Now that October has here, horror fans can look forward to a slew of excellent new physical releases from a variety of studios. Stuart Rosenberg’s The Amityville Horror from 1979 is one of the most underestimated horror films of the 20th century, despite the fact that he helmed such hits as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Army of Darkness, and The Fog for the 4K format. Vinegar Syndrome brings to 4K for the first time this classic haunted home thriller based on the tragic actual events portrayed in Jay Anson’s book of the same name.
The new edition will contain a 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative and a slew of chilling bonus materials.
A new making-of documentary called “My Amityville Diaries” will be included as one of the bonus features, and it will have interviews with director William Friedkin, writer Sandor Stern, and actors Meeno Peluce, Don Stroud, Marc Vahanian, and Amy Wright. Other bonus features on the disc include an interview with Amityville’s composer Lalo Schifrin in “Haunted Melodies: A Journey Inside the Music That Makes Horror Come Alive,” and a commentary track by Dr Hans Holzer, the author of Murder in Amityville.
Also, this will be the first time the unmodified theatrical surround mix of Vinegar Syndrome has been made available on home video. When contrasted to other horror franchises of the 1970s and 1980s like Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, Amityville Horror seems like a forgotten brand. This was during the time that the emerging slasher subgenre was replacing the older haunted home films like The Haunting. Amityville’s 1979 release, between Halloween and Friday the 13th, smack in the middle of the new gory mania. The franchise’s current reputation for ludicrous DTV schlock doesn’t help matters either.
There have been roughly 40 films in the series since the first, practically all of them released straight to video. The franchise has become so awful that it has gone to space, humorously plagued the Karens of the globe, and this coming November will spook up Thanksgiving dinner in a film aptly dubbed Amityville Thanksgiving. The fact that the series has gone off the rails in the years following doesn’t lessen the impact of the fantastic original, though. There are some satisfyingly powerful performances in The Amityville Horror, which help to elevate the film from being a cheesy yet gloomy haunted home thriller. Brolin and Kidder did an outstanding job of convincing audiences that their family was at the grips of a supernatural threat. There have been numerous horror films set in haunted houses before and after this one, but “The Conjuring” set the standard for the “Based on a True Story” subgenre.
Some of today’s biggest horror hits like the Conjuring series wouldn’t exist if this film hadn’t already become a classic. In addition to serving as the prologue to The Conjuring 2, Amityville has also appeared elsewhere in the franchise. The famed Warren family, protagonists of The Conjuring, really had a tenuous real-world tie to this landmark. For better or worse, the Amityville Horror has remained in the imaginations of horror aficionados for the better part of four decades. This new masterpiece from Vinegar Syndrome, however, will transport you back in time to the era of the original classic.
There are two editions of this publication. Different versions of the book are available, one with a slipcover and the other without. In comparison to the regular edition’s $32.99 price tag, the special one costs $36.99. There are only 6,000 copies of this picture being released in 4K, so if you want one, you better move quickly. As of right now, The Amityville Horror is available for purchase via the Vinegar Syndrome online store.