The world of The Amityville Horror is a vast horror landscape blending true crime, paranormal investigation, and, well… just plain weird stuff. In the years since Jay Anson’s bestselling book inspired the first Amityville movie, we’ve seen direct sequels, reboots, and low-budget oddities like Amityville Death Toilet—all hoping to capitalize on the infamous name.
But through it all, one Amityville movie reigns supreme as the most terrifying installment in this loose franchise of supernatural horror. It’s a film that fuses the story’s true-crime roots with the paranormal in ways no other Amityville entry ever has—and it’s told so effectively that it’ll haunt your nightmares for weeks. Best of all, it’s streaming for free right now.
Released in 1982, three years after The Amityville Horror, Amityville II: The Possession is a strange beast. Technically a prequel, it doesn’t pay much attention to the continuity of the original film and has nothing to do with the Lutz family moviegoers and readers came to know. Instead, it flashes back to follow the Montelli family—a fictionalized version of the real-life DeFeo family, who owned the home before the Lutzes moved in.
It was the DeFeo family who suffered the horrific real-world tragedy that first gave the house its dark reputation: son Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his parents and four siblings in a single night. Using the Montellis as stand-ins, The Possession offers a supernatural explanation for the crimes, depicting a family slowly unraveling under the influence of something demonic.
The story itself is fairly straightforward, especially once the dark forces begin to target the eldest Montelli son, Sonny (Jack Magner). So what makes Amityville II stand out? For starters, it’s far more disturbing than the original film ever dared to be.
Director Damiano Damiani—an acclaimed Italian filmmaker known for his versatility—and co-writers Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III: Season of the Witch) and Dardano Sacchetti push the boundaries of mainstream ’80s horror with subplots involving domestic abuse, child abuse, and even incest. If you’re expecting a standard haunted house story, be warned: this one doesn’t pull its punches. Its unflinching look at the corruption of innocence and the banality of evil makes it both the darkest and the best Amityville film of the bunch. And you don’t just have to take my word for it—Quentin Tarantino has called it one of his favorite horror films and even programmed it at his theaters.
So where can you watch it? Right now, the film is streaming for free on Tubi, where it’s been hovering near the platform’s Top 10 throughout September. With Halloween approaching, it’s the perfect time to give this nightmare a spin.
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