All language subtitles for Amityville An Origin Story s01e04 The Feedback Loop.eng

[ominous music plays]

♪

[interviewer on recording]
Did you feel anything at all

about the little red room
downstairs?

[Joe]
That was like a secret room.

And that was described as

the gateway to hell.

If the red room is there,

then there really is
something supernatural

or satanic about the house.

I'm not sure.

I think it was just
a concrete wall painted red.

♪

My name is Patty Commarato.

I was friends with
Allison DeFeo,

the girl who was murdered with
the rest of her family

here in 1974.

This is the red room.

Nothing more than
a storage area

where Allison and her brothers
and I used to keep toys.

Just red, you know?

There's never any feeling of
spirit presence or ghosts

or any sort of thing like that.

♪

[dark synth music plays]

♪

[voice] Get out.

♪

[ominous music plays]

♪

[interviewer] Haven't you
made a lot of money

out of this story,
whether it is true or not,

to the point where
people might well say

they can't properly judge it

because it's been
a profit-making enterprise

to tell the story?

We didn't write the book.

[interviewer] But are you not
involved in the profits

of the book in some way?

We're involved with

the author, Jay Anson,
on profits.

There is also--

We've been accused on occasion
of fabricating a hoax.

And it's very hard to live
a lie.

To daily come up against people
who point a finger and say,

"This can't be.

"You went and you bought
this house

"just to make a book,

"to take your children
and to put them into this

"and to stand them up
in front of the public

"and let the public
ridicule them

for the rest of their lives
for a few dollars." No.

♪

Our parents sold us out
for $275 a head

for the children
to be depicted in the film.

George became obsessed with
this moneymaking venture

from this Amityville story.

And he felt that it was fine
to add fiction to it.

But I know what happened.

You don't get to
play it off like

you were a hero to the family

when you're a perpetrator.

In my closet,
there was a paneling

that revealed an area
behind the wall.

That would have been where
Ronald DeFeo hid

the things that he was trying
to hide from his parents.

Looking in there, there was
two bags of capsules,

pills.

Exactly what kind they were,

I didn't find out

until questioning George
way later in life.

And he was really surprised
that I remembered.

He said they were quaaludes.

So now,
I don't know how quaaludes--

I've never taken them,
so I don't know exactly

how they'd react on the body--

but I do know this:

George had a very different
change in his demeanor...

♪

...where he no longer
went into work,

he no longer was doing
personal care.

He became obsessed with just
sitting around the fire

and obsessed with his boats
and his boathouse.

And so to me, that sounds like
a drug binge.

♪

Mama!

Oh, mama! Mama!

[shouting]

[unsettling music plays]

[sighs deeply]

♪

We were going to do a sequel

to The Amityville Horror.

We're going to do
a second book,

absolutely non-fiction.

We spent the money that
we made from the first book

and from the movie
to hire the writer John Jones.

And then subsequently
go back and interview

all the other people
that had helped us

and had been involved with us

while we were in the house
and afterwards,

telling their stories.

[Carol]
George hired a ghostwriter

for the second book.

And he wanted me to come out

and help with all of that.

And that's when I moved out
to San Diego.

♪

[Laura] George and Kathy
wanted my recollections

of all these things
that had transpired.

I actually went out
to California.

It turns out,

George seemed to think that

whatever type of
entity was in the house

followed them to California.

And he said to me, "Well,
when we were on the plane

"going to San Diego,
Missy was sitting there

"and said, 'Oh, look,
Jody is on the wing.'"

[terrifying music plays]

♪

Missy had a very
high degree of sensitivity.

She truly believed that
they were little playmates

that were there.

It was--it was frightening.

It was very, very, very,
very frightening.

[Christopher] The Warrens
became a part of our lives.

They'd visit us out in--
out in California

when we were living there.

And the Warrens started
testing us kids

for psychic abilities.

We were walking
alone with the children.

And those innocent little
kids were relating to us

without us asking questions

about things that occurred
to them in that house.

[Christopher]
I remember Father Ray

coming to California one time.

It was Father Ray that
suggested that we move out of

the Amityville house.

I felt safe around him.

