Friday, October 06, 2006

Get. Out.

When the book, “The Amityville Horror,” came out, my sister, brother-in-law, and I all read it together.

I spent a lot of time with them in the summer of 1978. Every evening we'd set aside time to sit together and took turns reading chapters aloud.

Don’t ask me what possessed us to do such a thing but it was cool. Especially when you read with feeling and made up accents, etc.

Anyway, months later, we saw a movie trailer and were totally thrilled because we’d all read the book and couldn’t wait to see what they’d do with it on the big screen.

The night finally came and while we waited in the long line at the movie theater box office, my brother-in-law mentioned that no matter what they did, it wouldn’t be as good as the book.

My sister and I assumed he meant that books were rarely transferred accurately onto the screen, but we asked him why he thought so anyway.

His answer? Because you wouldn’t be able to smell it.

My sister and I looked at each other with wide-eyed confusion and then we looked back at him and asked sarcastically, “well, um, like you could you smell the book???!?”

And then came the laughter, followed by more laughter, and then followed by a red-faced, embarrassed man telling two girls to kiss his ass.

We gave him crap about that for years and every now and then we rub it in again and still laugh just as hard as we did then.

And he’s still as embarrassed as the day he said it and knows he will never live it down. And then, once more, he tells us to kiss his ass.

If the director would've had half of that kind of an imagination, the movie would've been great!

But as it turned out, he was right afterall - the book was better. And even though you couldn't smell the movie, it certainly did stink.

11 Comments:

Blogger JohnB said...

So tell me, was the book brand new, or was it stored somewhere musty?

I've never read or seen either, however I have driven past the actual house...

7:31 AM, October 06, 2006  
Blogger On My Watch said...

really? how cool is that? was it spooky?

as far as scents go, it was just that the writer was so detailed about perfumes and demonic stenches it wasn't actually that hard to imagine the smells. so I really can't blame him. and on behalf of him - - kiss his ass. haha. :)

7:40 AM, October 06, 2006  
Blogger Death Warmed Over said...

I wasn't that impressed with the 79 movie but the remake that came out last year was good and quite spooky.

10:46 AM, October 06, 2006  
Blogger Metal Mark said...

I think I saw the movie once and thought it was kind of dull. The original Haunting was better and so was Poltergeist.

7:33 PM, October 06, 2006  
Blogger On My Watch said...

DWO: I haven't seen the new version...yet.

Mark: If I'm thinking of the same thing as you...the Haunting was a good one, and I absolutely love Poltergeist.

Ben: I have no recollection of that at all - old age, I guess, or a blending of movie/book type of thing over the years. As far as scratch n sniff - - we said the same thing! :)

11:17 AM, October 07, 2006  
Blogger JohnB said...

Incredibly spooky...you should try it sometime!

2:59 PM, October 08, 2006  
Blogger mindy said...

the thought of a possessed house seems silly to me. i'd just move.
:)

6:27 AM, October 11, 2006  
Blogger Ray Van Horn, Jr. said...

love it! Weirdly enough, I interviewed Rachel Bolan of Skid Row tonight and we talked briefly about Toms River where he was from and this is where the boathouse in the original movie was filmed, not in Amityville...I have a friend who has family there and he drove me up to it.

to the topic at-hand, I still have my Amityville paperback and the subsequent Murder in Amityville by Hanz Holzer, which is the DeFeo case transcribed, etc. They both have that "smell" interestingly enough

9:55 PM, October 18, 2006  
Blogger Ray Van Horn, Jr. said...

and if you're talking the original Haunting, boo yah!

9:55 PM, October 18, 2006  
Blogger On My Watch said...

Ray, How fun?! did anything weird happen at the boathouse? :)

Yes, I'm talking about the movie made in 1963-ish? old movies are just freakier somehow. Maybe because you have to use your imagination. Vincent Price once said something to the effect of an imagination is more horrifying than anything you could see on screen. I agree.

6:19 AM, October 19, 2006  
Blogger Ray Van Horn, Jr. said...

you bet it is....as much as I weaned myself on gore, I'm now more a fan of the less-is-more theory...I mean, let's go back to Rosemary's Baby at my blog...you never see the thing at all! that's the scariest part of it!

I interviewed director Stuart Gordon back in the summer and we discussed this less/more theory...while he does opt for more, we had a good talk about things you don't see or things that are merely suggested as being far more horrific

we only drove by the boathouse since it was owned by someone who obviously doesn't want trespassers! it was pretty cool to see at least, but nothing like the camp they filmed the first Friday the 13th at...

10:35 PM, October 19, 2006  

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