The Amityville Horror. Movies that inspired Stranger Things

The Amityville case rocked the America in the 1970s. If you're to believe Georg Lutz and his wife Kathy, the house was haunted ever since the brutal murder of members of his own family by a young man, forcing new dwellers to move out just after 28 days.

Stuart Rosenberg's film is based on testimonies and a book by Jay Anson titled Amityville Horror. There's no shortage of jumpscares in the movie, but its greatest thrust is the powerful atmosphere of understatement. The developers simply don't explain some of the events. Perhaps that's why this horror has aged so well – and remains genuinely scary even today.

One of the threads of Stranger Things' season four refers to this film. The Duffers didn't copy The Amityville Horror plot directly, but they used a whole lot of references over the course of several episodes. However, as almost all of them can be considered spoilers, we can't write anything more – until you watch the latest episodes, you'll have to take our word!