Danny is so full of *beep* - My Amityville Horror (2012) Discussion

[–] AaronSynn 11 years ago

While I agree that he's full of *beep* it is not uncommon for someone to remember (or THINK they remember) traumatic events in their lives with great clarity for decades....

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[–] belalugosilives 11 years ago

He clearly has emotional issues. I think the end of the film clearly illustrates the dilemma. When talking to the therapist, he touches on just wanting to be believed. Wanting anyone to believe his story, and he mentions several times he never got to say his part as a child. What this indicates to me is that George Lutz was possibly a very abusive person, and Danny is trying to tell people George is not the nice guy people think. So Danny himself is now twisted into the paranormal stuff when what he really wants/needs is closure on the neglect and abuse from both his parents and possibly the boarding school he was left at while his parents went on tour. And since all anyone asks him about is the paranormal story, he's now resentful and angry and doesn't know how to separate the stories himself. So when Danny is speaking of supernatural stuff, deep down he's trying to say George.

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[–] prometheus1816 9 years ago

He clearly has emotional issues. I think the end of the film clearly illustrates the dilemma. When talking to the therapist, he touches on just wanting to be believed. Wanting anyone to believe his story, and he mentions several times he never got to say his part as a child. What this indicates to me is that George Lutz was possibly a very abusive person, and Danny is trying to tell people George is not the nice guy people think. So Danny himself is now twisted into the paranormal stuff when what he really wants/needs is closure on the neglect and abuse from both his parents and possibly the boarding school he was left at while his parents went on tour. And since all anyone asks him about is the paranormal story, he's now resentful and angry and doesn't know how to separate the stories himself. So when Danny is speaking of supernatural stuff, deep down he's trying to say George.

If there was a like button on this, I'd be hitting that thing real hard. I agree totally. I think the real "horror" wasn't a paranormal haunting, rather it was George Lutz and his temper and ability to concoct a real good story for the masses. I've read both Jay Anson's book and Hans Holzer's and have read other things on this case, as well as seen many documentaries on the story. I do not believe anything other than George wanting to back out of the mortgage he signed and the family he abused. It's clear Danny is a disturbed person. It's clear he's making stuff up or else he wouldn't have been so defensive toward the end when asked if he'd take a polygraph. I say if it all happened like he said, he wouldn't be adverse to taking that...unless he knows the answers wouldn't be truthful.

Sometimes my ruminations are too confusing for someone not inside my head. -Anon

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[–] ElectricWarlock 11 years ago

I believe that supernatural occurrences happened to them while he was in the house. If this was all just a scheme to make money, I think he would've said so. From what I gather, it was George's idea to go public with the story. If George was as much of an abusive scumbag as Danny said he was, I do not believe that he would've corroborated his story at all. He hated George and was happy when he died, so if this really was just a scam for George to get rich off of, Danny would've contradicted his story any way he could. That's one of the reasons why I believe his story is true.

I've been waiting for you, Ben.

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[–] oldpantsnewjersey 11 years ago

Danny was 10 years old at the time and would not have been in on any scheme to make money. Kids are a liability to that level of hoax (remember the "balloon boy" story a few years back?). Fortunately for the Lutzes, children are so open to suggestion that didn't need to tell him in order to get the most believable performance. Unfortunately, this manipulation grew to mountains of trauma for the adult life of an already emotionally damaged young boy.

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[–] ElectricWarlock 11 years ago

I don't think you can manipulate people to believe they are levitating, their bed is rising, they are being thrown up a flight of stairs, etc. I think 10-year-olds are mature enough to know the difference between reality and fantasy. I would expect a 5-year-old to be more easily manipulated, but 10-year-olds are smarter than many people give them credit for.

I've been waiting for you, Ben.

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[–] oldpantsnewjersey 11 years ago

Plenty of children have false memories--wild ones at that. Just look into any mass child abuse case of the 70s/80s where people are throwing around the word "Satanic."

Still, I agree with you to an extent--an emotionally and mentally healthy 10-year old is not as easily manipulated as a younger child. I don't think Danny was emotionally and mentally healthy though. I don't think anyone would deny that.

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[–] Lawdog1527 11 years ago

He openly admitted to being physically abused by Lutz before they even moved into the house.

I think Danny legitimately believes the things he say, I just don't think any of it happened. I found this documentary to be an eye opener at just how destructive growing up around these charlatans was. It made me feel feel disgusted with both the Lutzs' and the Warrens'.

