The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 29

Mm, Art museum bonanza. C-5 Calendar c-2, Puzzles C-7, Travel C-8, Leisure C-11 Sunday Newsjournal July 29, 1979- C-1 me villc falls short in horror Fil 4 Amity Lutzes' experience; it allows us to see the physical evidence that frightens the Lutzes but often makes it unterrifying. Where the film does skillfully succeed, however, is in showing the effect the unknown forces have in changing the happy family into quarrelsome, terrified, puzzled, snarling people fleeing from a house that has become a hell. By HARRY F. THEMAL In this scary summer of 79, the biggest film fright of all should have been "The Amityville Horror." After all, we've been conditioned this year to being frightened out of our wits by such good films as "Alien" and "Halloween," and to a lesser extent by such others as "Dawn of the Dead," "Dracula," "Phantasm" and even "Prophecy." All those films were merely fantasy.

"Amityville Horror" was fact, or at least what purports to be the truth, and thus was bound to be stranger and scarier than fiction. Here was a film based, on Jay Anson's best-selling account of the 28 horror-filled days spent by the Lutz family in the house at 112 Ocean Ave. in Amityville, Long Island. The film was being released by American International Pictures, which had made much of its reputation as horror merchants with such films as "Bucket of Blood" and "I Was a Teen-age Werewolf," films that gained AIP a current 25th anniversary festival at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Now AIP was out of the low-budget film business.

It has already made something like $30 million on "Love at First Bite." It spent a lot of money on "Amityville Horror." And coming soon is its biggest-budget film ever, "Meteor," about the collision with Earth of an object from outer space (no, not "Amityville Horror" does not live up to expectations. The film raises questions, but not always the right ones; it introduces potentially interesting elements and then forgets about them; it never addresses the important religious question that underlies the ft swL.lt Jk IV ill Iff 3 MM i I' I lZ-i -I. 1 s'5 if Ml By now the Lutzes' story is certainly familiar. George and Kathy and their three children buy a dream house at a ridiculously low price. The house had remained unsold for a year because it was where Ronald De Feo in November 1974 had killed six members of his family, claiming that "voices" had told him to commit the bloody murders.

At the film's start, the Lutzes seem to be an idyllically happy family. A cliche love scene, in which the camera focuses on George's back and Kathy's ecstatic face, is used to illustrate this. Soon strange things are happening: icy drafts from nowhere, foul smells, flies that appear and disappear, windows that cannot be opened and then open by themselves, unexplained injuries and illnesses, doors ripped off their hinges. A nun who comes to visit cannot stay in the house without becoming violently ill. The priest who comes to bless the house has an unexplained auto accident on the way and later, alone in the house, is beset by flies, sees marks appear on his body and gets seriously ill.

Every time he tries to communicate with the Lutzes, static intrudes on the telephone line. The Lutzes' young daughter finds a playmate unseen by anyone but her who commands the girl to misbehave. The change in the Lutzes' characters is dramatic as more and more unexplained things happen to them. The change is particularly noticeable in George, played by James Brolin, who lets his surveying business suffer, becomes impotent, slugs his partner and friend, is snappish or hostile toward his family and spends much of his time trying to keep an icy chill out of the house IwiirmlwWliMlilhiiitfc Margot Kidder portray in "The Amityville Horror" a fear from their dream house. since he looks mean and is named Harry, we shouldn't be surprised that he finds the way to the devil But the final clue comes from a kooky girl who says she feels bad vibes in the house (honest!) and then in an unearthly voice, not half as frightening as Mercedes McCam-bridge's mouthing for Linda Blair in "The Exorcist," she proclaims that they have found a direct pas-See 'ALIEN' C-5 Did demons really lurk in Rod Steiger plays a priest who battles evil forces in the house in "The Amityville Horror." Steiger seeks roles like his big triumphs James Brolin and couple who fled in by feeding a fireplace with wood he frenziedly splits with an axe he continuously sharpens.