I remember I just ran to him
and jumped at him

and he picked me up
and I--I just wept.

I remember George asking later,
"Why'd you cry?"

[Laura] I did ask Father Ray,

"Did you hear
a disembodied voice

"telling you to get out?

"Did you feel something
smack you in the face?

Did that happen?"

And he said
"Yes, that did happen.

That's accurate."

[voice] Get out.

Get out!

I vaguely remember it.

I remember James Brolin,
that's the main thing,

and flies
or something like that.

Well, it was
a haunted house movie.

So for me, it's
how well is it done?

["Dance of the Sugar Plum
Fairy" playing]

Haunted house movies,
they began in France.

I guess the earliest was
George Méliès,

1890s,

and they've always been
with us.

It's always the same
kind of basic story.

House is haunted.

People come in.

They get terrorized.

They don't leave like
normal people would,

they stay like movie people do.

♪

Horror is
a great allegorical genre.

Everybody is afraid
in the entire world.

We're born afraid.

♪

We are afraid of
the same things.

It's a universal feeling.

Humor changes sometimes
from country to country.

The horror never changes.

It's a powerful medium
when it's done right.

[terrifying music plays]

♪

[man] Part of where
the title Get Out came from,

this goes back to
the old Eddie Murphy routine.

In The Amityville Horror,
the ghost told them

to get out the house.

White people stayed in there.

Now that's a hint and a half
for your ass.

A ghost say get the fuck out,

I would just tip the fuck out
the door.

And he did this Amityville bit
of like, "Get out."

We got a chandelier
hanging up here,

kids outside playing,
it's a beautiful neighborhood.

We ain't got nothing to worry--
I really love--

this is really nice--

"Get out."
Too bad we can't stay, baby.

[laughter, applause]

[soft thoughtful music plays]

♪

[interviewer]
I'm wondering if you ever saw

Amityville II: The Possession?

Please no, please.

Please, please. [chuckles]

No, life's too short for
some of this.

Now, come on.

[prayerful singing]

♪

[crew member 1] I guess
the light's changing, right?

Let me know
when you're ready.

I'm gonna just stick this
back there.

[crew member 2]
Sound is speeding.

Diane Franklin interview,
take one.

- It's changing, right?
- [crew member 3] Yep.

[crew member 2] Thank you.

My name is Diane Franklin.

And I was the actress
who played the daughter

in the film Amityville II:
The Possession.

The film is about
a young family

that moves to the suburbs

trying to start a new life.

I played Patricia Montelli,

based on Dawn DeFeo.

The minute they
come into the house,

there is an energy
that is not normal.

Take off your nightgown.

There.

And with that story,

I don't think anyone

has tackled the subject
of incest that real.

The stories of the brother
who takes on this energy,

taking on the poison of
the family and the household.

[suspenseful music plays]

[gasps]

She sees this monster
about to shoot her

and she believes he won't
shoot me, he loves me.

What are you doing?

[gunshot echoes]

[director] And if you just look
from where you are

and just look at my hand,
it's out of the shot.

- So look out the window again.
- Right.

[director] And just turn
to look at my hand.

Just keep it there.

[crew member]
Okay, and then walk to you.

[director] And then just walk
towards me.

[Ronnie] Because of
Amityville Horror,

I don't believe
I'll ever get out of prison.

You know, they made
a monster out of me.

And the public is
terrified of me

and they don't want me
back out on the street.

[Daniel] I spent the years
2004 to 2007

in prison with Ronnie DeFeo.

In prison,
they show a lot of movies.

But they never showed any of
the Amityville Horror movies

in Green Haven
because Ronnie was there.

And Ronnie would have made
a big old stink

about how showing the movie
would put him in danger.

He also blamed them for
his parole problems.

An Amityville Horror movie
came out at the same time

as his parole hearing.

And he claimed that
this made it

absolutely impossible for him
to get a fair hearing.

And that's why
he was denied parole.

It's all because of
those fucking movies,

not because he had killed
six people.

You want me to look out
the window first

and look at Neil's hand
and then walk into Neil.

[Daniel] When he first told me

that the mob rubbed out
his family,

I of course nodded and said,
"Sorry that happened."

