Amityville: An Origin Story Documentary Series Trailer Released

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Few real-world locations evoke the same amount of fear as Amityville, a notorious community in Long Island, New York that serves as the inspiration for the long-running The Amityville Horror franchise, with the new documentary Amityville: An Origin Story shedding new light on the real-life terrors of a quiet home in the village. Over the decades, various reports have emerged about haunted happenings unfolding in a home in Amityville, though these all followed the actual murders that happened in the home, which are the subject of the new MGM+ series. You can check out a trailer for Amityville: An Origin Story below before the series premieres on MGM+ on April 23rd.

Amityville: An Origin Story tells the story behind the world's most infamous haunted house tale: the Amityville murders. The project is the first elevated look at every aspect of this wildly layered story about the heinous murder of a family of six that became eclipsed by paranormal controversy. 

The 1979 blockbuster film, The Amityville Horror, inspired by the book of the same title by Jay Anson, spawned an ever-expanding universe of movies, books, supernatural theories, and horror superfans. But the mass murder behind the hauntings -- and its alleged ties to organized crime -- left a long trail of questions that have never been fully explored. 

Rooted in the dark cultural undercurrents of the 1970s, the series features firsthand accounts from witnesses, family members, and former investigators appearing on-camera for the first time. Exclusive archival footage, newly unearthed images, and stunning original photography are woven together into the most compelling and comprehensive telling of the Amityville story yet, taking viewers on a heart-pounding roller coaster ride through the mythology, factual record, and devastating human toll of this notorious meta-narrative. 

While the original 1979 film earned a handful of follow-ups and a remake starring Ryan Reynolds, the legacy of the location spreads much further, with dozens of movies being made that draw from that iconic location as its source material. The events of the supposed hauntings also inspired the documentary My Amityville Horror, exploring the actual fallout of having your life turned into a horror franchise and how Daniel Lutz has been impacted not only by the alleged otherworldly encounters, but also becoming an inadvertent celebrity because of the series. 

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Amityville: An Origin Story premieres on MGM+ on April 23rd.  

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

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