In March 2021 the Amityville killer, Ronald “Butch” DeFoe, died in prison of non-disclosed reasons. While the conspiracy crowd would like to make more of the non-disclosed aspects of DeFoe’s death at 69, the actual reason for this was Health Privacy Laws. Sorry to tin foil manufacturers, but nothing to see here, let’s move along with our lives. Naturally no bad stone goes unturned, and Tubi are quick out of the blocks with a documentary to take advantage of the surge in public interest over events at 112 Ocean Ave yet again. While I’m always up for a horror documentary, fact is stranger than fiction as they say, I tend to prefer docos that are reporting on the actual facts rather than having an agenda or bias in their narrative. Unfortunately, Famously Haunted: Amityville has a fixed viewpoint and pays lip service to anything approaching impartiality. In criticism school, hey I got an education who would have thunked it, an early term you learn and use is “didactic”, which indicates something that is meant to provide a moral lesson as well as entertain, but which also leans towards a specific viewpoint, welcome to exhibit A, don’t be fooled by a couple of attempts at being impartial.

The documentary spends a great deal of time showing the audience of all things various TikTok videos. These generally involve dickheads showing up in Amityville and filming the outside of the infamous house in order to generate views from the great unwashed. Now generally I wouldn’t have a problem with this, but just how many vids do we need of the fascia of the house, I generally am not interested in real estate adverts folks, and these are what the social media videos amount to. No matter how breathlessly the creator narrates their “Amityville experience”, sorry I saw a house on the weekend as well, which is all these videos really amount to. There are a couple of creators who actually point out the fiction that is happening around the address, but these are few and far between. Quick note here, the dudes making the videos are collectively the most non-descript people I have ever seen, seriously boredom is as boredom does – maybe you should hunt out another money generating career. Even worse are the chicks, who seem to be on a mission to keep the U.S cosmetic industry in profit on their own, seem to think they are doing something unique and socially relevant. You aren’t and it’s all been done to death previously, no pun intended there. What the doco should have focused on here is the continued interest in 112 Ocean Avenue, and perhaps the irritation locals are feeling toward horror tourists.

Even worse are the talking heads that the documentary seems to think are of importance to the viewing audience; the only person of actual merit to be honest is Alexandra Holzer the daughter of infamous Amityville writer and parapsychologist amongst other things Dr. Hans Holzer. Once again the U.S cosmetics industry is getting a decent work out, I guess this is something of a recurrent theme, and the viewer is left wondering exactly why we are watching various flotsam that have zero to do with the actual haunting the documentary is focusing on. To be more balanced than this documentary is at any stage of its running time, there are a couple of journos that reported the aftermath to the original events following Ronnie DeFeo’s murderous rampage.

The documentary covers the DeFoe murders, where Ronnie DeFeo apparently murdered in cold blood his parents, two brothers, and two sisters via use of a rifle. To its credit the doco also covers some of the more recent theories and evidence that has cast new light onto events during the night of November 13th 1974. So we get the theory that Dawn DeFoe may have initiated the murders, though the doco doesn’t cover possible Mafia involvement, or any of the other theories. To its credit we do get a passing nod to forensic evidence that a number of the victims were not in fact murdered in their beds, but were placed there post slaying. We’ll cover more of this in one of our upcoming articles on the whole Amityville thing. Naturally the doco does mention the fact that no one outside the house heard the gunshots, without naturally covering weather conditions at the time of the murders or any other factors involved. If you have a fixed point of view, then let’s not muddy the waters right!

We quickly move onto the Lutz involvement, and the infamous 28 days of terror the family supposedly experienced, and which provided the material for Jay Anson’s book that kicked off the whole circus. Naturally all the major events are covered, without the need for any actual evidence beyond a few talking heads who were not present when the supernatural shenanigans went down, so no evidence what so ever. The documentary presents the supposed incidents as proof of the haunting and doesn’t question the probability that anything is fiction from the mind of Jay Anson. Sorry a talking head who’s claim to authenticism is a podcast with “spooky” in the title isn’t going to hold water in a court of law or among anyone with an ounce of common sense. I’m not going to repeat the events of the Lutz’s tenancy, seriously a demonic pig – if you believe this snake oil I have a harbour bridge for sale, but needless to say the narrative breathlessly and seriously repeats the same beat that has fooled the low brow since the 1970s.

Naturally no documentary on Amityville is complete without giving space to those shysters Ed and Lorraine Warren, who have never visited a house which wasn’t the abode of demonic forces. The Lutz’s called in the Warrens, and Holzer for that matter, to supposedly provide some needed proof to their unsubstantiated claims. Of course Lorraine claimed dark forces in the house, and of course Ed back this right up as they checked their bank balances and had a high old time fooling the gullible while investigating the house. A whole bunch of people were there of course, and each person was falling over themselves to claim paranormal activity, none of which was in any way substantiated. Still the public was in the grip of the “satanic panic” at the time so more fodder to be consumed over the morning cereal. The documentary doesn’t of course try to dispute any of this, hey let’s not divert from the narrative being established, so the snake oil being pumped out by the Warren publicity machine continues into the current day and age. Thankfully we don’t get the Conjuring raising its ugly head, pure fiction folks, don’t believe the “based on a true story” BS behind that franchise.

The documentary discusses two of the major authors in Amityville circles, Messer Jay Anson and Hans Holzer, who both think something spooky is going down in Ocean Avenue, while completely forgetting to even mention Stephen Kaplan. George Lutz dismissed Kaplan from investigating the house due to Kaplan mentioning he would report the reality and not whatever bollocks George was instigating on the public. Yes, there are authors writing about the whole Amityville can of worms, both in support of the alleged haunting and those of course who are questioning the claims. Any documentary trying to be balanced would have included examples of both camps, but of course Famously Haunted: Amityville is not a balanced documentary, hence we only get Authors mentioned who support the haunted argument.

The documentary does include a couple of Journalists reporting on the various happenings in Amityville during the 70s, but both journos go to great pains not to comment either way on whether or not the whole Amityville thing is an out and out hoax. It’s almost as if they have been told not to dispute the claims, surely not, but that was what I took from their involvement. While on Journalists, and let’s face it the general approach was to keep the ratings up by perpetrating a hoax – sort of like Fox news they weren’t interested in the actual facts, we have to discuss the whole “ghost boy” photo that George Lutz unveiled during a television interview. Supporters claim the photo captures the likeness of murdered John DeFeo, while detractors point out glowing eyes are normal in photography at the time and the image actually captures Paul Bartz, who was investigating the house. There’s no final statement on the image, due to forensic scientists having more to do with their time, but if the image was to undergo serious scientific study I would expect the claims that it is an image of a ghostly appearance would be heavily disputed. But naturally the image is presented in the documentary without any comment.

As stated I am always up for a horror documentary that purports to show the true facts behind a major horror movie or book, but generally I like said doco to be unbiased rather than supporting claims that have zero support or any type of proof. Unfortunately, Famously Haunted: Amityville is completely biased and doesn’t present any new evidence to support the claims being made. Lip service is paid to those detracting the claims, hence DeFoe’s lawyer getting a single minute for his statement that the whole thing was made up over three bottles of wine, and evidence that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny is presented as fact. Nothing really new to be seen in this document, and the bias is so obvious that everything being claimed by those interviewed is unbelievable. No recommendation, this one has been cobble together with film from the archives interspersed with statements by and largely from individuals with no credibility. Bad example of documentary making TUBI, you need to do better.