It took about
a little over a year

for him to start telling me
a different story.

[director] And go.

[Daniel] Ronnie talked to me
in a hushed voice

and he said, "You know,
it's really fucked up.

"My sister, Dawn,

"murdered my family.

"The only way I survived was by

"taking the gun away
and shooting her.

"It was the worst thing
I ever did.

It was horrible."

[Ronnie] I heard a roar.
You know, it was a gunshot.

It was loud.

I soon entered
my father's room.

I pushed the light button
on the wall there.

I saw a hole in
my father's back--one hole.

I ran across the hallway, right?

And I saw
my little sister there,

you know.

I started really getting
crazy there, you know.

I saw her--with her head,
you know--

blood running down
the side of her head.

I ran upstairs then.

The only one alive in
the house was my sister.

I went off.

I threw her across the room.

She went flying, landed in
the bed on her stomach.

That's when I grabbed
the rifle.

It was all one big motion.

I--I killed her.

I shot my sister in the head.

Like I say, I just lost it.

It just happened so quick,
I lost it.

[somber music plays]

Over the years, Ron DeFeo
had several versions of

how his sister, Dawn, was
one of the shooters.

And this story changed
over the decades.

It wasn't just one
"Dawn was involved" story.

My father writes
in his book that

he characterizes
the accusation that

Dawn was one of the killers
as preposterous.

♪

He thought that
it was unlikely that

a young woman who had no known
experience with firearms

would be able to so expertly
move from room to room

and in close range,
with just a shot or two,

kill her siblings.

So my father did not believe
the "Dawn is involved" story.

[Carol] When I heard him
accuse Dawn

of being part of the murders,

I was just astounded.

And I thought, "How dare you?"

She did not have that
in her heart.

She loved her parents.
She loved her siblings.

He was just trying to deflect,
I think.

Yeah, I just knew that
he was full of shit.

I read about the sequel,
The Possession.

I was so incensed.
And I'm trying to remember now.

I'm pretty sure
that was the one where

they tried to now
introduce the idea that

there might have been
some incest.

And I said this is
absolutely now obscene.

They want to make a movie about
whatever that's not true,

you know,
call it something else even.

At that point,
it's really so exploitative.

[somber music plays]

♪

The Possession shows
the ways in which that story

got out of the Lutz's hands.

The sequel wildly
fabricates things

because that's what we do
with stories like this.

You can't tell the story in
a strictly factual way

because no one--no one really
wants to see that.

[narrator]
What was in this house?

- [door slams]
- No.

[narrator] What evil could
drive their son to madness

and destroy everything
and everyone he loved?

Mommy!

Dino De Laurentiis
put out a movie called

Amityville Horror II,

which they eventually changed
to Amityville II

and did it without
our permission.

[narrator] Amityville II:
The Possession.

[George] And that became
a 12, 13-year lawsuit.

So even if you have
the rights,

even if you're trying
to do this

the best way you possibly can

and fix the stuff that's
been wrong or been said wrong,

things will come along and
keep you from doing that.

♪

[Christopher] I remember
as a kid being in school

and we were asked what
our parents do for a living.

I didn't even know
what they did for a living.

I remember asking George.

And he said "I'm a writer."

And I said,
"What do you write about?"

And he said,
"Things that happened."

And that was where he left it.

Amityville became
George's whole project.

It was his business.

He kept the publicity up.

That was his way of working.

He supported his family with Amityville.

[Christopher] The progression
that George went through

was like, very obsessive

of the notoriety

and getting out there
and his public image.

Behind closed doors,
he was a very different guy

than what he was portraying publicly.

[Carol] I asked Kathy a couple
of times about the children.

And she told me that
she was trying to

shelter them from
everything that was going on.

But I didn't think,
at that point,

they were being sheltered.

It was just too public.

And when it happens
to a family,

usually they close the door
and they don't talk about it.

[interviewer] Yeah.

And unless these things are
talked about,

they'll never be understood.

[James] When you would talk to
the family and the kids

and I would ask them questions,

they would not go, "Well, um--"

They'd have the answer
right now,

like they'd been schooled.

[Christopher] I listened
to James Brolin talk

about how he met the kids

and they sounded like
they were coached.

