All Amityville Movies In Order – The Amityville Horror Film Series

Spine-chilling movies and some real-life incidents describe the Amityville movies. Supernatural delight, Amityville Horror entered the cinema world in 1979 including Margot Kidder and James Kidder narrating the Lutz family story who shifted to a house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville and started having eerie experiences. The horror residing in the house made the lives of these newlyweds and their three children a living hell.

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Lutz family were real people and this movie was adapted from a book called The Amityville Horror, written by Jay Anson. The book talks about real-life horrifying events faced by the family who lived on the cursed US property. Amityville Horror follows up by several series which may confuse you. Sequels and remakes and their vague connection with each other will make everything clear as mud for you.

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While navigating through each movie series makes it difficult for you, this exclusive blog post has broken it down into a simpler easy-to-follow way for you to help you with your excitement to watch the entire Amityville movies and go a movie marathon, or select to watch among the best ones.

The Original Collection Of Amityville Movies

Ten movies are considered to be a part of the original collection. These ten include cinematic, TV, and some direct-to-video releases. Given below are the original ten in release order

1. The Amityville Horror

   Director: Stuart Rosenberg

   Writers: Sandor Stern, Jay Anson, George Lutz

   Stars: James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger

   Genre: Horror

   

   The newlywed Lutz family moved into the Amityville house after finding it for a huge discount. They call Father Delaney to bless the house the day they move in, but due to complications, Father Delaney is unable to do so. In the following days, paranormal activities start happening, as the family discovers the secrets that line beneath the house.

   The first Amityville movie was released in 1979 and adapted from The Amityville Horror, by Jay Anson, which is a book based on true events (with some assumed twist and spice). Many think that the house’s horror is just a hoax, but members of the Lutz family still believe that they experienced something supernatural when they lived there.

   Overall, The Amityville Horror is a mix of horror events and mystery starting from the paranormal experiences of the father Delaney to the blood oozing from the walls and staircase, this original score can bring chills down your spine.

2. Amityville II: The Possession

   Director: Damiano Damiani

   Writers: Tommy Lee Wallace, Hans Holzer, Dardano Sacchetti

   Stars: James Olson, Burt Young, Rutanya Alda

   Genre: Horror

   

   The movie acts as a prequel to the original 1979 release that follows the Montelli family which is loosely based on the Defoe family. As the family moves into the house, paranormal activities start to happen, like loud banging on the doors at night, finding a torn Bible, and even a big demonic message on the wall in Janice’s (the daughter) room. Anthony, the father, blames the kids for this and even starts beating them. More paranormal activities start taking place ending with how the original incident took place. 

   One of the scary parts of the movie is when Sonny, the eldest lad of the family, is left all alone in the house while the others went to church to meet Father Adamsky. He ran downstairs after hearing a strange noise after which things went crazier for the entire family.

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   Amityville II is a good horror movie from the 80s and a must-watch for a horror fan. With various creeped-out moments happening throughout the movie along with those amazing music effects, it can make you glued to the very end, with some extra nail-biting of course.

3. Amityville 3-D (Amityville III: The Demon)

   Director: Richard Fleischer

   Writer: David Ambrose

   Stars: Tony Roberts, Tess Harper, Robert Joy

   Genre: Horror

   

   Amityville 3-D follows a journalist named John Baxter who recently drove off a pair of con artists from the Amityville house. After this, his real estate agent persuades him into buying the house. As John moves in with his family, Melanie, his partner, starts to notice something weird with the house and urges John to leave the house.

   In the week of its release, Amityville 3-D was the highest-grossing movie at the box office, earning a total of $ 2.4 million according to Box Office Mojo. It was also the last movie to release theatrically until the release of the remake of “The Amityville Horror” in 2005.

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   Amityville 3-D is a good prequel, With improved SFX, a good soundtrack, and an overused but still relevant cliche at the time of its release “Proving a Hoax”. This movie’s poor collection forced the series to distribute Direct-to-Video. However, adequate special effects do the major trick here and look interesting in 3D with some moments of jump scare and thrills. It’s a completely spooky experience when you watch it after Amityville Horror and Amityville: II Possession. 

4. Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes

   Director: Sandor Stern

   Writers: John G. Jones, Sandor Stern

   Stars: Patty Duke, Jane Wyatt, Fredric Lehne

   Genre: Horror

   

   One night, a group of priests decides to exorcize the evil residing inside the Amityville house once and for all. During the ritual, one of the priests is knocked out by a possessed lamp. After a supposedly successful ritual, the estate agent of the property decided to put up a yard sale in which the same lamp is sold to a woman named Helen Royce who gifts it to her sister. As the lamp is set up in her house, scary things start to happen.

   This movie was the first of many to be a direct-to-video release instead of being released in the theaters. The movie does a good job of spicing up the plot by, referencing back to the previous movies and using themes like cursed objects.

