A Bloody Good Time 01.08.09: Amityville Horror Franchise Breakdown

Posted by Joseph Lee on 01.08.2009

The story deserved much more than it got.

Welcome to A Bloody Good Time! Last week I presented a look at the upcoming horror films in 2009. Let's look at some comments.

First of all, I probably shouldn't even mention it, because it gives these kinds of people some sort of thrill, but I couldn't help but laugh at the comments of Funky Freedy Feelgood. I'm sure he felt really good about himself and his ability to anonymously insult someone over the internet. Good for you.

Anyway, for those with something relevant to say, here's some replies.

Kevin F returned, with this: You know, I had no idea that you haven't seen Dance of the Dead yet, so it's my bad. I'll provide you with a link anyways so you can at least see what it's about and such. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_of_the_Dead_(2008_film) Just trying to get people to see this movie.

I will check it out and post my thoughts here when I get the opportunity.

Chris had a demand for me: For the love of god see Diary of the Dead already.

I did, and it was my #2 horror film of 2008. I'm not quite sure what gave you the impression that I hadn't. Check out my thoughts here.

Matt wondered: The original My Bloody Valentine was awesome for being a cheesy 80s slasher film. I don't know how you can say the deaths were unimpressive. The nailgun to the head was great, and the girl getting impaled on the shower was incredible. Sure, not all of them were exactly original, but they were still good.

Maybe I'm just desensitized to violence. I watched it recently and didn't care for it.

He also said: The Poughkeepsie Tapes seems like a modern take on an old British movie, Peeping Tom, where the killer films himself killing his victims. You should definitely check it out. And here's hoping we FINALLY see the release of Trick R Treat. It looks way too good to be ignored for another year, and hopefully, it won't get the Midnight Meat Train treatment.

Peeping Tom is going in my Netflix queue. As far as Trick R Treat goes, I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't even get the theatrical run. I've heard nothing but good things, but studios want everything to be mainstream-friendly these days.

411's own J.D. Dunn also commented on my dislike of the original My Bloody Valentine: The MBV deaths are apparently more impressive in the uncut version. As per usual, Paramount cut the gore way down in their subsequent video/DVD releases..

Paramount is very weird about that. I heard that the original Friday the 13th is also getting released uncut this year. I own the box set from 2004 but I'm still going to buy the original to see it uncut.

This week I'm going to talk about the entire Amityville series in another franchise breakdown. There were nine films, most of them went straight to video, and another one is apparently on the way. I'm also going to give my personal thoughts on the actual events, and discuss whether or not it could be a hoax. Feel free to give your own opinions below.

When I announced this last week, I received an email from Tim Yancey, a man who says he used to be a friend of George Lutz. He offered to give me the facts, as he saw them, concerning the haunting. He runs two websites about it, but both of them tried to give my computer viruses so I wouldn't recommend going. I'm only mentioning this to thank him for his offer and for reading.

Now, onto the main event!

In 1974 at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, Ronald DeFeo murdered his entire family. One year later, the Lutz family moved into the same house. 28 days after that, they ran from the house and never came back. The events of such have become a phenomenon, from a bestselling book by Jay Anson, to nine films (and countless ripoffs) and numerous talk shows and interviews trying to prove or disprove the myth. What really happened in that house? Only the Lutz family knows, and they've been saying for years that it was haunted. Here's a small list of things that they say went down while they were staying there. The house always had swarms of flies in it, even in the winter. Kathy Lutz would feel the sensation of being embraced by an unseen force. There were odors of both perfume and fecal matter in the house with no source available. George would wake up in the middle of the night to the sounds of doors slamming extremely loud, only to find nothing when he went downstairs to check. He would also hear noises of a band or a clock radio downstairs. He saw a pair of eyes watching him through the window. Parts of the house were apparently damaged by an unknown cause. Kathy levitated on her bed. George saw Kathy once transform into an old woman.

These were just some of the incidents described by the Lutz family in the book and in their many interviews since. True or not (we'll get to that later), it is the subject of endless debate among believers and critics of the supernatural. Someone in Hollywood thought it would make for a great horror film.