We were in a situation where

if we weren't on our best behavior,

we were gonna get the shit
knocked out of us

when we got home.

So to say that we were coached,

the guy doesn't know
what we were going through.

Ooh, "big star."

Okay, so you made your name
off of that movie.

You didn't live it.

George was a former Marine,
a black belt in jujitsu.

I had no defense against him.

[sighs softly]

♪

So George believed that,

with my mind,
I could make him ill...

even to the point where...

he thought he was gonna die.

And he came in and he started
beating the shit out of me

for my thoughts.

Killing him through telepathy
was just

so fucking fucked up, man.

And I really didn't plan on
talking about that.

I need a minute, man.

[sighs]

[quietly] Holy fuck.

[Carol] If the Warrens found
that Christopher, in a sense,

has some psychic ability,

I can see where one step
could lead to another.

Because George,
he was afraid that

Christopher took the evil
with him,

was possessed by the evil.

George was kind of
constantly haunted.

He would hear voices.

We would be driving somewhere

and he would turn around
while he was driving

and yell at something
in the back of the car.

He would be sitting in
the room,

and all of a sudden,

he'd get up and start
screaming at something...

telling these spirits or
whatever that was haunting him

to go away, to not bother him.

It gets to the point where
you're convinced that

there is evil,
there is something there.

It kind of felt like
George was acting possessed.

♪

I had found out I was pregnant
with my first child.

And I didn't want
my unborn child

to have to experience
anything like that.

I was just frightened by it.

I went back home to Brooklyn.

I don't want anything to do
with Amityville at all.

I don't want anything
to do with the Lutzes.

And just--I never contacted

George and Kathy again
after that.

[soft dramatic music plays]

♪

[chorus vocalizing]

♪

[Christopher] Book number two

that he authorized
to have written,

it talks about how he had
to go through an exorcism.

[chorus singing in Latin]

In London, England,

the Archbishop of Canterbury's
exorcist,

Reverend Neil Smith,

he performed for us what some
people would call an exorcism.

I'd call it more of
a blessing.

[chorus continuing]

But it was
a rite of separation

in the Anglican church.

And it was a separation
from the house,

from the effects of the house.

He looked right at Kathy
and said,

"You're still affected
by this."

Beat down Satan under our feet

and cause all evil forces
to depart!

[William] I've personally
observed exorcism

both in Catholic circles
and evangelical ones.

Exorcism can function
as a placebo ritual.

And that that is then
going to aid them

in their feeling of recovery,

and it actually will produce
a physical sensation

that could, in a way,
improve their condition.

[eerie music plays]

♪

[Christopher]
You don't need an exorcism

because you lived in
a haunted house.

You get an exorcism because
you've got demons.

What is it like to
live with a man

that's in need of an exorcism

that's your stepdad

who's treating you like
a stepson

that doesn't care
who the hell you are?

[Laura] Christopher was always
looking over his shoulder,

like, "Oh, I better not say
anything I'm not supposed to

or I'll get in trouble."

The thing that
really struck me most was that

Danny would just glare
at George.

He did not hide his feelings.

If looks could kill,

I mean, he would have had
laser beams towards George

coming out of both eyes.

[Carol] Kathy had,
from what I know,

an abusive first husband.

And it left her as
a divorced woman in the '70s

with three children,
which, at that time,

it was not exactly
looked well upon.

So when George came along and
was willing to accept her

and the children,
it was wonderful,

from her point of view,

that somebody wanted to
make them a family again.

And she did
everything she could

to keep the marriage together

because of the children.

[camera shutter clicks]

[interviewer]
But you said you and Kathy

weren't together anymore.

And I was wondering if you can
say when you divorced and why,

if it had anything
to do with this or--

The reasons we got
divorced are really personal.

We went in separate directions
about exposing the house.

As far as Kathy is concerned,

her point is that she only
wants to deal with

the nonfiction part

and does not believe that

fiction also helps to do that.

♪

[Christopher]
My mom became ill.

She had a medical condition
and she needed help.

I took up residence with her,

started to care for her
until her death.

That was when I decided to

change my name back to Quaratino.

