The Amityville Horror

By: Jay Anson

Narrated by: Ray Porter

In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that, one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property - complete with boathouse and swimming pool - and the price were too good to pass up.

Twenty-eight days later, the entire Lutz family fled in terror.

This is the spellbinding, best-selling, true story that gripped the nation - the story of a house possessed by evil spirits, haunted by psychic phenomena almost too terrible to describe.

Jay Anson began as a copy boy on the New York Evening Journal in 1937 and later worked in advertising and publicity. With more than 500 documentary scripts for television to his credit, he was associated with Professional Films, Inc. He died in 1980.

©1977 Jay Anson; published in arrangement with Lesia Anson (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A fascinating and frightening book." ( Los Angeles Times)
"This book will scare the hell out of you." ( Kansas City Times)

best telling of the story yet

Where does The Amityville Horror rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Its up there. Very spooky. Not as Good as ed and Lorraine warrens books but up there.

Who was your favorite character and why?

the priest who was oppressed

Which scene was your favorite?

The whole opening act is great.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

its has an overall creepy vibe. The times when the family saw the Pig creature. Its sounds dumb writing it like that, but its pretty scary in the book.

Any additional comments?

Its such and old book that you can hardley ask for comments but What I will say is that this book needed a followup. Ed and Lorraine Warren wrote a lot of books that audible needs to have made ASAP. At least one or 2 by Halloween. The narrator needs to be the same as this either this book or preferably the Demonologist book. This book was all build up and nothing...or next to nothing of the investigation in the house to get it exorcized that followed. Seriously. The Warrens wrote so much and their story is a box office hit this summer. How can you not have more of their book up here. Its like Audible does not want to make money. Cash in on it now Audible. God knows there will be three Warren films that will come out. You are missing the boat on this. People want to know about these two people, more than they want fictional horror.

Read like a news article rather than a horror

I can’t tell if this book is any good bc the performance reads in such a quick monotone cadence that makes it seem like I’m listening to a news article or blog. Same speed and voice throughout the whole book made me zone out and not immerse myself in the scary parts. I often would realize that something horrific is supposed to be happening, but the reader doesn’t emphasize or isolate the feeling or situation with any difference from the parts of explaining the trivial parts of a scene. Terrible reader, can’t tell if the book is good. Better off reading it instead of listening to it.

Whether it is true or not

Interesting is a great way to describe this book and the experiences that were had. It is either fake but a great story or true and terrifying. You decide, I know my answer.

Better Than Movie

Damn that was scary. Ray Porter did an excellent job narrating. The book read like a work of fiction. The author created a very compelling work that captures my attention from the outset and left me wanting to sleep with a Crucifix above my bed.

Definitely worth a credit.

It delivers!

Being someone who has a voracious appetite for horror and super/preternatural tales, I found myself listening to this book and completing it in 2 sittings. A day by day account of what went down by those who experienced it, the audible version delivered all the occurrences you could want, sans them happening to you. Enjoy this book at night for additional fun, and keep an eye out for Jodie.

Was alright

Honestly the only thing that made this frightening to me was the idea that all of this may have happened to an unfortunate family. The fact that these were real people is the only thing that allowed me to enjoy this.

Good Story, but Ben Stein Sounds More Enthusiastic

I genuinely thought the narrator was generated text-to-speech until the "credits".

Aside from that - pretty decent for essentially being free.

Classic horror

If you could sum up The Amityville Horror in three words, what would they be?

Horror. Cringe. Tragedy.

Any additional comments?

This is a must listen if you are into classic horror. People say, "I couldn't look away. It was like a bad accident." This is the audio version of that - I couldn't stop listening.

I enjoyed it, good for Halloween time.

I liked the reading of this book and loved the story. However, I have ONE little problem with the story.... if you know your house is haunted and creepy things are happening, your dog is freaking the hell out and you know you need to get out of the house, then why in the world would you send your kids to sleep by themselves in their own rooms?! And what psychotic kid would be ok with that?? I'm 35 years old and I still freak out if I'm alone at night lol. And why would you take your dog to investigate each room in the house to find out if there is some supernatural stuff going down but then ask the dog what is wrong with him when he flat-out won't go in a room or growls at nothingness?! Out of the entire book those parts were the only ones to really bug me.

Great story and good narrator.

I listened to this as quickly as possible. It reminds me of the Demonologist, story of Ed and Lorraine Warren. They make an appearance at the end of the book.