Famously Haunted: Amityville

I have to say, most things like this tend to lean heavily in one direction or the other, but this was a well-balanced presentation. The "experts" were level-headed and respected the beliefs of others, acknowledging areas where they could be wrong or interpreting things differently. I could live without the effort to reel in the TikTok crowd, but maybe that's just me showing my age. As the meme says, I watch TikToks as IG reels two weeks later like a grownup... Otherwise, I rather enjoyed it.

Not much new here. The Tik-Tok stuff was very out of place and detracted from the overall vibe of the story. There are other Amityville docs available that are more interesting.

I think it's important to acknowledge and consider new voices in the paranormal and true crime fields as they are the future. I am grateful for Famously Haunted: Amityville doing just that. They balanced the introduction of new folks with voices that were keystones in establishing this case many years prior. It does a pretty good job being fair and weighing both angles rather than taking one side and sensationalizing it for views. Although it doesn't contain new information it does weigh both sides fairly and is respectful to those whose opinions differ. It also dissects the work of some of the original researchers.

Without a doubt, the most infamous haunted house in the world is 112 Ocean Avenue. 'The Amityville Horror'

Over the years, we've had dozens of books, documentaries and fiction films on the houses supposed hauntings which increasingly stray away from the original story.

Now tubi has thrown their hat in the ring with this documentary.

Featured within are a few notables, including original haunting reporter Laura Didio, investigator and author of several Amityville books Hans Holzer's daughter, and a village resident who was there at the time. Also included are archival interviews with the Lutz's, Holzer himself, Jay Anson and others.

We also get a baffling amount of paranormal podcasters offering their opinions, and, most frustratingly, each section of the doc starts with a tiktok video of either someone shakily filming the Amityville house, or one of those "top 5" videos telling the story.

I can only imagine these were included as a way to appeal to the younger audience, but they are just so out of place compared to the rest of the professionally done doc and do nothing whatsoever to forward the story.

Famously Haunted: Amityville is not going to break any new ground on the subject. It does lean heavily on the haunted side, and glosses over most of the hoax possibilities until the very end. It stands better than My Amityville Horror, but the old history channel two-part documentary still stands as the best on the Amityville story. Still, if you're looking for something spooky to put on for the Halloween season, you could do a lot worse considering it's free on Tubi.

If you have seen one of the main films (the 1979 version or the 2005 version) and/or read the "biographical" novel from 1970s this might interest you. It does bring together some elements that can't be found from what would be considered original sources. For example there are new personal accounts from real neighbors and alleged psychics who have a direct connection to the actual house.

On the other hand, it keeps flashing the same photos on the screen over and over again, and has tacky details like the interviews with Ric Osuna - a weirdly misogynistic and fan boi-ish biographer who chose to blame one of the victims, the oldest sister Dawn, for Ronnie's murders. Everyone knows his version(s) are completely fanciful lies, not least of all because Dawn was found in bed just like all of the other family members; there's no evidence of this musical bodies fiction where Ronnie agreed to kill the parents but killed Dawn because she allegedly assassinated the children.

The history of this topic is pretty gross, all things considered. There are dozens of low-budget schlocky flicks that mock the very real tragedy that happened in 1974, which in my opinion is disturbing enough on its own.