Back in 1979, there was no way of predicting that The Amityville Horror – a massively successful horror movie that would go on to secure an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score – would serve as the catalyst for the most relentlessly unstoppable subgenre in the history of cinematic scary stories.
It was almost as if a light bulb went off in the heads of studio executives and creative minds everywhere, who suddenly came to the realization that if you slap the word “Amityville” in front of anything, then you’ve got yourself a worthwhile horror film that demands to be made and released to the public.
If you think that sounds like an exaggeration, then consider that not only does the expanded Amityville back catalogue now number well upwards of 40 features that covers remakes, reboots, sequels, parodies, loosely-connected spiritual successors and plenty more besides, but there were no less than 11 titles dropped last year alone that featured the nomenclature, a list that includes such immediate classics as Amityville Karen, Amityville Leprechaun, and Amityville Poo: Killer Poop 2.
What makes it even more ridiculous is that the OG wasn’t even a critical darling to begin with, seeing as it still only holds respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 31 and 52 percent from reviewers and audience members. And yet, it’s still managing to sink its spooky hooks into streaming subscribers.
Per FlixPatrol, The Amityville Horror V1.0 has sensed a demonic presence on the iTunes worldwide watch-list, although we’d love to know what the supernatural entity makes of its unexpected legacy.