Rant #1,938: Shake, Rattle and Roll

I heard yesterday something that reaffirmed my belief that there are absolutely no new, creative ideas in Hollywood, and that the supposed creative forces in that town simply regurgitate old ideas ad nauseum, never knowing the breaking point.

And this latest one kind of hits close to home.

Once again, Hollywood is planning another "Amityville Horror" film, and don't you think that that particular subject has been, literally and figuratively, beaten to death already (no pun intended)?

According to reports, a film called "1974"--alluding to the year that the actual, real life tragedy happened, when a crazed Ronald DeFeo shot and killed six family members in the home on Ocean Avenue in Amityville--is in production.

If this film actually makes it to local movie theaters, it will be more than a dozen films that have been made over the years that are somehow connected to this real life tragedy, which happened in the Suffolk County, Long Island town that I live about five minutes from.

I mean, when is enough enough?

I clearly remember the initial frenzy revolving around this tragedy, the best-selling book that was written, chronicling the Lutz family and the supposed horrors they faced when they bought and tried to live in the house, and all the subsequent fanfare.

I remember people stopping their cars on the street by me and asking if they were going in the right direction of the house. (The house has been remodeled and redone over the years, to make it look nothing like it did way back when, and I believe that it is currently occupied, with no demon sightings reported.)

Yes, this macabre episode actually made the house a tourist attraction, and people came from far and wide to drive past it, sometimes throw garbage at it, urinate and defecate on its property ... yes, people can get crazy over such things.

And now, they are going to revisit the whole thing again.

It would be bad enough if these films kept on revisiting a topic that was simply created by some writers--like the "Halloween" series was--but here, this will be another film which almost celebrates this real-life tragedy.

In college, I knew a few people who actually knew DeFeo, and they said that this guy was truly out of his mind, and that when the tragedy occurred, even before they knew who supposedly did it, and where exactly it happened, they all said, "Ronald DeFeo."

He was that notorious, even before he did what he did.

If this is what Hollywood wants to constantly go back to the well about, well, I hope they finally fall into that well and realize that they have tapped that story way, way too much.

Money aside--and this series has probably made billions at this point--let's let sleeping dogs lie already.

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a good day.