Were you inspired by “American Horror Story: Roanoke” to purchase your own possessed house?
Well, some lucky homebuyers appeared to have been, as the house that inspired the original 1979 classic “The Amityville Horror” has just been sold after it was listed for a bargain price of $850,00.
Built in 1927, the 5,000-square-foot Dutch Colonial house boasts five bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, a boathouse and a slip … and plenty of demons.
112 Ocean Avenue went into contract this week, according to real estate site Redfin, and while realtors Coldwell Banker Harbor Light won’t reveal details of the sale, Newsday is reporting that the seller bought the property in 2010 for $950,000, way below the asking price then of $1.15 million.
It then went on the market last June with a listing price of $850,000.
The house is instantly recognizable from “The Amityville Horror,” the 1979 cult classic directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud and Murray Hamilton. It tells the true-life events of George and Kathy Lutz, who asked Father Delaney to bless their new home in December 1975, but the man of the cloth encountered unknown forces trying to stop him, including a room full of flies, violent stomach sickness and blisters on his palms.
The hauntings escalated to such an extreme that the Lutzs were eventually driven from their home after 28 days, leaving all their belongings to escape to another state.
“The Amityville Horror” is based on the book of the same name by Jay Anson, which details the brutal murders carried out in the home by Ronald DeFeo, Jr., who shot and killed six members of his family in November 1974. He was convicted of second-degree murder and the house was left empty for 13 months before the Lutzs bought it for just $80,000.
County records suggest that the house is built on top a Shinnecock burial ground and that a known Satanic worshipper named John Ketchum once lived on the land.
None of this seems to bode well for the new owners.
As for DeFeo, now 65, he is currently serving six concurrent sentences of 25 years to life at the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Dutchess County, New York.