The Amityville Horror is of course based on the book by author Jay Anson. This movie had everything going for it to produce one of the greatest horror films of all time. It had an all star cast with James Brolin, Margot Kidder and veteran Rod Steiger. It was based on a bestselling book, which itself was based on supposedly true events. If you read the book, there are some disturbing events that occur, including the many that I described above. If you translate those, and other things to a film, then you shouldn't have a problem coming up with a decent horror film to thrill audiences. Financially, The Amityville Horror was successful. It grossed $86 million at the box office and the score was nominated for an Academy Award. Critically, it was panned. It currently has a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Roger Ebert described it as "dreary".

I describe it as tedious. The biggest problem with The Amityville Horror, in my opinion, is that it's simply boring. All of these terrifying events happened to the Lutzes and you can't properly translate that into a scary film? It can't be that difficult. What happened in the movie is that we get some flies, some black goo, James Brolin overacting and Margot Kidder phoning it in. Rod Steiger is the only one who brings the goods, but considering his limited role he isn't able to offer much. It runs at two hours, and during the entire run length I constantly found myself checking my watch to see if it over yet. All of these events are happening, but it feels as though nothing is. It's not scary in the least, and as I mentioned, just drags on during the entire time.

Of course, my personal opinion aside, it did gross a lot of money, which in Hollywood means it's getting a sequel.



Amityville II: The Possession followed in 1982. Instead of following with another typical haunted house tale (those would come later), this one decided to tell a fictionalized account of the DeFeo murders that occured before the Lutzes moved in. Of course, it wouldn't be an Amityville film without some supernatural happenings in the house, so it sets up the house being haunted and possessing the young man modeled after Ronald DeFeo (the surname of the family for this movie is Montelli). This goes back to the fact that DeFeo claimed spirits told him to kill his family. This movie was very mean-spirited and even includes an incest scene between Sonny and his sister.

It didn't make nearly as much as the original in the box office, only $12 million. I find this odd, because I find the strange events surrounding the DeFeo murders much more interesting than the haunting that occured later. One fact of that case is that none of the family members reacted to the others being shot, and all were shot in their beds. It was a very loud gun, apparently. Anyway, it was also panned by critics, although some have called it better than the original. I will say that it took a different direction than most sequels in the series took in trying to tell a different story than "family moves into haunted house, bad things happen". If you want to watch this film, it's actually available for free on Youtube, thanks to MGM. Just type in the title of the movie and it's the first result you come to.



During the 80's, there was a big revival of 3D films (similar to the one we're experiencing now) and usually the third installments in horror franchises would add the 3D element to spice things up (like Friday the 13t Part 3: 3-D(1982) and Jaws 3-D(1983)). Amtiyville 3-D follows in that tradition. Amityville 3-D also holds the distinction of being the last film in the original series to be released theatrically, and the last in the original series to take place in the house on Ocean Ave. This movie involves a divorced man moving into the house with plans of debunking the myth, only to find out it's very real. Like the other films, this wasn't well received by critics (it has a 0% on RT) and only made $6 million. This pretty much doomed the series to be straight-to-video from now on. It didn't matter if the critics were hating the films, but now they weren't even making money.



The next in the series was Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes. As it's title implies, the movie doesn't take place in the original house, and somehow the evil forces from the house terrorize a new family. How does this happen? The family is dumb enough to take the ugliest lamp you've ever seen into their house, even though it came from a legendary haunted house that has killed people. Why no one ever tried to burn down the house and everything in it (in the films, that is...I'm not telling you to commit arson on the family currently living there), I have no idea. So the lamp has all of the evil inside of it, and it proceeds to terrorize the family and only a young priest can stop it. Unlike later films in the series, this has some continuity by mentioning events in the previous films and even showing the house briefly. It's another bad film in the series however, so you should only watch if you're a completist. It's made-for-TV, and it feels like it was.



The next entry, The Amityville Curse(1990) features a group of people going into what is called the Amityville house, but it looks nothing like it. I'm fairly certain this film wasn't intended to be a sequel, but was called one in order to make more money. It's not even intended to be the Ocean Ave. house in the film, it's just simply dubbed "The Amityville House". These people spend the night in the house with the usual results. I will say this one had some nice special effects given the time period, although the acting is below even the standard for this film series.



Now the series goes back in the direction started by Amityville 4, in that unsuspecting people buy items that used to be in the house with disastrous results. The item in question is a clock in Amityville 1992: It's About Time (the 1992 part has since been removed for DVD releases). This one, while up to the normal quality level of the films in the series, actually has an interesting story. The clock warps time and somehow extends the evil's power to outside of the home as time passes. I also liked the fact it forced itself into the house's fixture so it couldn't be removed. At this point in the series, you're only watching if you're a fan, so check this one out. It's a lot better than the majority of the films that came before it.



