran with it. The movie was also a huge hit.
DeFeo's lawyer finally came clean and admitted the book and movie were the Lutzes' concoctions and were not true crime stories.
True or not, it scared the bejeezus out of me in 1974!
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