The Exploitation Vibes of ‘Amityville II: The Possession’ [Murder Made Fiction Podcast]

After a month of Australian true crime titles, Jenn and I are spending April exploring supernatural true crime with a variety of Amityville texts. See also: The Amityville IP

We kicked things off last week with the original 1979 film, The Amityville Horror (listen). Now we’re turning our attention to the more DeFeo-centric text, Amityville II: The Possession (1982). Directed by Damiano Damiani from a script by Tommy Lee Wallace, the sequel acts as a prequel that purports to tell the original murders that were briefly explored in the first film.

While the real life case of Ronald DeFeo Jr is much less supernatural, it does involve a family annihilation. On the morning of Nov 13, 1974, the 23 year old stunned residents of Amityville, NY with the revelation that six of his family members had been shot to death in their beds.

The Possession explores the events leading up to the murders, but fictionalizes alleged abuses by DeFeo Sr (Burt Young), hints at a marital rape of mother Dolores (Rutanya Alda), and completely fabricates an incestuous relationship between Sonny (Jack Magner) and his sister Tricia (Diane Franklin) in ways that feel exploitative and insensitive.

As our special guest, Trace Thurman (from my other Bloody FM podcast, Horror Queers) notes: while the film occasionally ventures into icky and sensational territory, it does feature outstanding special FX make-up and one hell of a downer ending that feels surprisingly brave.

Oh, it’s also a 2-for-1 narrative because the fictional Montelli murders are wrapped up in the first hour, leaving the entire last act for a religious drama centered around Father Adamsky (James Olson). Intriguingly this development, and the ensuing court case, feels very similar to the real life case of Arne Johnson, who was the inspiration for The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It.



Want more fictionalized true crime? Subscribe to our Patreon (patreon.com/murdermadefiction) for a primer on the Lutzs and the DeFeos, as well as continuing episode by episode coverage of limited series such as Hulu’s Good American Family and Paramount+ series Happy Face.

We’ve blown past 75 episodes and have accumulated 50+ hours of bonus content, so there’s plenty to dig into!

The post The Exploitation Vibes of ‘Amityville II: The Possession’ [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.