Goofs

(at around 1h 50 mins) Lightning smashes through one of the attic windows (during the axe attack), but subsequent exterior shots (the escape) show both windows still intact.

(at around 47 mins) When Jackie goes into the closet and the door slams shut behind her she goes to the door and starts knocking revealing blood already on her knuckles. Her knuckles are supposed to be bloodied from knocking and she has not even started.

Kathy's hair color and length change several times from scene to scene.

(at around 1h 1 min) When the 2 Lutz boys are caught in their Mom & Dad's bedroom playing tricks on their little sister with a fake spider on the end of a fishing pole line, the window slams on one of the boy's (Greg's) fingers. The hand is shown in a close-up from the inside of the house with blood but from the outside with no blood, then again from the outside with blood.

The ball-shaped finial on the newel post at the bottom of the stairs (which is shown to fall off easily when the Lutzes are first being shown the house) appears, then disappears, then reappears between shots in one sequence.

(at around 1h 50 mins) When the Lutz family leave their house near the end of the movie in their van, the tires screech as if burning rubber as they pull into the street. With the street wet in a heavy downpour, the vehicle's tires might spin, slide or hydroplane, but certainly not make a screeching sound as if on dry pavement.

When the bartender acts shocked at the resemblance of George to Ronald DeFeo, (the young man who killed his family in the house), he tells him that George is seated on the bar stool that DeFeo was sitting on, when he was arrested. Ronald DeFeo wasn't arrested in the bar, he was arrested in the police station, after he had confessed to the killings, after hours of interrogation.

It is not customary for a Franciscan to be wearing his hood during mass .Although there is a custom with the Dominicans who wear their hood during the procession to the altar, the hood is always removed once the mass begins at the altar.

The 3rd floor of the house was shown to be your typical bare-bones, unfinished attic. The real house actually has a completely finished 3rd floor with 2 bedrooms, one of which was Ronald DeFeo's room, and the other was his sister Dawn's room where she was killed.

At the beginning the movie shows the sounds of the gun hidden by a thunder storm. In fact it was a quiet night, no storms and Ronald Defeo used a high power rifle that was NOT heard be any neighbors or reported any neighbors. This was brought up later as to how this could happen in a area of close homes.

When George & Kathy close Amy's window at night, you hear crickets chirping outside. This scene takes place in December. Crickets die in the winter but leave their eggs behind to hatch in the spring.

(at around 36 mins) When the cheek-pinching Aunt Helena arrives, Matthew answers the door with a very red left cheek from a previous take.

(at around 6 mins) When the real estate agent is showing the kitchen, she casts four shadows because of the stage lights above the set.

(at around 3 mins) In the opening of the film, while the murders are being committed it is raining very heavily. When the police show up a short time later, there are leaves blowing and the ground is dry.

In this movie (and all the other sequels), there is a chimney between the quarter eye-like windows. If you see a picture of the real/actual house in Amityville, there is no chimney.

When leaving Father Delaney's office, Father Nuncio turns to Father Bolen and tells him that he could use a haircut and shave, yet Father Bolen doesn't even appear to have any detectable 5 o'clock shadow.

When George gets covered in the red slime, a split second shot, shows James Brolin beginning to take it off like a shirt, therefore showing that he is wearing a costume for that scene.

(at around 1h 40 mins) When Sergeant Gionfriddo starts to follow Father Bolen, his vehicle registration tags say 1979 (the year it was filmed) instead of 1975 (the year it took place).

(at around 58 mins) When Jeff arrives at the house, he is driving a Jeep Cherokee with square headlights. The headlights on Jeep Cherokees were round until 1979/1980, therefore this type of vehicle could not have been available in 1975, when the story is set.

When Father Bolen leaves the detective to go to his car, there is a crew member in a checked shirt trying to either hide behind the bush or to get out of the shot.

(at around 34 mins) Kathy Lutz tells Father Bolen that they waited all day in the house for Father Delaney. But they did not. We see Father Delaney enter an empty house, with the family taking off for a boat ride.

(at around 16 mins) Shadow visible over Father Delaney's shoulder when the flies are on his face.

When the babysitter is stuck in the closet, she struggles with the doorknob and a keyhole can be seen directly under the knob in a close shot, but when the couple lets her out, George tells her that there's not even a lock on the door.