DC Fan wrote:Brooke Forrester wrote:What I've never understood is why people wouldn't think the Lutz haunting was caused by the DeFeo's themselves after the murders?
In general, I've never understood why people think that such things have to be the work of dead people. Residual energy theories at least seem to avoid the problem of how or why someone haunts people after death, if you want to specifically relate it to death. Maybe it's the influence of a literary tradition going back to Shakespeare and beyond?
If such were possible, maybe Kathy being touched is one event that would be explainable this way. As for the rest, why would the DeFeos do some of this stuff that includes levitations, deformities, smells, and physical assault?
As for this movie, I think Dan is fairly clear on why he believes something other than the DeFeos is the explanation, even if he was never asked why not the DeFeos. Chris in at least one interview officially denied the DeFeo ghost explanation, stating among other things that apparitions they saw were clearly not the DeFeos. George and Kathy went to Weber out of concern that something may have affected Butch, if you believe what they say about that.
This last part especially seems to me to indicate that the Lutzes were not out to avoid insulting the DeFeos with a ghost explanation because they actually did not believe it.
I do believe in residual energies, and negative energies. It's very possible that was the problem.
I tend to believe that there wasn't a problem with the property until the DeFeo family moved in, which I believe was caused by the negativity of Ronald DeFeo Jr. I think with him commiting the murders, that was what brought in any paranormal problems, and I believe it to be a combination of the DeFeos not yet moved on, and evil spirits also that were drawn to the place because of the murders.
My sister and I were watching shows about poltergeist activity, and it said that they are caused by a person and sometimes that person doesn't even know they are doing it.
So you said, why would the DeFeos cause things like levitations or physical harm, is it possible that in anger and confusion the spirits could cause such things without it being the intention? I think it makes sense.
Also, about the smells, I'm not convinced that was paranormal. Since my house has aged and is now the same age as the house was at the time of these events, I've noticed things we never had before, such as sulphuric smells coming from the sinks, and a black substance that builds up in the toilets only days after I cleaned them. I think this is due to the pipes getting old and build ups of some sort, I'm no plumber so I don't know the terms, but anyway I think that's what happened with the toilets and plumbing at the Amityville house, and because the Lutz family was frightened, they read more into it than there was.
I'm a very superstitious person and I believe in Hell, curses, all that sort of thing, but I do also believe we should first look at and rule out natural phenomenon before making it paranormal. The paranormal is impossible to prove, at least at this point, and I think it always will be, it's a matter of faith and belief.
My problem with condemning the house/property as "evil" before the murders is, I don't feel there is enough evidence to back up the claims. No sources are ever named for most of the accusations. So it's just hearsay. I feel like if there was a burial ground there, why aren't more houses in the neighborhood having problems, I can't imagine just that one piece of property would be where it was. That was why I thought Holzer's explanation of a single Indian being the problem made a bit more sense, if you're going to go with the Indian theory.
I also don't think it's fair to say John Ketcham was definitely a witch just because he was run out of Salem for being one (if that story is true, not sure it was ever proven), most if not all of those accused of witchcraft were innocent.
We don't have any solid sources for the claims of anyone other than the Lutz's experiencing paranormal activity there.
But there is enough evidence to know that Ronnie was very troubled, even before moving into the house, so I'm going to go with him and his crime as the source of the problems the Lutz's experienced.
I feel like Anson didn't want to offend the DeFeo's relatives by suggesting they hadn't moved on, and I also think it seemed more exciting to him and whoever else may have been involved in writing the book, to add in things like vengeful Indians and witches, sort of how a movie script writer might change things from a book to make it what they think is a better story that will affect an audience better.