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49. The Amityville Horror

It’s arguable that the biggest draw to the 1979 adaptation of Jay Anson’s novel The Amityville Horror is the grisly true-crime background concerning the real-life Lutz family’s experiences at 112 Ocean Avenue. For those who have been living under a rock for the past 30 years, during the 1970s, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. killed his family while they slept soundly in their house. Months later, the Lutzes moved in and claimed to have been terrorized by evil, supernatural forces. Whether or not you believe it’s all a hoax, there’s no denying that The Amityville Horror has left its mark on the American psyche. It was one of the first true story-inspired terror films (like The Exorcist, before it), and one of the first movies to make horror franchises popular. James Brolin and Margot Kidder play the unlucky couple that moves into the creepy house with ocular quarter moon windows. When they decide to have the home blessed by a priest (Rod Steiger) and a plague of flies attacks the holy man (one of the greatest scenery chewing moments in horror), audiences were sent reeling as the battle was set: good versus evil in a memorable and horrifying showdown, all in the first 20 minutes of the movie.