The Amityville Horror is a 2005 American horror film directed by Andrew Douglas. The screenplay by Scott Kosar and Sandor Stern is based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Jay Anson, which was inspired by a real-life November 1974 incident in which Ronald DeFeo, Jr. shot dead six members of his family in their Long Island home. The film is a remake of a 1979 screen adaptation that spawned several sequels that had little to do with the original story.