I recently watched all three of the original The Amityville Horror films and was astonished at how badly they have aged. I remember having the hell scared out of me (literally) by the idea that a house could become the conduit for all that evil and that maybe I could too. But upon refelction even the original film, the best of the series, doesn't provoke much more for me these days except boredom. The extras disc included with the box set was cool and had a lot of interesting stuff on it but if this latest incarnation of the Amityville tale is any indication the lack of power present in what all has all the earmarks of a powerful story is probably the result of marketers disguising themselves as movie makers. It sold books, spawned three films and now here's the remake. What's next? A TV Series? How about a reality show called, "Why the $%^&* Don't These People Move Out Of This House!"
THE AMITYVILLE HORROR
MGM Home Entertainment
“A terrific scare show” says Kevin Thomson of the Los Angeles Times. Evidently he thinks that’s a good thing. In my opinion Amityville the remake is anything but terrific. The cast can’t really be blamed, neither can the effects crew, which does manage to pull off some very good, ghost sequences- maybe the best in an American film in a long time. I think the blame has to rest on the fact that the first Amityville Horror film wasn’t very good to begin with and itself was based on a bad book. In other words nobody who’s ever tackled an Amityville story had much of a story to tell.
The only resonant thing about the story is it’s basic elements, which in turn are lifted from popular folklore about ghosts. The elements themselves do not a story make and that’s about all we get in any of the versions of the Amityville legend. I could make a creepier story with a DV cam, a dark room and a flashlight. A family moves into a house and slowly become possessed by the spirits of those who died there. A malingering evil presence is identified leading to a climax, which may or may not involve a second series of murders.
I also have a beef with the way the role of the Priest has been reduced in this film from the original. His presence is basically pointless as if the writers had no idea why a positive representation of good was needed beyond the family itself. In other words we don’t need supernatural good to fight supernatural evil. I suppose they thought they had to include the character because of the famous “Get out” fly sequence in the original film but why cast Phillip Baker Hall, one of the finest actors around, and then give him nothing to do?
And many horror movies don’t suffer from being asked obvious questions but Amityville does? Why on earth wouldn’t the family “Get Out!” sooner? We’re given no compelling reasons here and the movie never rises to the level of tension that makes you afraid anything unexpected will happen. In short you feel all cozy in front of the screen safe with your popcorn. You can rest any worries that your date may jump into your lap right at the end of this review.
And this is the sick thing. If any genre of film has suffered in recent years it’s Horror. On the rare occasion a truly disturbing, evocative, interesting horror film or psychological thriller does get made it quickly disappears into the non-marketing black hole that is the Hollywood economy. This leaves trade publications to trumpet the virtues of direct to video schlock, and poorly realized fare just so fans without multi-region DVD players can have anything to be excited about at all. Let the debate start here. If The Amityville Horror was as fun as say, House of Wax or Jeeper’s Creepers II fine. But it ain’t- not even close. Unless of course all you want is a horror movie to cuddle by. How could the director that made Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus, a haunted piece of cinema if there ever was one, have made this bland been-there-been-haunted-by-that redux.
The extras included on this DVD are pretty good all other criticism aside. You get deleted scenes, Supernatural Homicide: A Discussion of the Defeo Murders and What Really Happened, The Source of Evil, Ryan Reynold’s producer Commentary, Multi-Angle On-Set Peaks and a Photo gallery.