The story of the Amityville house has long become a horror classic, but the most chilling part isn’t the special effects — it’s how the mysticism seems to seep into the real lives of the actors. Sometimes, a single unexplained incident is enough to turn a skeptic into a genre enthusiast, and a film set into a place where fear feels almost physical.
The Amityville Horror: The Falling Pants Incident
James Brolin initially hesitated before agreeing to star in the film adaptation of The Amityville Horror, which was based on real events. In 1979, when he was offered the role, there wasn’t even a finished script yet. To understand what he was getting into, Brolin decided to read the book itself.
The decision came to him late at night under rather strange circumstances. The actor recalled: “I was reading the novel at two in the morning. I had hung my pants on the top corner of my bedroom door, and suddenly, at the most intense moment in the book, they slipped off and fell to the floor. I have no idea how I didn’t hit my head on the ceiling from the fright!”
After recovering from the shock, Brolin laughed and realized that if the book could provoke such a reaction, he simply had to be in the film.
The 2005 Remake
Decades later, superstition and strange occurrences continued to haunt The Amityville Horror. During the filming of the remake, the crew encountered realities more frightening than any makeup effects. Right before shooting began, the body of a dead fisherman washed ashore near the set.
For the film’s lead actor, Ryan Reynolds, the most ominous sign was the death of Ronald DeFeo Jr. — the real-life killer and the prototype for his character. DeFeo died just after filming wrapped and shortly before the movie’s press tour began.
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Reynolds admitted that the film industry often exaggerates stories for marketing purposes, but some things were hard to ignore. According to him, many members of the crew reported waking up at exactly 3:15 a.m. — the very time the murders occurred in the original story. Reynolds attributed it to the subconscious, but that didn’t make it any less unsettling.
Additionally, the location chosen by the director caused genuine unease for the actor. “There’s something scary about that house. The colors, the overall feeling — everything was deeply unsettling,” Ryan shared. It seems that The Amityville Horror managed to make even the most resilient actors shudder at every sound in the dark.