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[–] Foxbarking 11 years ago

"I don't think you can manipulate people to believe they are levitating, their bed is rising, they are being thrown up a flight of stairs, etc. I think 10-year-olds are mature enough to know the difference between reality and fantasy. I would expect a 5-year-old to be more easily manipulated, but 10-year-olds are smarter than many people give them credit for"

You certainly can. Although I generally hate using this concept to defend things, it is more than appropriate in Danny's case. There is no such thing as a perfect memory and every memory is flawed in some ways. Not only that, a person is capable of creating memories in their head that will seem real as they get older and they will believe these memories beyond a doubt. It is well established in cognitive psychology that this is the care.

There is a procedure known as the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm that applies to this. It has shown that a false memory can be planted in someone's head only moments after it supposedly happened. Growing up hearing all of this stuff about Amityville, Danny could have easily convinced himself over time to believe the events.

Generally I would never suggest such a thing for a haunting, but the Amityville case is such bull to begin with that I have no issue applying it.

However, I do not think that Danny actually has these memories. You asked in a previous post as to why Danny would coroborate the story of George Lutz, a man he hated. There are plenty of reasons. It puts Danny in the spotlight. Since George and his mother are dead now, he is one of the few surviving people who can benefit from the publicity of the story. It has become his story, and why would he not take advantage of that.

After watching this, I am mostly convinced he is a bad actor. He has put several concepts out there that don't make sense. He said he is not looking forward to telling the story due to the trauma it causes him. If this was accurate, then why is he telling the story? The Amityville story has been told to death so who needs his view on what happened?

Also he presents to the "therapist" that he can't tell the story to her unless she tells him her most traumatic memory. Once she tells it, he will tell his. Hmmm...doesn't that sound a lot like the plot of a movie that Anthony Hopkins was in a while ago?

He's a flask and looking for attention. His biggest problem is that he is a horrible liar who was totally transparent in his story telling.

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[–] duncreg 10 years ago

>I don't think you can manipulate people to believe they are levitating, their bed is rising,
>they are being thrown up a flight of stairs, etc.

If we're gauging probabilities, I'd believe even less that people can levitate, their bed can float, or they can be thrown up a flight of stairs. People, on the other hand, can be led to believe all sorts of things. Heck, the entire nation of North Korea is one giant cult with their own version of history and perception of reality.

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] dwpeak 10 years ago

At horror2,

Although you make a valid point about George being the one who wanted to go public, you must remember that Daniel loved his mother, a woman who also refused to deny the occurrences through the time of her death.

The argument could be made that to discredit George is to discredit his mother.

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[–] disinter 10 years ago

Well you believe that George could actually levitate and move things with his mind, there is simply no hope for you. You are the type that keeps psychic scammers in business.

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[–] prometheus1816 9 years ago

Kids can't make up stories or can't be made to tell false stories? Ask the 100 plus kids who were coached to lie in the McMartin Preschool Case where seven workers at the McMartin Preschool were charged with over 815 counts of rape, child abuse, sodomy, rape, rape of a child.... It was proven beyond the shadow of a doubt all the kids were lying due to the coaching from the prosecutors because there was ZERO proof of anything sexual. All charges were dropped against the McMartin/Buckey family because the judge found all the stories told by the kids to be fake. Some of the kids told of the McMartin/Buckey defendants using knives to stick up their butts, and there were supposedly tunnels under the school that led all the way to Dodger Stadium where Tommy LaSorda took part in the rapes. 1) There was no evidence whatsoever any of the kids were harmed anally with knives or any sharp instruments, 2) The area under the school was excavated and all they found was a room with things that were left over from back in the 1940s. 3) Tommy LaSorda was not thrilled.

So we get to Danny Lutz's story. Face it, that's all this is: A Story. There is no evidence that supports anything he said. He comes off as an undereducated nitwit who is pissed at his mother for not protecting he and his siblings, and as a man who hated his step-father because he couldn't match up to his bio dad. He also is quite pissed at his mother for leaving him to go off on a publicity tour with the man who took her away from him.

Sometimes my ruminations are too confusing for someone not inside my head. -Anon

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[–] Gianopulos 11 years ago

I agree. That guy is a effin' weirdo. I think he's smoked a few bowls too many. If I was the camera guy at the end I would have punched him.

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[–] nastasya_filippovna 11 years ago

lolol I love your response and I couldn't agree more! This guy annoyed the hell out of me! Oh my god those scenes of him playing guitar with his sunglasses on! How pretentious can a person possibly be! And like people are really going to recognize him!!!!! Some bald random middle aged man is walking down the street and ppl are going to be like, "omg that must have been the 10 year old who lived in the Amityville house!" He is such a diva!!!!

