The Final Chapter

by John G. Jones

After the exorcism of "Amityville II," the horror pursues the Lutzes and their children all over the world until the final confrontation between George, Kathy, and the enemy is played out

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Fiction, Supernatural, Literature, Novels

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1984

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amityville: The Final Chapter is a discombobulated horror, with reason and rationale thrown out the door in favor of monsters, mundane madness, an author who writes himself into the book, a pig ghost sitting on the wing of a plane and a blob-like thing cuddling a 7yr old girl. Add to that, the unbalanced Lutz family parentals whose only purpose in the book is to leave their children with a babysitter while they go jet-setting across the globe from Australia to Japan despite the omnipresent 'Entity' trying to murder their children (and them), and this book is one hot pile of mess.

Sure, there are moments of enjoyment but they are marred the many more moments of mind numbing chapters which, in themselves, read more as self-contained scenes rather than chapters following a coherent plot.

My rating: 2/5 stars. I picked this up thanks to reading the excellent Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix and whilst I don't regret the decision to buy it for the lofty sum of $1, I would've liked a little more bang for my one buck.

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Amityville Horror is generally acknowledged to be a hoax, but you have to admire the way the Lutz family, who perpetrated it, have stuck to their guns for all these years. With Amityville: The Final Chapter they really kick it up a notch, dishing out movie-ready claptrap with one hand, while claiming that It’s All True with the other. Reportedly never happy with their share of the proceeds from the movie and the original book, they could still market their name, and market it they did, desperately hoping to pad their bank accounts with sequel after sequel. This 1985 book purports to be the true story of what happened after they fled the house at 112 Ocean Avenue, and it’s full of scenes that feel designed to tempt the special effects departments of film studios who might write them another fat check.

Many people found the original Amityville story of goo flowing down walls, mysterious voices shouting “Get out!” at priests, and demonic possession hard to swallow. That stuff pales in comparison with the devil pigs riding on the wings of 747’s, the attacks by fire bats, the packs of feral Australian dogs, and the evil forces forcing people to rent cars they don’t even want on offer in Books 2 and 3. Book 2 was plenty ridiculous with its archangels working as beach lifeguards to rescue drowning Lutz children, but in Book 3 the Amityville story goes from a simple meal of possessed homes to an all-you-can eat buffet of occult bullshit.

Read the rest of this review over on my website.

[Patwell James · Rating 3 out of 5]

At this point, the book is entirely fiction, even if you do believe the claims of the Lutz family.

At least, however, The Final Chapter makes for a better read than the second installment. The pacing is much better, and there are some genuinely eerie occurances. Still, Jones falters when he attempts to describe the physical forms of the demons. Rather than being an omnipresent, oppressive force of evil, it is reduced to a silly, slimy mess.

Of course, this was not ACTUALLY the final book in the series...

[John “Hoss” · Rating 1 out of 5]

Felt more like a chore to finish this one...but some books you can tell were just written for money; such as this one.

[Brad Lang · Rating 1 out of 5]

Any semblance of reality The Amityville Horror may have once had utterly crumbles in this book.

Somehow both too brief and needlessly longwinded at the same time, the plot is a fractured mess of repeated, dull ideas as the author dedicates several chapters to self-insert nonsense rather than writing anything vaguely scary.

The characters become hollow, one-dimensional representations of the people established in previous books and any sense of terror is replaced by painful melodrama.

Look, I love a good “Haunted Family” narrative but if you’re going to present a story as being factual, you’ve got to at least try and make it feel grounded in some sort of a reality. The structure is just a cobbled together collection of “and then this happened, and then THIS happened” to such an extent that, putting aside the unbelievable content, it reads like someone throwing darts at a wall filled with sticky note ideas.

I wondered if I should hazard some of the other Amityville novels (Obviously, “Final Chapter” doesn’t mean a thing) but after this, I’m happy to stick to the schlocky movies. At least they know when to roll credits.

[Scott Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lutz family finally face off with the entity that has been attacking them ever since they purchased the house on Ocean Avenue in a apocalyptic battle for the souls of their family and friends

This third novel has all the usual ingredients, noises, smells etc. but now the entity is intruding in to the real world. This book takes the haunting up a notch and comes off as a bit too far fetched, houses and cars damaged or destroyed, people injured. you would think that there would be some photographic evidence of these but I have never seen them.

