Growing up in the Amityville Horror

by Eric Walter on May 16th, 2013

SKEPTIC 2 Growing up in the Amityville Horror

SKEPTIC.COM, May 15, 2013 - The principal subject of Eric Walter’s superb documentary, My Amityville Horror, is a ghost. His restless, estranged spirit flickers and moves past us like a projection, doomed every day to relive the ordeal which finally drove him beyond the land of warmth and living things. He’s a shade, a shadow, a churning confluence of ireful energies. His name is Danny Lutz. He works as a UPS delivery man. In his free time he plays passable, if vapid riffs on a tacky electric guitar. He sees dead people. Or…at least he saw them, anyway.

Danny became convinced of things which are impossible. And the real question becomes: once you begin an invention of that scale, and the whole country watches, how do you stop it? Well, if you’re a child, maybe the sad truth is that you can’t. And so it becomes a part of you—invisible, but moving through you, influencing everything you think and do. You become haunted by it.

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Now Available on VOD and digital download!

by Eric Walter on March 31st, 2013

MY AMITYVILLE HORROR is NOW AVAILABLE via On Demand and digital download from the following providers:

sundancenow Now Available on VOD and digital download! itunes Now Available on VOD and digital download! google Now Available on VOD and digital download! amazon Now Available on VOD and digital download! youtube Now Available on VOD and digital download! sony Now Available on VOD and digital download! xbox Now Available on VOD and digital download! comcast Now Available on VOD and digital download! timewarner Now Available on VOD and digital download! cox Now Available on VOD and digital download! cablevision Now Available on VOD and digital download!


IFC gives release date for ‘Amityville’

by Eric Walter on December 23rd, 2012

ifc films 616x349 IFC gives release date for AmityvilleJOBLO.com, December 18, 2012My Amityville Horror hits VOD and select theaters MARCH 15th, 2013, including the subscription VOD service SundanceNOW.

On November 13, 1974, the house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York became a place that locals feared when 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo murdered his entire family under very mysterious circumstances. In September 1977, it became a place the entire world feared when Jay Anson’s book “The Amityville Horror” was published (later adapted into the popular series of films), bringing the house international notoriety and instant entry into the occult history books. Not so much because of the DeFeo murders, but because it told the tale of what happened to the next family who lived there, one year after the massacre. The Lutz family.

In 1975, they were dwellers for all of 28 days before fleeing in mortal terror, the victims of widespread supernatural happenings that pushed them to the brink of madness and had them fearing for their lives. A media circus began that never fully ended. Straight up to their recent deaths, George and Kathy Lutz have never gone back on a single claim. Daniel Lutz was ten years old at the time that his family literally went to hell. Never before in the 35 years since living through the ordeals has he gone on record about his experiences. This is his story, in his words.


The Hollywood Reporter Reviews ‘Amityville’

by Eric Walter on November 28th, 2012

thr The Hollywood Reporter Reviews Amityville

NEW YORK — One of history’s most famous haunted houses casts a long shadow in My Amityville HorrorEric Walter‘s tantalizing doc about the eldest of the three siblings who shared that storied abode, Daniel Lutz. Whether seen as an investigation of the occult, a portrait of a deeply troubled man, or something in between, the canny and stylishly shot film has a broad enough appeal to justify a limited theatrical run before what should be a leggy video career.

Lutz speaks publicly for the first time here, having viewed his indirect fame as “an unfortunate gift” hovering over him for nearly four decades since the experiences that spawned the bestseller The Amityville Horror and its film adaptation. Now a UPS driver living in Queens, New York, he’s undeniably haunted by something, be it ghosts or the memory of a stepfather he would have done anything to escape.

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Sundance, IFC Midnight acquire ‘Amityville’

by Eric Walter on November 10th, 2012

 Sundance, IFC Midnight acquire AmityvilleVariety, November 9, 2012SundanceNow and IFC Midnight have jointly acquired all U.S. rights to director Eric Walter’s documentary “My Amityville Horror.” SundanceNow will handle the film for its subscriber video-on-demand initiative Doc Club, while IFC Midnight will manage all other platforms, including theatrical and VOD. The doc was produced by Walter, Andrea Adams, and John R. Blythe and executive produced by Ronald Puleio and Michael S. Russo.

“Amityville” made its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival in July and its U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest in September. It will open in New York on Saturday at the Doc NYC Festival. Film focuses on Daniel Lutz recounting his version of the Amityville haunting that terrified his family in 1975. The deal was negotiated by Arianna Bocco with Josh Braun at Submarine Entertainment behalf of the filmmakers. Highland Film Group is handling foreign sales.