Trivia / The Amityville Horror (2005)

• Disowned Adaptation: George Lutz was hostile towards the movie from the beginning, as MGM hadn't informed the Lutzes about the remake until production was well underway, resulting in a series of lawsuits over presumed breach of contract. Lutz was further incensed by the finished movie, angry about the heavy fictionalization of the book and its exaggerating his own actions during the haunting (he especially objected to the scene where the movie's George kills the family dog, an invention of the remake). Lutz was preparing another lawsuit for defamation when he died in early 2006.
• Enforced Method Acting: Ryan Reynolds stayed up late all night, on several occasions, to accurately capture the insomnia and mental break down his character was going through. In one particular scene when he tortures his stepson by making the boy hold chunks of wood Reynolds is chopping with a huuuge axe, he has a close confrontation with the boy and ends up giving him a fairly hard slap on the face. Reynolds has since admitted this wasn't scripted, at all, and came to him naturally through the character. He has expressed shock and some disturbance at his own actions as he never thought he'd be the type to hit a child, but here, in the heat of the moment, he did. Makes the scene A LOT more intense knowing that.
• Executive Meddling: The decision to make Jodie a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl instead of a demonic pig, in the wake of The Ring's success.
• Not Screened for Critics: And this move earned it the then-new "Wagging Finger Of Shame" reprimand from Roger Ebert on Ebert & Roeper (people trying to justify withholding movies from being reviewed was a Berserk Button of Ebert's.)