However, the movie was not shot using this location. Although the exteriors in the 1979 Amityville Horror movie look similar to the real Long Island home, the house used for the movie is actually located at 18 Brooks Road, Toms River, New Jersey. They actually built a superstructure around the outside of the home to make it look more like the actual house.
Because I'm crazy, I really wanted to film something and take advantage of the Alaskan landscape. I brought along a script that is a twisted tale about a hitch hiker and I thought the forest rimmed roads of Alaska would be a perfect setting for this dark comedy. Dark being the operative word. The script is set at night time...and here we hit the first obstacle, sunset. The does not set until 11:30pm at night and it really doesn't set, there is still a haze of light before it rise again around 3am. So at 11:30pm Patrick an I headed out to a secluded road only to hit our next obstacle. Mosquitoes. Think Jumanji, taping on the glass, massive mossies! We attempted to film the scenes that were in the car and at one stage had to run outside to swap seat and we were mugged by the bastards! And with great regret I conceded defeated. Later we found out that the locals refer to the mosquito as their State Bird.
With one final day of adventure, Pat and I ventured out to Chena Hot Springs where we ran into a moose on the road, well we didn't run into it we stopped so he could cross the road. At Chena Springs we played with Alaskan Husky Puppies (so adorable, I tried to sneak one home but Patrick sad no pet's in the apartment). I then went on a ATV (Quad Bike is an Aussie term apparently), with a fellow photographer so we had a blast tearing up the terrain and then stopping to take some snaps of the stunning location. And finally we bathed in the slightly sulphuric scented hot springs, very soothing for the cold muscles.
As a final farewell we went to dinner with Glenner who is the local morning host of The X-Rock Morning Show live from Crapper Creek, Alaska. He's also a stand up comedian and coach of the local Ultimate Frisbee league. He and his wife are extremely energetic characters and have lived an amazing life. Poor Maria told me an amazing and yet heart breaking story about how she thought 'LOL' stood for 'Lots Of Love' which lead to a few miscommunications in the social media world that lead her to retreat from Facebook. They were telling us about all the amazing activities you can do in the summer and winter months in Alaska. I can't wait to get back some day soon in particular to go dog sledding and witness the Auroras!