   The first of many movies to use the “Cursed Object” trope, you will find that The Evil Escapes does a good job at setting the atmosphere with possessed appliances and well built evil atmosphere that provides more grounds for scary situations in this 4th installment of the Amityville franchise.

5. The Amityville Curse

   Director: Tom Berry

   Writers: Hans Holzer, Michael Krueger, Doug Olson

   Stars: Kim Coates, Dawna Wightman, Helen Hughes

   Genre: Horror

   

   After a Catholic Priest is shot to death in his confession booth, the booth is sent away to be stored in a clergy house. 12 years later, Psychologist Marvin and his wife Debbie purchased the clergy house and moved in together. To help with the move, the couple invites over three of their friends and, by that same night, paranormal activities start to occur.

   The Amityville Curse marks the entry of the 5th element in the Amityville moniker. It makes you witness the building of the tone of the entire franchise. The death of a priest in the confession booth marked the onset of evil happenings. The evil travels all the way to California in a lamp where it lives in a Church-owned house for a decade before a family buys it reasonably cheaply. This house is creepy enough for giving you the heebie-jeebies. The plot and backstory of this movie seem to be unique to itself, the only connection to the previous movies it holds is the mention of the DeFoe murders.

   Altogether, if you are a completist, Amityville Curse gives you a predictable yet interesting and frightening interpretation in its 1 hour 35 minutes runtime. 

6. Amityville: It’s About Time

   Director: Tony Randel

   Writers: John G. Jones, Christopher DeFaria, Antonio Toro

   Stars: Stephen Macht, Shawn Weatherly, Megan Ward

   Genre: Horror

   

   After returning from his business trip to Amityville, Jacob Sterling, an architect, receives his dream project of getting to design a whole neighborhood. During his trip to Amityville, Jacob finds a mantle clock in an old deserted house which he thinks is “what our house has been missing.”. The following night Jacobs’s kids cannot sleep because of the clock’s loud ticking and abnormal activities start to occur.

   Stunning visual horror with strong themes like protecting one’s family, dedication to work, and even time travel Amityville 1992 is considered a good movie of the Original 10.

   In retrospect, with gore scenes better than the ones released in many recent movies, an interesting and immersive plot, and a heavy atmosphere that even its sequels could recreate. This movie is filled with sinister incidents with enhanced sound and visual effects with a playful writing can give you an experience that tickles your horror nerves. 

7. Amityville: A New Generation

   Director: John Murlowski

   Writers: Christopher DeFaria, Antonio Toro

   Stars: Ross Partridge, Julia Nickson, Lala Sloatman

   Genre: Horror

   

   Keyes Terry, a photographer, encounters a homeless man on the streets who hands him a mirror. Little does Terry know that the mirror is haunted, and even connected to a memory that Terry locked away long ago.

   Gruesome deaths are a part of every 90’s movie, how they are shot and directed is what matters the most. This movie represents the previous sentence perfectly, director John Murlowski and cinematographer Wally Pfister even went on to shoot movies for Christopher Nolan.

   Many critics have said the biggest sin of this movie is the tag of Amityville that it wears. Ignoring the references that make this an Amityville movie, the movie can be really enjoyable as a standalone watch. The mind trip scene at the end of the movie is still one of the best uses of SFX in the series.

8. Amityville Dollhouse

   Director: Steve White

   Writer: Joshua Michael Stern

   Stars: Robin Thomas, Starr Andreeff, Allen Cutler

   Genre: Horror

   

   Newlyweds Bill and Clair Martin move into their new house which Bill constructed himself. While going through their shed, Bill finds a dollhouse(modeled after the original 1979 house) and gifts it to Jessica, their daughter on her birthday. Jessica loves her gift but unbeknownst to her she has released a great horror on the house.

   Overall considered the worst entry in the Original Amityville movies, the movie really did not sit well with its audience. The sins of this movie include bad acting, worse gore, a boring plot, and even incest as one of its plot threads. 

9. The Amityville Horror

   Director: Andrew Douglas

   Writers: Scott Kosar, Jay Anson, Sandor Stern

   Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jimmy Bennett

   Genre: Horror

   

   It is a remake of the original 1979 release, which even stars Ryan Reynolds in the lead role. The movie is not an exact remake as it takes some creative liberties about the incidents in the original but loosely follows the same pattern.

   The movie starts with George(Ryan Reynolds) and Kathy Lutz(Melissa George) moving into a ‘too good to be true’ deal for a house with their kids. From Day 1, George starts feeling that there’s something wrong with the house, feeling cold in random spots and even having nightmares about the DeFoe murders.

   The movie suffered the same thing that happened to, Amityville: A New Generation. With an amazing cast, on-point acting, a good soundtrack, and modern SFX the movie would have worked better as a standalone movie than joining in on the Amityville franchise.