And so for several years,
I got to enjoy the anonymity

of not being associated with
that story anymore.

♪

And then one day,
I got a phone call.

And that's when
I found out that

George was getting ready to
make another movie.

Next year,
there will finally be

an authorized sequel of sorts,

Amityville Horror:
25 Years Later.

- Is it real?
- Yes, it's in production now.

And you're the first people
I'm telling in the media.

And then I find out that
George's movie

is gonna be about a
Lutz son returning to the house

25 years later,

killing him through telepathy
in the end of the movie.

So I did whatever I could to,
like, stop what he was doing.

♪

I took to the internet.

AmityvilleHorror.com
became available

and I scooped it up.

He sued me for what he said was
a trademark violation.

I can't say that what I had
done actually stopped it,

but I was making as much of
a ruckus about it as I could.

All in favor,
sign up on my Facebook page

and let's make history.

Good night.

[soft music plays]

I've made myself publicly
available on social media

for about a decade now.

I'm just really amazed at
the stories I hear from people

that were greatly affected
by it

when it initially came out.

♪

People of my generation
or even older that, like,

this story really resonated
with them.

There's so many people
in the paranormal field

that I have met
through the years,

having gone to conferences,

and I often ask people,

"What's got you so interested
in the paranormal?"

And so many people
have told me,

you know, "When I was a kid,
I saw your--

I saw the movie
about your family."

♪

Enough about the story
resonates as real.

♪

And that's why it continues on.

♪

Why is it you feel like
people want to cling

to this story?

Partially because they have
fantasies that they believe in

and partially because
there's money to be made.

[applause]

[host] He holds the
unique title of demonologist.

She's a psychic.

Together they just completed
work as

demonology advisors on
the upcoming film

Amityville II: The Possession.

Please welcome
Ed and Lorraine Warren.

[applause]

[Christopher] The Warrens,

they made a career
for themselves.

They highlighted the fact that

they were involved in
our story.

What's the most famous case

you've ever been involved with?

Well, I would have to say
the Amityville Horror,

since it's world renowned.

[Christopher] Years later,
I found out that they had been

the creative consultant
on multiple movies

after the initial movie.

And I didn't find that to be,
like, genuine.

[terrifying music plays]

[reporter]
When The Conjuring opened

in theaters in 2013,

it was a box-office hit

that raked in $137 million
in the U.S.

and terrified audiences worldwide.

This is as close to hell
as I ever want to get.

♪

[Christopher] People would
attach themselves to this

in one way or another.

Jay Anson, having been
penned as the author,

is the one that's making
the big money on it.

Last I know, he made, like,
16 million on it.

16 million.

My parents made, like, 400,000.

- [flies buzzing]
- [screams]

[voice] Get out!

It's a remake
that's really worthy,

simply because
the original doesn't--

I don't believe,
holds up after time.

Kill them!

The greatest haunted house
story ever told.

♪

[voice] Catch them.

Kill them.

[Daniel] Catch 'em
and you kill 'em.

You catch 'em
and you kill 'em.

Ronnie DeFeo kept repeating
this over and over.

I've never seen
anything like this.

"How can I get a fair hearing
when all they know

is that I catch 'em
and kill 'em?"

He was angry at Hollywood.

He claimed that he should have
been compensated

for his contribution to
the Amityville Horror movies.

The Amityville Horror
really is supposed to be me.

Because I'm the one that

got convicted
of killing my family.

I'm the one they say did it.

I'm the one that's supposed
to be possessed.

[indistinct chatter]

[Daniel] He had told me about
the mob stuff,

and then said Dawn killed
the whole family.

So I guess it's implied that

he had acknowledged that
the mafia story wasn't true.

♪

From what I understood,
the father had

legitimate connections
with the mafia.

But this did not spread to
the son.

The mob guys in the jail

wouldn't have anything to do
with him.

I mean, they actively
disliked him.

They felt he was
an embarrassment to them.

I don't believe organized crime
had anything to do with that.

Anything.

There were two major rules:

you never killed a guy
in his house

and you never killed him
in front of his family.

That was the rule
and you didn't break that rule.

[Ronnie] The horror itself is
my family getting killed.

