In 1979, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR was unleashed upon the world, and I can't imagine that anyone involved with the film would ever have expected that it would spawn dozens of direct-to-video sequels over the decades. Sure, most of those sequels were only loosely inspired by the original film, but it's quite the feat nonetheless.
Deadline has reported that we've got another AMITYVILLE HORROR film on the horizon, but this time, it will be going back to the real-life murders which became the background of the story for the entire franchise. On November 13, 2974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his mother, father, two brothers, and two sisters as they slept in their beds. A year later, George and Kathy Lutz, along with their three children, moved into the house, but after 28-days, the family left after claiming to have been terrorized by hostile supernatural forces. There's been quite the controversy over the validity of these so-called supernatural events, but it hasn't stopped filmmakers from milking it to death. Set to be helmed by Casey La Scale (THE REMAINING), who also wrote the script, AMITYVILLE 1974 will put the focus on those original murders. "This is a story that takes its jumping-off point from the true facts surrounding the Defeo tragedy," La Scala said, "but also focuses on the human drama that took place inside a family as they were relentlessly stalked by a terrifying evil." Jeff Bowler, founding partner of Wonderfilm Media, who will produce AMITYVILLE 1974, said the following in a statement:
We are beyond thrilled to introduce Amityville 1974. Casey has a truly unique and terrifying vision for the fright franchise and audiences will experience horror like never before with this film.
This won't be the first prequel in the AMITYVILLE franchise, as AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982) took place before the events of the original film. Production on AMITYVILLE 1974 is expected to kick off this November. Has anyone out there actually seen all of the AMITYVILLE films?