"James Brolin, as the father on the verge of being devilishly possessed, does so much eye rolling that in the movie's sober context, he appears ludicrous. The absurdity is heightened by Rod Steiger, in one of his overripe performances as the family priest who first suspects that something's rotten in Amityville. The result is not chills, but an uncontrollable desire to break into laughter, so lacking is the film in properly gothic suspense. Margot Kidder is chipper and pleasant as the puzzled wife resisting her worst suspicions about the demons in her dream house, but she cannot overcome the film's ineptitude and lethargy. The movie's creators should either have stuck to the facts, ma'am, or they should have invented something to scare the pants off us. As it is, they have managed merely to bore them off."
Richard Schickel, Time, Sept. 17, 1979.

"So many horror-movie clichés have been assembled under the roof of a single haunted house that the effect is sometimes mind-bogglingly messy. There is apparently very little to which the director, Stuart Rosenberg, will not resort. But he still can't come up with anything more hair-raising than the trick of having one Lutz experience a severe start when he or she doesn't realize other Lutzes are in the room. Whenever Mr. Rosenberg stumbles upon an idea as good as this one, he's bound to repeat it over and over again. Scary things do happen in the movie, but they're always telegraphed in advance and make too little sense to have a cumulative effect. ...Eventually, it turns out that the house's problem is in the basement, and that behind the basement wall are the gates of hell. This will come as a great surprise to any fans of 'The Sentinel,' a movie of several years ago that definitively located the gates of hell on the top floor of a Brooklyn Heights brownstone, guarded by John Carradine, Burgess Meredith and Sylvia Miles."
Janet Maslin, New York Times, July 27, 1979.

"I did an article for Rolling Stone in late 1979, and I now think I was needlessly hard on The Amityville Horror in that piece. I called it a stupid sort of story, which it is; I called it simplistic and transparent, which it also is, but these canards really miss the point, and as a lifelong horror fan, I should have known it. Stupid, simplistic and transparent are also perfectly good words to describe the tale of The Hook, but that doesn't change the fact that the story is an enduring classic of its kind... Stripped of its distracting elements (a puking nun, Rod Steiger shamelessly overacting as a priest who is just discovering the devil after forty years or so as a man of the cloth, and Margot Kidder – not too tacky! – doing calisthenics in a pair of bikini panties and one white stocking), The Amityville Horror is a perfect example of the Tale to be Told around the Campfire."
Stephen King, Danse Macabre

"Jan Anson's best-selling haunted house story was allegedly true, documenting the supernatural experiences of a family living on Long Island. If true, it's far more frightening than any fiction. This American-International film version... deviates frequently from the so-called true events, adding to the confusion as to fact or fiction. There are several harrowing moments as the couple experiences ghostly phenomena, but it never comes near capturing the sheer terror of Anson's narrative."
John Stanley, The Creature Features Movie Guide

"In order to be a horror movie, a horror movie needs a real Horror. The creature in Alien was truly gruesome. The case of possession in The Exorcist was profoundly frightening. The problem with The Amityville Horror is that, in a very real sense, there's nothing there. We watch two hours of people being frightened and dismayed, and we ask ourselves. . . what for? If it's real, let it have happened to them. Too bad, Lutzes! If it's made up, make it more entertaining. If they can't make up their minds. . . why should we?
Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

"First of three tall tales spun out of Jay Anson's supposedly factual-based bestseller. Family moves into reputedly haunted Long Island house: cue for bad smells, slamming doors, and a horrible sense of deja vu as the movie churns out numerous post-Exorcist clichés. Tautly directed, but the thin material, and a dreadfully hammy priest from Steiger, effectively wreck what little suspense remains."
Geoff Andrew, Time Out Film Guide

Compiled by John M. Miller