Terry's Reviews
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The Amityville Horror Collection MGM Home Entertainment – 2005 |
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| With the remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR coming
to theaters April 15th, MGM Home Entertainment has gathered the original; the
only legitimate sequels and packaged them with two excellent documentaries and a small
featurette on the 2005 remake. All together it’s quite an attractive package and
worthwhile for any fan of horror. It’s worth mentioning that I live only five minutes away from the famous supposedly haunted 112 Ocean Avenue (that address was changed a long time ago) house in Amityville. I’ve been living on Long Island since 1988 and here is what I’ve come to learn. The fact is that a brutal crime took place inside that house in late 1974. Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family with a rifle. A little over a year later (almost like the plot of a horror film) a new family named the Lutz’s moved into the house (which had a low price tag because of what happened). Within 28 days the Lutz family is supposedly overwhelmed by supernatural occurrences and ghostly happenings, which forced the Lutz’s leave the house never returning to retrieve any of their belongings. The crime that took place is something that most people don’t like to talk about, especially the citizens of Amityville. It’s a big nasty black mark that they would rather forget. Amityville is a beautiful, quaint little town that lies along the south shore of Long Island. Except for the constant visitors wanting to see the "Amityville House", not much has happened since the murders in the little town. To me there is little doubt that the Lutz’s manufactured the story of the haunting. Everything that was supposedly happening was because of the history of the house. But considering the people who have lived in the house since the Lutz’s left have never reported anything supernatural, would surely point to the Lutz’s trying to capitalize on the homicides that took place there. |
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THE AMITYVILLE HORROR Directed by Stuart Rosenberg Written by Sandor Stern Starring |
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| THE AMITYVILLE HORROR was a well-crafted book
that engaged the world. The movie is not as effective but it is a little ghost story,
pretty tame by today’s standard that does have a few moments that should give you a
chill. MGM Home Video has done their part by giving the movie a very handsome transfer and
sound mix is a big improvement over all previous releases. Probably the most impressive thing about the movie is the house. Though the film was shot in Tom’s River, New Jersey, there’s something awfully creepy about the house with the curved top attic windows that honestly do look like eyes. The glasses in those windows are colored slightly pink and the filmmakers really play this up by lighting those windows to give them a touch of life. The one thing that is completely different about the movie house from the real house is that it is missing a pool in the backyard and the house is pretty much by itself. In real life the Amityville house is on a fairly busy street, sitting close to other houses. The strangest thing I thought about the Amityville house when first seeing it was that the front door is on the side of the house. Overacting probably hurts the movie the most. Rod Steiger of course goes way over the top, as do James Brolin (he even admits this in the documentary For God’s Sake Get Out) and Margot Kidder. Director Stuart Rosenberg deservingly should take some of the blame since he was the one coaxing the performances and making sure the actors got it right. Looking at it now, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR moves rather slowly, is somewhat clumsy at times but the film does have atmosphere. There are moments where you anticipate something will happen, which is heightened by the eerie score by Lalo Schifrin. This probably works for some people but others will be turned off by the lack of special effects. For God’s Sake Get Out is a twenty-five minute documentary where James Brolin and Margot Kidder state their opinion of the film and what it was like making it. Brolin admits that he went too far in "My world is coming apart" scene and Kidder says she doesn’t like much of her performance. They both do not believe the Lutz’s story of being haunted but Brolin admits that he was scared when reading the book. There is also Audio Commentary track by supernatural specialist Hans Holzer. |
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AMITYVILLE II: The Possession Directed by Damiano Damiani Written by Tommy Lee Wallace Starring |
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| AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION is the creepiest
film out of the original three films made about the supposed haunted house in Amityville,
New York. Damiano Damiani gave the film some cinematic flair with his direction, as he
utilized the POV shot and roaming Steadicam to make the viewing experience somewhat
sinister. Ghosts are usually most effective when you leave them to the audience’s
imagination; it is in these scenes where AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION has some quite
effective moments. The film also has some show stopping special make-up effects created by John Caglione Jr. The filmmakers where obviously trying to cash in on the special make-up effects craze of the early eighties and Caglione Jr., who was a student to the legendary Dick Smith, certainly does his best to give the film this quality. The air bladder technique made famous in ALTERED STATES, AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and THE HOWLING are used quite often to swell the neck, forearms and other parts of different characters’ bodies when demonic possession is taking place. In the finale, we see Sonny Montelli’s (Jack Magner) face literally rip apart before our eyes. AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION is an attempt to tell the story of the DeFeo family (here named Montelli), which in some ways is a prequel to the first AMITYVILLE film. The movie focuses on the eldest son Sonny (in real life was Ronald DeFeo Jr.) who becomes possessed by the malevolent force within the house leading him to commit incest with his sister and murder his entire family. |
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AMITYVILLE 3-D Directed by Richard Fleischer Written by David Ambrose & William Wales Starring |
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| Though sporting visually gorgeous color picture,
AMITYVILLE 3-D is the silliest of the three films and pretty much forgettable. The story centers on a magazine writer John Baxter (Tony Roberts) who exposes a ghost scam operation going on in the Amityville house. It’s kind of a fun opening scene with Baxter and his co-worker, a photographer named Melanie (Candy Clark) going to the Amityville house to have a séance held to see if they can contact the spirits of loved ones. The special effects the supernatural team uses are hooky (obviously on purpose for the film) and should give you a little chuckle. After the supernatural scam team leaves the premises, Baxter meets the owner of the place. The owner, who is a real estate broker, convinces Baxter that it would be a steal for him to buy the house because of the low price. Baxter eventually gets the house when the home owner/realtor passes away suddenly (death by flies in the attic). From there on, Baxter has the intention of writing a book while living in the house but the malevolent force occupying the well in the basement does it’s best to stop Baxter from enjoying any peacefulness within the house. What is memorable about AMITYVILLE 3-D is that Lori Loughlin and Meg Ryan play supporting roles, both entering the film about seventeen minutes in and bring some needed energy. AMITYVILLE 3-D is probably considered skeletons in their closet. |
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The fourth DVD might be the best part of the entire box set. The two fascinating History Channel documentaries tell the stories of what happened to the DeFeo and Lutz families. Both Amityville: The Haunting & Amityville Horror or Hoax are hosted by Arthur Kent (famous for Desert Storm) and run about 40 minutes. There are numerous photos of the Amityville house from pretty much every angle and interviews with the Lutz parents, Attorney William Weber, supernatural expert Hans Holzer and others that make this almost a video diary of what happened and supposedly happened. My wife and I found these the most interesting things in the box set and certainly worth watching. | |
| The fourth DVD also has On Location: The
Amityville Horror 2005, which is a five- minute featurette looking at the remake. Each individual movie has Radio Spots, Original Trailer and also includes other MGM horror film trailers. |
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