Fifi Leigh
Sunday, May 3, 2020
I watched the movie, Amityville Murders, again, on the indie channel. I noticed the two oldest kids, Dawn and Ron Jr, were actually twins. And, the movie begins on the twins’ birthday, where the grandfather gives each one a new car because he works in a car dealership. Then, the twins hang out with their friends in the basement, where they play a game, predicting Ron Jr, or Butch, will go crazy and commit murder. Dawn suggests they go check out the “Red Room,” which is their secret hideout room. She brings out a book, belonging to her grandmother, which looks like a book of spells or witchcraft. She states her grandmother had taught them stuff. She chants some words and makes a penny move on its own, which scares off their friends. The grandmother often tells the kids stories about real witches on Halloween, which includes sacrifice rituals.
Butch starts to her voices in his room, which starts his journey of insanity. The twins were often abused by their conservative Italian father, and they often talked about running away together. They were very close. But Butch states that that wouldn’t change anything because he would always find them, and the only way they will really get peace is when he is gone.
So, it appears the grandmother was a witch, and the kids had learned ways to conjure up spirits, which were in the house haunting them, making the Butch go crazy with voices in his head.
I noticed this “red room” was also in the movie, The Shining, but spelled “RedRum,” or murder backwards. So, both movies have to do with satanism. The twins often chant stuff from the grandmother’s book for protection from their father’s abuse.
Inside Butch’s bedroom, he has a blanket with occult symbolism hanging over his bed. He also has a Mexican blanket hanging on his other wall, which could be an indication that there are natives buried under the house. (it was mentioned in the Amityville Horror movie that Satanists had killed many people and buried them in the secret room in the basement, which the father breaks a brick wall and they notice blood).
The mother often had premonitions when growing up in this house about her future family. She also saw murders in the house, which gave her peace at the end because the whole family are together.
The father is overly religious Catholic because of his past sins. But he feels the oldest son needs more discipline.
This movie takes place in the 70s, and there are five kids, the oldest twins, a girl, and two younger boys.
Butch tells Dawn about native rituals murdering criminals face down. Dawn and Butch chant in the red room for protection, in which conjured up dead spirits buried under the basement.
Dawn warns Butch that their father wants to place him in a mental institution or military school.
There is a lot of symbolism to native Americans throughout the movie, which has to do with the murdered natives under the basement.
I also remember that The Shining had to do with Native Americans murdered on the land of the Overlook Hotel. The hotel décor was filled with native American symbolism and items.
The day is Wednesday, November 13, 1974. At dinner, Alison mentions they should enjoy their last meal together because the kids were arguing. Dawn wasn’t at the dinner table. Voices haunt and torment Butch, and he gets up from the table, going crazy. There is a storm outside.
That night, Dawn packs a suitcase. Butch had warned her, and told her to get out of the house. Dawn goes to her grandmother for answers about the haunted family house. She tells her grandmother about her and Butch conjuring up spirits from that book.
Meanwhile, ghosts torment Butch in the house until Butch goes on his killing spree. His mother lies face down in bed, praying with her rosary. He kills his father face down, beside his mother. He then shoots his younger siblings, laying face down in their bed.
Butch murders family members face down, in the way natives were murdered, with a .35 Marlin rifle.
Dawn has a small chest with a newspaper article of the man who sold them the house. He was charged with mass murder of his family. Dawn returns to the house because she is worried about her twin. As she notices her family is dead, Butch continues his murder spree in a trance. Butch feels hopeless because there is no way out of their hell. She goes to her room, and she realizes she will die next because that was his plan to achieve peace, which is why he had told her to leave the house. She lays face down in her bed. He shoots her laying face down in bed. But then he cries, he didn’t realize this is his twin because he thought she would be elsewhere. He tried to save his twin’s life by telling her to leave the house that night so that they would be together at the end in peace. He didn’t know she would return.
There are photos of the actual De Feo family members at the end of the movie, as well as a home movie of the family. Ron Jr. is in a New York prison. The Lutz family with three kids, portrayed in Amityville Horror movie, bought the house in December 1975. But they fled without their belongings after 28 days of satanic torment. He was convicted with 6 counts of second-degree murder, which sentenced him to 6 concurrent sentences of 25 years to life in prison. He is likely to die in prison, unless he is paroled in his old age. If Dawn had stayed at her grandmother’s house, she would have been alive.
The song at the end of the movie is, “I want to be free…”
I found the trailer for this 2019 movie.
