Newly married George and Kathy Lutz (Josh Brolin and Margot Kidder) move into a piece of beautiful Long Island real estate along with Kathy’s three kids. It does not take long for them to discover there is something very evil in the house. A son murdered his entire family with a shotgun one year prior in the house and blamed it all on demonic possession. Thanks to that horrible bit of recent history, the Lutz clan get a good deal on the place and are able to ignore the current tragedy because “Houses don’t have memories.” The family priest (Rod Steiger) comes over to bless the place, encounters a fly infestation and gets violently ill. A spooky voice growls at him to “GET OUT” and he wisely listens. Homeowner nightmares include cold spots, more voices, an unsettling sealed-off basement room, plumbing issues, a sick nun, missing money and one nasty pig-lookin’ thing that pops up briefly. George starts feeling like shit and mentally breaking and it seems like he may be heading down the same path as the young family slayer. The youngest daughter makes a new invisible friend named Jody, a babysitter gets locked in a closet and any religious interference is dealt with maliciously. A convenient clairvoyant shows up to explain things and it ties into some bad Native American ground and some sicko called Ketcham who was run out of Salem. Based on the pretty much debunked story of the Lutz family and Jay Anson’s best selling book about the horrors experienced by said young family that got in way over their heads. Brolin’s epic beard/hair combo steals the show and Margot Kidder is a got-damn fox. The opening is still pretty effective and there’s a few jolts but it’s not exactly a classic and loses focus at the pivotal juncture where things start slipping out of control. Don Stroud and Murray Hamilton show up as priests and Rod Steiger does some serious scene chewing.
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