The deterioration of George and the fright of his wife, played by Margot Kidder, provide the real horrors of "The Amityville Horror." What do not provide enough chills and thrills, however, are the unexplained phenomena that may terrify the Lutzes but fail to do the same for the audience. Sometimes the special effects are unintention passed lie-detector tests in California where they now live. At a hotel breakfast interview, it became evident very quickly that the Warrens were no kooks. Their belief in the supernatural, in the demonic, was firmly rooted in Catholic theology. The Warrens say their visits to the Amityville house and their discussions with the Lutzes and clergy have convinced them the house was indeed beset by demons at the time the Lutzes lived there.

Mrs. Warren says that in her first visit to the Amityville house, "as I began to go up the stairs, it felt as if something was holding me back." In the first room she entered on the second floor, "I felt this was about as close to hell as I hope I'll ever get." The Warrens are in Jay Anson's book, brought into the case by a New York television station that knew of their interest in demonol-ogy. The couple and more than a dozen newsmen, television crews and others spent a frightening night at the house, with more than half of the people becoming ill. Ed Warren says that when he withholding their shows from the networks shows like "Laverne and Shirley," "Mork and Mindy," "All in the Family," "White Shadow" and "The Waltons." Their basic rallying cry is "turn back the creative end of television to the creative people and let them alone to create." "Are the networks really seeking good writing? Yes, but they have no way of recognizing it when it comes along," says Richard Powell, a Guild executive board member and longtime television writer. "The networks aren't really in the programming business.

They are in the business of selling time. Programming is incidental. Just review the backgrounds of the network program decisionmakers. They come from the ally hilarious, as in the ooze that drips from the walls or gurgles out of the toilet. The incidents are always accompanied by unfrighten-ing music concocted by Lalo Schi-frin and played, we are told, by a bass violin bow on glass tubes covered with resin.

The first hint that the demonic forces are emanating from the cellar is the icy chill that comes up the basement steps. Then the family dog scratches at a basement wall; went to the house 20 days after the Lutzes had fled, he found they had left behind everything they owned: jewelry, a coin collection, personal photographs, all mute evidence of their obvious fright. Since the Lutzes picked up and left, their fortunes have improved, however, with one book already out and several others on the way describing their experiences. The family that bought their house has also moved, but for different reasons, claiming they were so bothered by tourists, curiosity seekers and others that they suffered irreparable damage for which they are now suing. On the Warrens' visits to 112 Ocean Ed went to the basement with a crucifix, holy water and a religious relic to provoke what was in the house.

Lorraine says she called on Padre Pio, a Capuchin priest who died in Italy in 1968 and is already being proposed for sainthood, to stand by her as she tried to discern what was in the house. The Warrens say the exploration proved to their satisfaction the presence of demonic spirits. ranks of commerce, not the creative ranks." Rintels adds, "Television is only as good as the networks want it to be. We're not given the opportunity to write for shows of past quality. When the goal becomes ratings, our members can serve that beast as well, though not necessarily like doing it." "What we are complaining about is the lack of diversity, the sameness," says Bill Frough, The Caucus chairman and a producer-writer.

"We're trying to do something to move this triopoly that controls all the power. The best first step is to take the networks out of programming." "The networks constantly appeal for the new, different, unique," comments Garry Marshall, who brought to ABC "Happy Days," "Laverne and Shirley" and "Mork By GARY MULLINAX Rod Steiger breezed through the. hotel lobby with a trail of reporters following like a gaggle of baby geese sticking close to mama. Let's take this elevator, he said, holding the door open. Once inside the presidential suite of the Latham in Philadelphia, Steiger guided the writers into chairs like a fussy aunt.

"Well, let's have an interview," he said eagerly, rubbing his hands together. He was so eager, in fact, that the questions and answers house? They concede that it's hard to convince skeptics that such things exist. But they contend they themselves once had to be convinced. Ed Warren grew up in a house in east Bridgeport, where "I witnessed very frightening apparitions, telekinesis, heavy breathing." His father, a state policeman and a Catholic, forbade his family to admit the existence of the "ghosts." Lorraine, brought up a few blocks away, got a strict Catholic school education and found as-a girl she was exhibiting ESP, seeing auras and undergoing experiences she didn't understand. They were married when both were in their teens and Ed was still in the Navy in World War II.