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[–] coex 10 years ago

didja get a load of his pickup truck? and the flying V guitar he had? clearly he wants people to LOOK AT HIM!! he's a *beep* artist. I've seen his kind before in the low-rent world of beer swillin' druggy rockers that all play hard in their garages, goin' nowhere.

oh well, he got a decent little check out of this documentary to be sure. he can pay off that last pound of weed he still owed on... and then go back to his anonymous bald life.

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[–] coex 10 years ago

didja get a load of his pickup truck? and the flying V guitar he had? clearly he wants people to LOOK AT HIM!! he's a bullshyte artist. I've seen his kind before in the low-rent world of beer swillin' druggy rockers that all play hard in their garages, goin' nowhere.

oh well, he got a decent little check out of this documentary to be sure. he can pay off that last pound of weed he still owed on... and then go back to his anonymous bald life.

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[–] prometheus1816 9 years ago

lolol I love your response and I couldn't agree more! This guy annoyed the hell out of me! Oh my god those scenes of him playing guitar with his sunglasses on! How pretentious can a person possibly be! And like people are really going to recognize him!!!!! Some bald random middle aged man is walking down the street and ppl are going to be like, "omg that must have been the 10 year old who lived in the Amityville house!" He is such a diva!!!!

Only one way to sum this up: 15 minutes too many.

Sometimes my ruminations are too confusing for someone not inside my head. -Anon

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[–] hoochiemoochie 11 years ago

What is so curious to me and eye opening is that so many people are quick to call "bull" on any story of possession no matter what and it's not hard to see why.

I think that it comes down to this. If you are a spiritual person of any faith you believe that possessions and paranormal are absolutely possible because you believe that there is a force of evil just as you believe in a force of good.

However, I can almost guarantee that every single person who is calling Daniel a/an (expletive deleted) is either a person of weak faith or an outright atheist. You don't want to believe it is true because if even one sliver of it is true then it proves that there is more to existence than what our senses can perceive. If there is more to existence than sensory experience then there is a chance your atheism is misguided.

It's pretty easy to see that all of you who bash this guy (who may be full of it...I honestly can't say either way with certainty and neither can any of you) are basing your unbelief in him solely on the fact that you yourselves don't believe in a spiritual realm...in short, you call him an outright liar automatically because of your own lack of faith...not because of anything he has said or done.

----------------------------------------
"Live every week like it's Shark Week."

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] Lawdog1527 11 years ago

I totally disagree with your evaluation. As I said in another post, I think Danny believes the things he says, they just didn't happen.

Here's a guy that at around ten is continuously physically and mentally abused by George Lutz. His own mother sides with George. Remember, she allowed Danny to run away at 13, what rational mother does that? Now add a family obsessed with the supernatural and a media that fuels that obsession.

It's not unreasonable a ten year old would fall into a world of fantasy under those circumstances. It's even possible, and oddly not mentioned in the film, George actively tricked his children to further his control. Meanwhile, people like the Warrens' come in and make things even worse with their lies and trickery.

I can see why Danny is screwed up.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] Lawdog1527 11 years ago

Either way, I found the documentary fascinating. When I was a kid the movie scared the bejesus out of me and as I got older the real facts of the case and the circus behind it, I found just as interesting. To actually hear one of the kids talk about it, even if it is mostly lies or crazy talk, was cool. Lutz always presented himself as the common guy and at the very least that lie is disproved.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] therock0603 11 years ago

Danny contradicted himself at least a couple of times in his stories in really strange ways. It wasn't like he said one thing and then contradicted himself later on in the interview. He practically did it in the same breath. When he was telling the story about the flies upstairs, he said that his mom came in and saw them and started screaming in freaking out. He then says that he started smashing the flies, but suddenly he claimed his mother was downstairs in the kitchen. He says he went down and told her what happened, but when she went upstairs with him there were no flies to be seen and she didn't seem to believe him. He said all this so quickly and without pause that you could easily miss it, but he tells two completely different stories of the same event as if it was one story.

He also seemed to be contradicting himself about when he left home. I still don't know what age he left home because that seemed to change so many times back to back.

As for his belief that his bed was floating, his memory of the event could be easily explained. Imagine you are 10 years old and sound asleep and suddenly your parents rush into the room screaming and freaking out. You're gonna wake up in complete shock having no idea what's going on, and your parents are telling you your bed was just floating and slamming against the ceiling or whatever. You're gonna believe them and freak out and be scarred by this memory. Eventually you'll even believe that you remember it happening.