I guess that's the only
really tragedy here.

Everything else...
it's fantasy really.

It's fiction.

♪

[Daniel] When Ronnie died
in 2021, I felt really sad,

which is kind of strange
because he's a multi murderer.

He hadn't been, like,
the greatest guy I ever met.

He was actually an oddity,
if anything.

And I was surprised that
he died

a little younger
than I thought.

But he had been using drugs
his whole life,

as a prisoner too.

Also, of course,
prison is a stressful place

and it wears on you.

[man singing in Latin]

♪

[T.K.] My grandmother was
the secretary to Father Ray.

One of his annulment cases was
George's first marriage.

She really documented everything

because she just had
a bad intuition over time.

And the intuition was just,
there's something there,

but I don't know what it is.

I was married previously also
to a Catholic.

And as part of the annulment
proceedings for that marriage,

I was called down
to the diocese office

and interviewed.

[T.K.] The annulment documents

do reveal things
about George's past

and have never been released.

♪

Yeah, so the letter, um,

from the therapist was
quite interesting

because of the fact that he has
the perspective from both

George and his first wife.

And she defines her role
as being

a maid in his office
and in his home.

He never allowed me
to open my mouth.

Yeah.

He'd proudly use terms as,
"I got her trained,"

to defiantly state his
position in their marriage.

"His rigid expansive attitude
appeared to conceal

"a very frightened individual

"who was most insecure
concerning his role

as a male and husband."

George has effectively
extorted money.

She invested all
of her savings,

and he refused
to allow her name

to appear on
the title of the house.

This is a little uncomfortable
to read.

♪

There is evidence that
he abused her physically

on several occasions.

Apparently, she required
medical assistance

for injuries that were
inflicted by George.

♪

The feedback from
the medical expert, it says,

"In this case,
with the preparation

"I am able to state with
medical and moral certainty,

"that at the time
of his marriage,

"George Lutz was suffering from

"a serious personality disorder.

"This would appropriately be
diagnosed as

antisocial personality."

♪

[Carol] "George Lutz was
suffering from a serious

"personality disorder.

"His callousness
and selfishness is typical

"of the sociopathic

or antisocial personality."

I'm kind of mystified that
somebody can be

that much of a chameleon.

I'm shocked that
he hid it so well.

I really am.

[unsettling music plays]

♪

[Jennifer] Antisocial
personality disorder

is a diagnosis that
tends to be given to people

who have a blatant disregard
for the rights of others.

These are people who
do not show empathy

or remorse for other people.

And they're oftentimes
believed to be manipulative.

So they might
present differently

or say different things
or shift facts

when they're talking to
different people.

In 2006, Dr. Hoge,
a psychiatrist,

interviewed Ronnie DeFeo to
get a better understanding of

how Ronnie DeFeo was presenting,

how he was thinking about
the crimes.

He believed that
Ronnie DeFeo was experiencing

an antisocial personality disorder,

that he seems to be
more manipulative.

[ominous music plays]

♪

Sometimes individuals try to

give an excuse for violent
behavior or abusive behavior.

"The devil made me do it" or
"I was possessed at the time."

And sometimes
these individuals will

even undergo exorcisms,

as in the case of
the Lutz family stepfather.

So that can be
a little bit puzzling.

How do we interpret that?

Our only answer is that
we're not totally sure.

♪

There was a tribe of Indians
called the Shinnecocks,

and they used this land
as a sort of exposure pen.

They put all
the crazy people here,

and they left them here to die.

[Shea]
The Amityville Horror film

is the first time in cinema

where the Indian burial ground
trope is used.

[narrator] That's why no one

ever buried a human being
out there.

You are thinking of putting
him out there.

Don't deny the thought
hadn't crossed your mind.

[Shea] The Indian burial
ground trope--

I like to call it the IBG--

is the idea that
if a place is built

on an Indian burial ground,

it is somehow more haunted
or evil

or is going to inspire

something really dreadful
to happen.

And yes, the Shinnecock Nation
exists on Long Island.

They would venture to the area
of the Amityville house

for possibly hunting.

But it wasn't really part of
their traditional land.