"I was not tolerant of psychic research during them early years," Lorraine says, as Ed wanted to visit every place where he heard of psychic phenomena. She used to say to him. "You don't really believe those things happen." Now that she and Ed are convinced those things do happen, and that the origin is See PSYCHIC C-; and Mindy." "You bring them what they ask for," Marshall continues. "They test it and decide it's too new, different or unique. What they really want is something proven and reliable.

"By and large, what is taken is safe, secure and resembles an existing hit, so most new approaches and ideas don't get on the air." "There is an increasing, frightening homogeneity in the programs on television," agrees Caucus member Bob Radnitz. "It has its genesis in what the networks want. The networks are after the widest possible audience, reaching for homogeneity. Which, in the end, means bland-ness and fewer viewers." Says producer Alan Courtney, himself a former network executive, "The days of creative exchange See TV'S C-6 By HARRY F. THEMAL If ever a marriage was made in heaven, it has to be the 34 years Ed and Lorraine Warren of Connecticut have spent together.

Much of that time the two professional artists have been exploring the devil's presence and other supernatural phenomena on earth. Ed is a demonologist who investigates incidents like those that befell the Lutzes in Amityville, determining if they are of satanic origin, trying to help the bedeviled people by calling in exorcists. He also finds that only one out of every 20 reports is valid. Lorraine is a light-trance medium, clairvoyant with extrasensory perceptive powers she first discovered as a child. Together they have been investigating and experiencing psychic phenomena for which rational scientific explanations have yet to come.

They were in Philadelphia recently to give their stamp of approval to "The Amityville Horror." And a few days later the national tabloid newspaper, the Star, reported that the Lutzes over the public display of this hostility. They view the whole thing as a family squabble that can and should be settled quietly and privately. For example, NBC President Fred Silverman says, "I think the biggest value, if they have a problem, is to pick up the phone and call for a meeting. there are problems, the best way to solve the problem is to get the two parties together. If you have the meetings and there's nothing that can be done and there are no solutions, I think absolutely you use any device you can, but I think the first step is the two parties get together and say, 'How are we going to solve this But the writers, producers and directors have had such meetings and feel nothing has come out of them.

Now, they're discussing stronger measures, perhaps even TV's creative forces challenge networks' tight hold began before a second elevator full of writers had even made it upstairs. Steiger, one of America's most distinguished actors, looked like a healthy, energetic man, though at the relatively early age of 54 his close-cropped hair has turned white. He was tanned and appeared relaxed in his blue shirt open wide at the collar, white pants and white shoes. In short, he pretty much gave the impression he wanted to give. See STEIGER C-3 The Guild, he says, "has become co-equally concerned with the souls of our members as with their bank accounts" in its negotiations with the program suppliers and networks.

The writers aren't the only natives restless in Hollywood. There's also the prestigious, potentially powerful The Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors, whose 100 members include Norman Lear, Garry Marshall, Grant Tinker and Jackie Cooper. What has happened over the past couple of years is that this creative community has grown tired of being blamed for the quality of television programs and decided to do some thing about it. That something is regaining from the networks at least partial control over their own creations. And' the networks are puzzled By BILL HAYDEN If Hollywood were still grinding out potboiler movies, this epic would be titled "Revolt of the Lotus Eaters." It also would be one of the few movies never to show up on television, not even on "The Late, Late Show." The story is of angry villagers rising up to save their immortal souls from an all-powerful triumvirate interested only in exploiting their special skills.

As melodramatic as that sounds, almost the same words were used by David Rintels, Writers Guild of America West past president, in discussing a long-festering disagreement between the people who put together television programs and the commercial networks ABC, CBS and NBC that buy the i.