Anyway, he definitely has some serious unresolved family issues. It doesn't help that he was thrust into fame at such a young age and was probably subject to manipulation by his parents who were trying to convince him all these things happened so he wouldn't ruin things for them. Even if he didn't believe these things happened at one time, he may have convinced himself along the way to try to escape the pressure and possible abuse from his parents.

Of course this is all theory as to why he had turned out the way he is (obviously disturbed). I don't know what his mom and stepfather were or were not like, but listening to him it seems like there are some really deep issues there relating more to his family than to supposed supernatural occurrences.

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[–] therock0603 11 years ago

Also meant to mention one other thing... Notice how easily Danny believes that what the older woman had is an actual piece of Christ's cross? He believed it without question and had compete reverence for it. He's obviously a very gullible person.

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[–] Chopperbubba 11 years ago

And extremely hateful and intolerant towards the camera crew who were agnostic. The look of rage came across his face, very similar to look he gave the interviewer every time she brought up George's name.

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[–] TeaBunny 11 years ago

He was EXTREMELY angry that anyone might not believe in God, or even have doubts, or even not believe exactly what he believed. It was like he was blown away by the very idea that not everyone would crap their pants over some piece of wood in a cross. It makes it very hard to listen to him with any objectivity, as he comes across as someone who would punch you for asking something the "wrong" way. I wouldn't want to interview him.

------------------------
"Love means never having to say you're ugly." - the Abominable Dr. Phibes

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[–] Girlcat23 11 years ago

He just generally seems incoherent and drug-addled. He definitely sounds like the guy at the end of the bar, which doesn't lend to his credibility. It's sad. He was a cute kid who seems stuck in his abusive childhood.

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[–] zwolf 11 years ago

While I don't believe the stuff he says, I'm not as sure that Danny's "lying." I think <b>he</b> believes what he's saying. That doesn't mean it's true; it just means that he believes he experienced it and therefore isn't a liar or "full of ****."

Danny and his family were religious, and very religious people can convince themselves of all sorts of crazy things. I work with a woman who literally believes "demons" come and bother her whenever she's got a conflict of what to do about a situation. She's not just using figurative language -- she sees and hears these "demons." Of course, there are no such things, but since she really believes in them, she interprets things as being "demonic," confuses dreams with reality, imagines things and later thinks they actually happened, etc. She's not completely sane, but she's not "crazy," either - she's functional and not on meds or anything (although, honestly, it might help her if she was).

This happens to her with other events besides "demons." For instance, one day I saw some cops helping a guy up off the sidewalk in front of our workplace and mentioned it to her. She never saw it, and I didn't know what had happened to the guy, if he just tripped and fell or what. Well, she decided - just from me saying I saw the guy getting picked up - that he'd gotten hit by a car, and the car drove off without helping him, and we should all be on the lookout for this hit-and-run car, etc. It was a scenario she had completely made up. By the end of the day she was telling people she'd seen the car hit this guy. And the weird thing is, she <b>believed</b> that she had. She'd played this made-up scene over and over in her mind so many times that she'd convinced herself that it was true and she'd witnessed it.

Also, I used to work at a radio station that aired religious programs. One woman who came in used to speak in tongues and start crying during her show, and her strange "fits" would go on for another ten, fifteen minutes after the show was over. And she'd say she saw devils and angels in the corner, etc. She truly believed she was seeing them, but, of course, they weren't there. She was a very nice lady and she wasn't trying to lie... she just made up stories in her head that she wanted to believe and convinced herself they were real. And she really thought they were.

I think Danny's probably doing that. I don't think he's trying to hoax anybody, and I don't think he's saying much that he doesn't firmly believe is true. But, that doesn't mean that what he thinks happened actually happened... it's just something he's convinced himself of.

The mind's a strange thing... it can get programmed, often by one's own self, to believe things that have no basis in reality. I'm sure we all have relatives who tell stories about things that happened in the past and we know they're not true because we were there... but our relatives swear those things happened. They remember it wrong and believe it, so it's not a "lie," even though it's not true, either.

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[–] Chopperbubba 11 years ago

Which is another reason why he became extremely hostile to the interviewer right before the credit roll.

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[–] CognacJacquet 11 years ago

I'm watching this right now and I feel so very sorry for Daniel Lutz. I think he has PTSD from the overall events--the intrusion of George into his life so soon after his parents' divorce, the physical abuse, and then all the drama and hoopla surrounding the incident.
I think he wants to believe what he is saying because it's a story that his mother told and retold. I also think he probably read the news articles, listened to the interviews and watched the movies and all of this influenced his "memories" of the events.

I feel sorry for his children as well. I think the "ghosts" of Amityville have probably haunted their childhoods too.

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