♪

[John] The Indian burial
ground in movies

is just such a cliché.

But people love that shit.
They eat it up.

The site is supposed to be
located on

an Indian burial ground,

and I believe
they actually had to

repel a few Indian attacks
as they were building it.

Why is it that
the Indian burial ground

is always what people claim?

[man 1]
This was their burial ground.

[Shea] Is it
the white settler guilt?

[man 2]
Whose burial ground?

[man 1] Mi'kmaq Indians.

Is it this idea that there
has to be some kind of evil...

to justify
why we took this land?

♪

Even popular ghost shows

and the paranormal hunters
that go out,

it's a very easy explanation,

especially if
you're in the areas

that are associated
with tribal people.

[Dr. Greenaway] Perhaps we can
think about this as a way

of dealing with the kind

of repressed and unspoken complicity,

especially in suburbia,

as a way of trying to tease out

some of the unspoken violence,

the unspoken horror of
American history itself.

[soft dramatic music plays]

♪

[dark synth music plays]

♪

The fact that so many people
wanted the story to be true

or in fact believed the story
to be true

is much more revealing
and is much more interesting

than whether the story
itself is true or not.

♪

What really happened is that
we all joined in the story.

It became something that is
self-sustaining.

It became kind of
a feedback loop.

♪

You can come into
a space you think is yours,

but it has history.

There's traces, there's trauma.

[thunder booms]

Did this actually happen?

Maybe something did happen
that was demonic.

We still don't know how to
reckon with historical trauma.

It still rises up
to battle with.

[screaming]

[Dr. Greenaway] If you think
about buildings that have seen

great violence
or great suffering,

you think to yourself,

"Maybe they should be
haunted."

There should be something here

because that way,
it would mean that

all of that pain and suffering
hasn't been forgotten.

[screams]

She was shot in the head!

[Laura] I never thought it was
gonna be the basis of

an enduring story
that we're still talking about

nearly 50 years later.

This has got to be the end.

I don't understand why people--

I don't know why people are
so interested in it.

I guess because
it's a ghost story

and people love ghost stories

and they want to believe
they're real.

You want to believe there's
something beyond our lives,

something that's beyond us.

Everyone in the world
that I've spoken to,

if I mention it,
know about this story.

They're fascinated by it.

But the sad thing is that
he killed everybody.

No! No! No!

No!

[thunder booms]

[Alexandra]
I think a lot of it's true

and a lot of it's not.

And I don't think there was
a demon in the house doing it.

I think there's some people
in this world

are as evil as demons.

I believe it's now been
32 movies

that have attached
the name Amityville to them

to capitalize upon this crap
that I went through as a kid.

And none of those people give
a shit what really happened.

[Laura] George was embroiled
in one lawsuit after another.

He had a lawsuit
going with MGM

over the 2005 remake.

After that lawsuit
was settled,

May 6, 2006,

George has
a massive heart attack...

and dies.

♪

[Tommy]
Ronnie still haunts me.

Maybe I had a shot at
getting the truth out of him.

I wanted to look him in
the eye and say,

"What went down?"

But we'll probably never know.

And that's a shame.

I feel like Ronnie committed
the murders alone.

He's scum.

And he's dead now and
he's rotting in hell.

And that's my feeling.

[chuckles]

[Christopher]
No doubt George was a victim

of the karma that he put out.

"I'm gonna make a movie
about my son

killing me through telepathy."

I'm not gonna tell the story about

what happened
the day that he did die.

But that thing that
he wanted in the movie?

Careful what you wish for.

[ominous music plays]

♪

[John] The house will continue
to be a time bomb...

ticking away, ticking away.

One fine day, someone will
move into that house

who have some of the qualities
of young Ronald DeFeo Jr.

and it'll start
all over again.

♪

[Fever Queen's "Molding"
playing]

♪

[woman] ♪ You were always
Trying to mold me ♪

♪ Mold me

♪ But I'm not made of clay

♪ Oh

♪ You were always
Busy molding ♪

♪ Molding

♪ Dating girls
Half your age ♪

♪

♪ I know you like working
With your hands ♪

♪ But hands are for holding

♪

[eerie tone droning]

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