Horrors! Bucs T Donovan Smith has Amityville story
“It’s a beautiful house,’’ Donavan Smith said of the white, two-story Dutch Colonial made infamous by the “Amityville Horror’’ books and movies. “But it’s a little creepy, too. Especially on Halloween.’’By Roy Cummings | Tribune Staff Published: October 28, 2015 at 06:54 PMTAMPA — Peering out from its waterside perch less than a block away, the most notorious haunted house in America keeps watch over the students and faculty of Amityville Memorial High School. For a year, Buccaneers rookie left tackle Donovan Smith was among the students who felt he had become the focus of the Long Island home’s hair-raising glare.“It’s a beautiful house,’’ Smith said of the white, two-story Dutch Colonial made infamous by the “Amityville Horror’’ books and movies. “But it’s a little creepy, too. Especially on Halloween.’’Whether it’s the work of the home’s owner or the spirits still residing there, Smith can’t say for sure. All he knows is that on Halloween night, the home at 112 Ocean Avenue goes completely dark.“Except for those two windows at the top,’’ he said of the triangle-shaped windows that face the school. “When that happens, it’s like there’s the two eyes just staring at you. That’s when it gets ridiculously spooky.’’The scene of a grisly family killing in November 1974, the home first began to strike fear into its residents 13 months later when George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into it. After less than a month, the Lutzes moved out, saying the house was infested with flies — despite it being in the dead of winter — and claiming to have been terrorized by a series of evil paranormal episodes.Four year later, a film based on a 1977 book detailing the Lutz family’s residency turned the home into a supernatural and pop culture phenomenon that sparked more than a dozen sequels and spinoffs. A bit of a paranormal phenomenon buff, Smith occasionally watches episodes of Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures, but doesn’t claim to believe in ghosts.At least, not completely.“Some of that stuff is just too far-fetched,’’ said Smith, a second-round draft pick from Penn State. “But there’s also some stuff where you say, ‘Yeah, maybe that’s possible.’ As long as they stay away from me, I’m good.’’Smith was an Amityville resident from sixth through the ninth grades, until he moved to Maryland to live with relatives. The home, he said, was often a topic of discussion among friends. But Smith never developed a desire to investigate the house for himself, and any thoughts of doing so were quashed one summer night.“For as long as I lived there, I always knew about the house,’’ Smith said. “But I didn’t really understand the story behind it until I first saw the movie when I was in eighth grade. I was already scared of the place as it was. But after that, I was really spooked out by it. After that I was like, ‘I ain’t messing with that house.’“From that point on I always made sure I stayed outside of the big bushes that are out front. It’s a good walk from the street to the front door, anyway. But I wasn’t about to go up to that door.’’Not even the promise of a treat on Halloween changed Smith’s mind. While other kids willingly made the hike to the front door for whatever the owners were giving out on Halloween night, Smith always passed.“Yeah, I’d just go on to the next house,’’ Smith said. “I wasn’t taking any chances. And I wasn’t the only one. A lot of kids passed up that house right along with me.“But we always had some daredevils that would go up there. Even when it wasn’t Halloween, kids would go there to see what it was like and check it out. But I was never part of that group.’’Smith is often asked about the home that has become a magnet for tourists. But outside of its appearance and proximity to the high school he first attended, he can’t tell them much.“There were people living there when I was there, but I never tried to meet them, so I don’t know if it’s the same people that are there now,’’ he said. “And like I said, it’s a beautiful house.“But on Halloween, when they turn on those lights upstairs and it’s pitch black everywhere else around it, it’s every bit as scary looking as it’s made out to be. It’s like the house is watching you or something.’’[email protected]Twitter: @RCummingsTBO
