A highly original and memorable score! by Alex (June 16, 2006)
Definitely a highlight of Lalo Schifrin's career. The main theme, with its deceptively innocent choir of female voices, is beautiful and haunting, underlying the doom that is to befall the Lutz family. Whenever I hear this piece, that huge white victorian instantly springs to mind.
A rather mediocre horror film overall, though the same certainly can't be said of the music.
The re-recording for the 2002 CD sounds a little...different...than the original LP release, which isn't really a good thing, but the score still get a high mark in my book.
Amityville Horror childhood memories. by Anthony Larson (May 10, 2005)
I remember being 8 years old, we had just gotten home from my grandmothers house. I ran inside and switched on the tv. They were playing The Amityville horror for the first time on television in the early 80's. The film was just ending, my eyes were glued to the screen as we saw the famous shot of the Amitville house and the haunting childrens voices theme began playing....Just hearing that music sent chills up and down my spine and I was paralyzed in front of the tv...this was my first memory of a movie soundtrack deeply affecting me, and I have been hooked ever since.
When I was a young adult I finally tracked down my own vinyl LP copy of the soundtrack at a used record shop. This is definately worth looking for as it contains the wonderfully cheesy disco version of the themesong. This track is sadly omitted from the new re-recording Cd for obvious reasons.
I love the new recording of the score as well, but there is still something alot better about the childrens voices on the original recording that sounds creepier than the new version.
While watching the movie again today, it's a great example of the way high quality music can really make a low quality movie work better than it should, the money they spent to get Lalo Schifrin was worth every penny.