One of the most well known horror franchises of the last 50 years will soon get a modern style reboot, as The Amityville Horror is set to return to the big screen in a new adaptation of the semi-historical story in a joint production by studios BoulderLight, known for recent horror hit Barbarian, and Dive/Conquer, known for this year's slasher Heart Eyes, as reported by Deadline.
The new film, simply titled Amityville, will be written and directed by married filmmaking team Joseph and Vanessa Winter, whose recent found footage horror movie Deadstream premiered at SXSW.
The Amityville Horror began life as a written account of paranormal activity in the home of the DeFeo family in Long Island, New York, surrounding the very real murder of most of the family by Ronald DeFeo, Jr., who claimed that he committed the murders while possessed by an evil spirit.
That story, which has obviously been largely debunked, with Ronnie DeFeo winding up spending his life in prison for the crime, nonetheless inspired the original 1979 film along with several remakes, as well as a wave of haunted house films that essentially repeat the premise of the story with the serial numbers filed off.
Still, the fact that the studios behind some of the most interesting and frankly terrifying horror movies of recent years are teaming up to bring the story to life in a new way is encouraging. Horror remakes are something of a category all their own at this point, but one of the strengths of horror as a genre is its ability to reinterpret the trappings of classic stories to fit into modern sensibilities of scariness.
The new Amityville film is reportedly being fast-tracked for development, with production potentially commencing by the end of 2025.
While we wait, stay up to date on all the horror movie news that's fit to print, and dig into some old classics with the 30 best horror movies that will haunt you long after the credits roll.