10. Amityville: The Awakening

    Director: Franck Khalfoun

    Writer: Franck Khalfoun

    Stars: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bella Thorne, Mckenna Grace

    Genres: Horror, Thriller

    

    It is a “meta movie”. It establishes itself as the only real story while disregarding all the previous ones as works of fiction.

    Belle Walker and her whole family move into a house in Amityville to stay close to Dr. Milton, a neurologist who is treating Belle’s brain-dead twin brother James. When a series of mysterious events start to happen, like the unnaturally rapid improvement of James’ health, Belle sets out to uncover the truth behind the house they are in.

    This movie really benefited by using Modern Graphics and a competent cast. The lightly interesting plot keeps the viewer intrigued as to what will happen next. The reason the movie wasn’t praised was that it was way below the quality bar set by movies like The Conjuring and Insidious which came much before it.

The first eight movies loosely follow each other and act as one big story but the continuity between them is quite flimsy.

What Happened at 112 Ocean Avenue?

The Lutz family was completely real and they claimed to have lived in one of the most haunted houses in the United States. What happened with them is still up in the air as many rumors claim they made the story up for some quick cash or so that the book by Jay Anson would sell better.

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What happened in the house before the Lutz family moved in was quite gruesome, Ronald Joseph DeFoe Jr. murdered his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters with a rifle while they were asleep. He was tried and convicted for these murders and sentenced to 25 years in prison, where he died on the 12th of March 2021.

Amityville Spin-offs

The problem with spawning this many spin-offs is that some of them may be good but are buried under a pile of movies that are not worth your time. Here are some of the spin-offs that are worthy of your time

Amityville in Space

This movie is the third part of the Father Benna Trilogy. In this movie, our main character returns to the cursed house to completely exorcize the cures for it to go all wrong and for them to be teleported to 3015 and into space.

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The movie has a wacky premise but takes itself seriously making the stakes feel real. It is a nice change of atmosphere from the constant rehash of the same formula as the original movie.

The Amityville Quilt Shop

The 8-minute short film has a very Evil dead feel, from how it is shot to the 1980s color filter. It sets up a slightly eerie yet comforting atmosphere.

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When our two protagonists are called in to move a sink in a ragged apartment, they explore an abandoned Quilt Store. Little do they know about the story of their town and the haunting story about the house. These story cues come together to make the setting feel the 1980s very realistically.

Below is a list of all the spin-offs

1. The Amityville Haunting (2011)
2. The Amityville Asylum (2013)
3. Amityville Death House (2015)
4. The Amityville Playhouse (aka The Amityville Theater) (2015)
5. Amityville: Vanishing Point (2016)
6. The Amityville Legacy (aka Amityville Toybox) (2016)
7. The Amityville Terror (2016)
8. Amityville: No Escape (2016)
9. Amityville: Evil Never Dies (aka Amityville Clownhouse) (2017)
10. Amityville Exorcism (2017)
11. Against the Night (aka Amityville Prison) (2017)
12. Amityville: Mt. Misery Road (2018)
13. The Amityville Murders (2018)
14. Amityville Island (2020)
15. Amityville Vibrator (2020)
16. Witches of Amityville Academy (aka Amityville Witches) (2020)
17. The Amityville Harvest (2020)
18. An Amityville Poltergeist (2020)
19. Amityville Vampire (2021)
20. The Amityville Moon (2021)
21. Amityville Cop (2021)
22. Amityville Scarecrow (2021)
23. Amityville Scarecrow 2 (2022)
24. Amityville in Space (2022)
25. Amityville Bigfoot (2022)
26. Amityville Karen (2022)
27. Amityville Uprising (2022)
28. Amityville Thanksgiving (2022)
29. The Amityville Exorcist (2022)

All Original Amityville Movies Sorted By Their IMDB Ratings

• The Amityville Horror (1979) – 6.2 with 44K Votes
• The Amityville Horror (2005) – 5.9 with 116K Votes
• Amityville II: The Possession (1982) – 5.6 with 13K Votes
• Amityville: The Awakening (2017) – 4.8 with 15K Votes
• Amityville: It’s About Time (1992) – 4.7 with 3.3K Votes
• Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes (1989) – 4.4 with 3.4K Votes
• Amityville: Dollhouse (1996) – 4.3 with 2.9K Votes
• Amityville 3-D (1983) – 4.2 with 7.4K Votes
• Amityville: A New Generation (1993) – 3.9 with 2.4K Votes
• The Amityville Curse (1990) – 3.0 with 2.4K Votes

Conclusion

Watching Amityville movies in order can be confusing with so many spin-offs and movies that follow this entire franchise. The anticipatory terror that wraps in these movies will keep you on your toes and make you grip a little too extra on the blanket of course. 

Frightening situations and the backstory that is the main reason for all the chaos that occurs in all the installments are sure to get you hooked on Amityville movies making them terrifying yet binge-worthy. Follow the order mentioned in this exclusive blog post so you do not miss out on any of the movies and their following spin-offs and are able to connect better with the storyline as well.

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