If some of the video covers feel like they're the same, that's because the people who released these on DVD didn't try very hard. Amityville: A New Generation(1993) involves a photographer who gets a haunted mirror. A haunted lamp, a haunted clock and now a haunted mirror. These stories don't resemble sequels to a blockbuster horror film so much as bad episodes of a horror anthology series. This one isn't even possessed by the same evil as the Amityville house. It's possessed by the lead character's father, who happened to live in the house with his family and kill them all. It's about as far removed from an Amityville movie as you can get, plot-wise. Although the quality is about on par.



This is the final entry in the original series and it's the worst one. Amityville Dollhouse isn't an Amityville film at all. The object in question, a haunted dollhouse, didn't come from the house, the evil spirits from the house play no role. The only thing that makes this an Amityville film is the name and the fact the house resembles the Ocean Ave. one. It's implied that some otherworldly demons are responsible for the events, and are just using the house to channel themselves. If this sounds laughably bad, it is. At some point the father teleports through the fireplace and lands in a demonic world where he battles for his family's safety. This also features a boy's original father coming back to life as a zombie thanks to the dollhouse's evil suggestions. This movie is actually entertaining, because no longer are the films just bad, but at this point they're so bad they're good. It's no wonder the next film would be what it was.



Someone felt like the series deserved another chance. As I mentioned before, there is potential for a terrifying film in the story, but it was never quite capitalized on. Enter producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. They had previously remade The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003, and what resulted was a violent, updated film that may not be as good as the original, but was still quite decent. They decided to breathe new life into the Ocean Ave. house by giving it an update. I've always maintained that if you're going to remake a film, remake one that wasn't very good but had potential. In this case, The Amityville Horror is a perfect example of that.

This version would star Ryan Reynolds (during the period where he experimented with horror films) and Melissa George as George and Kathy Lutz. Whereas James Brolin overacted as George Lutz ("this house is tearing me apart!"), Reynolds actually impressed me with a more subtle performance. He was likable before the house takes control of him, and then he proceeds to become increasingly violent. The scares in this film are all typical "boo" scares with rapid editing, but it's the more subtle scares that I was impressed with. The scene in the closet was taken to a new level, for example, when Jodie simulates how she was killed by shoving the girl's finger into her head. This movie tends to be a little underrated, and if you didn't like it, you should give it a second chance. It's one of the better remakes in some time, and definitely the best film in the entire Amityville series.

In case you're wondering, it has a 24% on RT, with the consensus of "It's a so-so remake of a so-so original". I think it improves on the original, but there you go. A sequel will be going straight-to-DVD in 2010, with a group of "Ghost Hunters" like people going into the house and experiencing what it can do. It will apparently be shown like a webcast, and it may be shot handheld. It should be interesting, to say the least.

And now for my thoughts on the entire incident.

I don't think it was a hoax created to make money (the Lutz family never received much money from the books and film), but I don't think it was a real haunting, either. I think that some of it may have been dreamed, some of it may have been false memories created when trying to retell their experiences for a book. Memory is an extremely faulty system and you can create false memories that you believe are true. This is why witness statements are to be taken with a grain of salt. Polygraph tests were done on the Lutz family, but those are not very reliable either. I'm not saying anything is wrong with the Lutz family psychologically, but I am saying that it's very possible that they have taken dreams or incidents of the mind playing tricks on them and have attributed it to a haunting. It doesn't mean they're lying, it means that a combination of bad dreams, living in a house were murders occurred and then being scared by incidents that other people tell you about could make you believe something happened. You may disagree with my assessment, but the fact that no one can get their stories straight (George sued his own stepson because he claimed that a lot of it was made up) and there is no definite evidence says to me that a haunting never occurred. I only wish I could have been with the Lutzes at the time so I would know for sure. But since that can never happen, we can only speculate as to why a family would leave quickly and never return to the house. You have your theories and I have mine. Feel free to speculate below.

That's the end of this week's column. Come back here next week when I create another list: the twenty best kills in slasher movies. I'll be counting down my favorite kills, complete with pictures and video, if I can manage it. It's in celebration of the very violent and gory My Bloody Valentine 3D hitting theaters next Friday. See you then.