Amph What was the last movie you saw? (Ver. 2)

The Amityville Horror (1979)
Viewing Experience: Streaming (Prime Video)

I did not realize this before watching this film, and you may not either, that this is likely the most prolific horror franchise ever made. There are around 12 sequels, prequels, spin-offs and remakes to and of this film, possibly more. And that’s not even counting The Conjuring series and its spin-offs, which also anchors their franchise’s mythology in the real-life events this film was based on.

Also…What. The. Actual. Frack. This is a 2-hour film that spends 30-40 minutes dealing with a subplot that not only never intersects with the rest of the film, but, somewhat hilariously, goes out of its way to prevent them from interacting (“just missed them”, static-filled phone connections, sudden health issues, conspiracy cover-ups and other distractions, etc).

As a result, you actually do get the feeling like you’re watching two different movies at the same time- but you assume they’re going to converge at some point. So when it becomes clear that is not going to happen, you can’t help but feel extra frustrated. It very much is not a film that needed to be 2-hours long. It’s also a film that just abruptly ends, with no real epilogue or denouement. Something the film needed, but they instead chose to devote so much of the runtime to an unrelated subplot.



The film is a long, slow burn. It doesn’t seem entirely focused. There are things like the resemblance between certain characters that is never answered, or even the big question of if it is the house or land itself that is bad, or if it is inhabited by a single entity or several; nor are the goals or motivations of the evil forces made clear- on one hand, they want the family to leave, on the other they want them to stay forever, so which is it (beezel)’bub?

There’s also a likely Omen/Damien inspiration angle here with the daughter and her imaginary friend, but it doesn’t really go anywhere.

I actually would love to see a comedy take on this, because, for awhile, it seemed like there was a structure of a series of encounters with the house repelling various religious people trying to visit the house. First a priest, then a nun, then a babysister with cross earrings. There’s definite potential in a Home Alone-Meets-Amityville premise.



The casting is interesting, though- Margot Kidder in particular I haven’t seen in much outside of Superman, so that was refreshing. You even get brief roles by both the Save the Clocktower Lady and Strickland (didn’t that guy ever have hair?!) from BTTF.

The friend and his wife who are there mainly for exposition delivery also introduces some weird dynamics, because they make it seem like this guy is learning about his wife’s sensitivity to the paranormal just now when they’ve already been married for quite some time.

The deep red exposure shots are memorable, but are used somewhat randomly, so you never really descern a pattern or purpose and they end up feeling more like a left-over experimentation from the 60’s/early 70’s. Audio-wise, there’s a lot of ringing phones in this movie. That’s not a big deal but I just find it really annoying. But the main score’s theme of soft choir singing is somewhat notable.

There’s also a weird scene involving a dropped cross, a mirror and the line “Don’t touch me!” which doesn’t really make any sense in context. I was left wondering what that was all about. Oh, and they set up the use of an axe for, like the entire film, then when he has several scenes where he could have actually used it, he no longer has it, which is kinda funny and contrived.

And speaking of the axe- the main character stores the axe in random logs, trees and dock posts throughout the film. The film only spans about 3 weeks or so. At the rate he’s damaging wood around his property, there’d be nothing left after a year or two.

To the films credit, the actual climax is pretty good, if underdeveloped. There’s a sense of urgency missing from the rest of the film. And I can see, based on that, why it would have left an impression back then, as well as spawn so many sequels.

It’s not a film you need to return to- and it could have definitely been better. But it’s not terrible, it’s just been eclipsed by more modern haunted house films like Poltergeist, Paranormal Activity and The Conjuring. I am going to add it to my list of films to re-edit one day, because you could probably make a pretty tight 1-hour film out of this movie.

Random fun fact: This was the highest grossing independent film for over a decade, until the release of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film in 1990. Cowabunga!

 

I thought the footage looked pretty amazing in theaters. Maybe they lose something when it's compressed down to 2D, or more noticeable on a smaller screen? Considering what they had to work with, stuff like the framerate enhancement was pretty amazing.

I'm pretty certain I've driven past the house used in the movie at some point (they weren't allowed to film at the actual house in NY, so it was filmed in NJ, near Toms River and Point Pleasant, at a house dressed up to look like the actual house). It just didn't have much significance to me at the time because I hadn't seen these movies yet (was vaguely aware of them) and The Conjuring films hadn't come out yet.

 

That's a shame- but I suspect it is only a temporary scenario. Either a 3D BD will get released one day, or they'll release it for viewing on a VR platform, as those can playback 3D content.

Yes, but not the specific Amityville film franchise. The main paranormal investigators of The Conjuring films are based on their realworld counterparts whose reports on the events in Amityville inspired the film (or, rather, the story the film was based on). Lorraine's backstory in Conjuring involves the Amityville events and we get to see some of those events in the prologue to the second Conjuring film (and, IIRC, might have been where they first seeded The Nun character prior to that spin-off film). I believe they've been hinting at a future film one day telling the full scope of those events.

 

This again.

Our friends went and told our other friends how we indoctrinated them with a quasi-feminist spaghetti western about a vampire wearing her khimar, who skateboards around a backdrop of statements on addiction and gender identity in a hostile environment... all spoken in Farsi... and we were asked to lend it out but we, instead, invited them over and watched it again. Which was not at all laborious.

 

My wife or I reference the barrel scene at least once per month in context to something or other we are invited to be involved with.

 

Watched Heredity. The movie crashed my TiVo with about 20 min to go (amusingly during a shock moment). Finished it on my computer. Was gonna do a normal review of it but it looks like I'll be dealing with tech issues and potential drive replacement on that DVR so, the short version: very, very good. Starts out as one thing that covers a lot of ground in the first hour, then, for a few moments, you think it's going to lose you, before it gets weirder and more disturbing in a very good way.