First came the very real massacre of the DeFeo family by one of their own, in 1974. Then, in 1977, came the best-selling book chronicling the ghostly terrors experienced by the Lutzes, the next family to occupy the DeFeo’s Long Island Dutch Colonial Revival with those distinctive eye-shaped windows. Then came the 1979 movie based on the book —by which time the haunting claims were being called into question. But who cares if The Amityville Horror is a hoax if it continues to fascinate audiences?

Hollywood, for one, has had zero issues with repeatedly rattling around the Red Room and looking for demonic pigs in the night. In the 46 years since that first film starring Margot Kidder and James Brolin, there have been dozens of sequels . The original series includes eight films, i

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