Earlier this year, we shared the news that Cintel Films was seeking funding for THE HAUNTING ON LONG ISLAND: THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS, a film that would tell the true story of the DeFeo family, the family that was murdered in the infamous and supposedly haunted Amityville house.
On the night of November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. took a high-powered rifle and murdered his entire family as they slept. At his trial, DeFeo claimed that “voices” in the house commanded him to kill. Thirteen months later, the Lutz family bought the house and stayed only 28 days before fleeing in terror. Their nightmarish ordeal shocked the world in The Amityville Horror. The Lutzes may have escaped from Amityville with their lives … but the DeFeo’s weren’t so lucky. This is their story.
Funding must have been secured, because it appears that THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS is currently in production, with Daniel Farrands producing and directing from a screenplay he wrote himself.
The film's IMDb page lists a cast that includes John Robinson, Paul Ben-Victor, Lainie Kazan, Chelsea Ricketts, and an actress who has experience with the world of AMITYVILLE, Diane Franklin.
Thirty-five years ago, Franklin starred as a girl who had a very questionable relationship with her brother in AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (pictured above). That film basically told a version of the DeFeo story, although the family in it were the Montellis. Franklin is said to be playing DeFeo mother Louise in THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS, and has confirmed her involvement with the project by sharing pictures from the set on her Facebook account. It's pretty cool that Farrands is taking Franklin back to Amityville.
Daniel Farrands is known to horror fans for writing the troubled sequel HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS and directing documentaries on the FRIDAY THE 13TH, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and SCREAM franchises. Farrands also produced THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT, and the long-delayed AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING. Are we ever going to see that one?