The Amityville Horror

They've made a remake of The Amityville Horror, and it opens today. I MUST see it. I saw the original when I was a kid--I'd read the book and God knows why but my mother allowed me to see it with her. I was so terrified I had to leave about a third of the way through (when the babysitter gets locked into the closet). I remember wandering through the movie theater peeking into other summer of '79 movies like The Muppet Movie and The Main Event and every now and then peeking again into TAH again and then being too scared to continue watching. I am not exaggerating when I say this movie stayed with me for YEARS--for literally years I was scared of any house that looked like that (with the windows), the time 3:15, the ideas of a master bedroom or a sewing room, anything that sounded like the last names of the two families (Lutz and DeFeo). I was a very imaginative kid and I could not get these images out of my head. (I had the same problem when I was nine and flipped through the pictures section of the paperback of Helter Skelter--after that I was CONVINCED Charles Manson was outside the window every night waiting to kill me. Absolutely convinced.)

4 years ago, I got up the courage to rent the video of TAH. I had to stop at times when the tension was too much and peek through my fingers, but I was able to get through it. Then a couple of years ago Tim and I were driving on Long Island and I convinced him to stop in Amityville to see the house. They've changed the address, and the owners have taken out the dormer windows because the town and the owners don't like the publicity that came with that story. But I knew I could find the house--the old address was on Ocean Avenue and it had a boat house, so we just kept driving toward the Atlantic side of the town toward the water, and then drove along the street that parallels the water. We found it. The house is distinctive enough (it's the only house that's sideways on its plot and doesn't face the street). I didn't get out of the car--I didn't want to annoy the neighbors--but I got a pretty good look at the house. I know a lot of the book (and of course the movie) was a hoax but still, the DeFeo family was murdered there--that really did happen. And the Lutzes still insist it happened--they have not backed down, including the three kids. Regardless of what did or didn't happen, it was still the house that haunted me as a child, and it was right in front of me.

Last Halloween I was able to watch the movie with Doug and just enjoy it. I noticed that actually...not that much happens! There's some GREAT imagery (that amazing shot of the windows lit up with lights inside them, and when the slime starts dripping down the walls as they're trying to get out with that weird slidey-string music--awesome!) but there's no actual confrontation a la Poltergeist. But now there's a remake and I MUST see it!

Requiescat in Pace, His Serene Highness, Prince Rainier of Monaco

Prince Rainier died last week, and was buried today in Monaco. I've been looking through the various slideshows of the funeral. I love reading about the Grimaldis--they're such a great royal family, so much more fun than the Windsors. For one thing, they're all just gorgeous--the women are all--every last one--leggy and dramatic-looking and tall and breathtaking. Albert does have an unfortunate hairline, but his face is quite handsome, and Caroline's children, all of them, are just ridiculously good-looking--they look like teen idols.

And they're all so interesting--Stephanie is such the enfant terrible, with her escapades involving bodyguards and circus acrobats and children out of wedlock with anonymous fathers. It's all so scandalous! Apparently wood's colts and inappropriate liaisons are family traditions, though--Rainier's grandmother was a laundress with whom his grandfather, Prince Louis II, dallied, and his mother was made legitimate (and given the title of Princess) after her parents married. A laundress! It's like something out of a 19-century novel. Rainier's sister, Princess Antoinette, also had three children by the heir to a cigarette fortune before they finally made it legal. Such a lusty lot, unlike the phlegmatic Windsors.

Caroline did her share of hell-raising too what with carousing at discos and marrying so young, although hers weren't anywhere near as eyebrow-raising as Stephanie's (I'm told the two sisters have quite a rivalry going on--I think Stephanie was quite the family pet during her childhood, which might annoy anyone, and of course she was pretty messed up after her involvement in Grace's accident).

I have such a fondness for them all--I love reading about them. It makes me happy to know there are still such frivolous pleasures as beautiful princesses and sturdy princes in the world. Monaco is like a toy--it's tiny and beautiful and can't do any harm; it's just there to make us happy.