The Amityville Horror (1979)

"I know this book is a hoax. We created this horror story over many bottles of wine." --William Weber

Weber, I believe, was the Lutz family's attorney during the time their story was published in book form by Jay Anson, and they all rose to national prominence. The Amityville Horror is infamous in many ways for being one of the first in that sub-genre of horror movies involving demonic possession that are supposedly based on a true story. With the success of last year's The Conjuring, this trend shows no sign of abating. These films are almost always dreary and unpleasant to sit through, relying on hackneyed melodrama totally devoid of any irony or subtext. The audience is expected to take the proceedings seriously. Here is where it all falls apart. The cinema, by nature, is built on fakery, and when one watches a movie, one is doing so with the expectation that it is all fake, a fantasy. Horror especially depends on this, and the best horror is the horror which openly acknowledges that it is all a ruse. By asking the audience to take seriously the proceedings on-screen, and to accept them as the truth, everything falls apart. Additionally, there is a great deal of "narm" contained within, the most prominent being the ridiculous sex scenes in which the wife is always dressed something like a schoolgirl, and the husband just cannot get it up. Avoid this one.