I'm not saying that what the Lutz's experienced was fabricated. I think that something happened and has been embellished subsequently but this novel is just that too far fetched

[Dubzor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is yet another slog in similar vein to the previous sequel. Sporadic events of paranormal activity between one giant pity party for the Lutzes. However, once the author stops pretending that this is still "Based on true events" shit gets far more entertaining. After that point, it's all the crazy dime store trash horror you want it to be. Sadly, it takes 160 pages to get there and it's not quite worth the wait. Skip it, there's far better horror pulp out there.

[Allison Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meh... I still "believe" the REAL story was one of the most creative ways to commit mortgage default, lol. This book was a scary read, and I enjoyed it for that.

[Maria Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trashy but fun!

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the reason that I am able to actually give this book a little bit of a better score than the majority of other readers is since I have never seen the movie nor have I read any of the previous books. I have heard mention of Amityville but it is one of those events that I would rather not explore deeply since I do know that evil exists whether one wants to admit it or not.

The book gives a little bit of history that relates to the two previous books of the trilogy as well as some of the previous history before the Lutz family bought the house. Although it wasn't that great of an introduction for one that hasn't touched based it gave a general idea for what was happening or to happen. Unfortunately the majority of the beginning of the book was too unjointed with many of the episodes seeming to flip one way or another with no random connection - one minute here, one minute there, etc.

It was also interesting for a book that was suppose to be nonfiction that it confirmed some people were combined together to make for easier reading. What intrigued me the most was the fact that it was suppose to be based on real life but the author mentioned one episode that really bothered the person that George ran into and that she would never speak of it yet it is in the book. If she wouldn't speak of it then how is it in the book? Unless of course it is part of the fabrication.

Also I found some events later on that didn't make sense. One of them was for the author to have met with the Anglican reverend perfectly fine then found himself possessed with no warning as the good reverend is dictating his exorcism bit. From there it mentioned that the author wasn't feeling good and that there was something else possibly happening with the man but the story just ended up cutting the rest of whatever was going on with him out while there was no mention if he was recued from the madness since he wasn't with the rest of the house. Suspicious....

The reason that I had to go with two stars is there was one or two places did have me giggling even though it wasn't right. And then there was a bit of an emotional pitch even though I wanted to strangle the author and the family for continuing to mention financial issues every time you turned around in the book.

So if you are into a horror and can set aside Hollywood fame this book may be for you. Otherwise it is just one of the genre.

~A Book with Bad Review~

[Bryan D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a kid fascinated by horror and ghost stories so it wasn't a surprise when I became infatuated by the Amityville Horror, I have four books and the best are Jay Anson's Amityville Horror and Hans Holzer's superb Murder in Amityville. I don't recall much of John G. Jones' Amityville Horror 2 which I read a lifetime ago but his third installment is a pure work of fiction, there's too much silliness going on to expect true believers or skeptics to accept; there are some chilling moments, like Terri's encounter on the landing and the moments when the dog goes nuts, but besides that, this is really what happens when one refuses to disembark from the bandwagon.
I've the original 1979 film and the 2005 adaptation on dvd which include interviews with the Lutzes, Hans Holzer and Ed and Lorraine Warren who truly believe that something happened in the original Amityville event; I've always been open minded about the original event (except for Jodie the pig, seriously, come off it) but this book takes it to the level of a really bad cheaply made horror film.

[DAISY READS HORROR · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have never seen the movies about the Amityville House nor read the first 2 books. I do think the first book might be better than this one was. I do plan on reading that by the way. I feel like this book was written just to keep making profit out of this story that supposebly happened to the Lutz's. I thought this was going to be scarier than it was. Some of the events were just so unbelievable that I simply don't think most of what was written really happened. it was just an "eh shoulder shrug" read. If you decide to read it buy it @ a yard sale or used book store.

* On a side note, I did find it interesting that the Lutz's moved to San Diego and were around Mission Bay which is where my husband and I shared our first home :)*

[Theresa Turner · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book that was just okay,nothing at all like Amityville Horror or the follow up of Amityville Horror 2, which i both enjoyed immensely. i believe this book was written largely for profit by the author..A true story that has been written in such a fashion..which makes the reader question as to whether the story is true. The book was written as if it was a fictionalized horror story account,which i find an insult to the Lutz family...

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

beyond dross a hallucination sequence where the characters feel like celluloid versions of themselves from the movie....

[Andrea]

really good book but i think the end was a bit of an anti climax but still loved it

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, the stuff people will expect other people to believe...it beggars belief! Passable as grade Z pulp horror.