Amityville Horror, Worth Seeing?

[Evan3]

Hey all,
I will say that the new trailers for the Amityville Horror freak me out. However, I have read the real life accounts and understand that it is not truly real. My question is if the sequal, or the original is worth seeing. The original barely scraped above a 5 on IMDB, but you all are true experts, so what do you say?

[Mofo Rising]

I have seen all the AMITYVILLE movies (except for the remake, of course).  Blame it on a brief time where I decided to watch every horror movie at the local video store from A to Z (made it halfway through C).  Anyway, to a one, all of the Amityville movies are bad.  However, they range from excruciatating to just boring, so here's a quick run down.

THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979): The original movie.  This is probably the most accessible.  It's main problem that it is boring, which in my mind makes it worse than its inferior sequels.

AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982): This one is straight-up sleazy.  We've got family abuse and incest and Paulie from the ROCKY movies.  Also, at the end it turns into the EXORCIST.  Pretty queasy watching, but one of the better ones.

AMITYVILLE 3-D (1983): Definitely my favorite of the series, although that's like naming my favorite kind of dental surgery.  A strange take with paranormal investigators and Meg Ryan(!).  Originally filmed in 3-D, it's one of my life goals to see it that way.  The dialogue has been extensively sampled by a music group called My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult.

AMITYVILLE: THE EVIL ESCAPES (1989): See that difference in dates?  Like CHILDREN OF THE CORN II, you can blame this movie for all the crap that follows.  This is definitely where things get stupid.  See, the evil that was in the original house has escaped in a big stupid looking lamp.  That's right, it doesn't even take place in the same house!  Just plain stupid and Patty Duke?

THE AMITYVILLE CURSE (1990): SKULL! I still don't know why this is called Amityville anything, as it has nothing to do with the rest of the series.  You will wish immediate death on every character in this movie (and possibly the actors) almost as soon as they show up on screen.  Unfortunately it takes 90 minutes.  Godspeed you with this one.

AMITYVILLE 1992: IT'S ABOUT TIME (1992): Flirts with being interesting, but it isn't.  This time the evil escapes in a clock and causes some problems for yet another family.  Better than most of the others, but only because it has Megan Ward in it.

AMITYVILLE: A NEW GENERATION (1993): A mirror this time!  Utterly forgettable.  Stars David Naughton of AMERICAN WEREWOLF fame.  You can watch it but you will forget it almost as soon as you are done.

AMITYVILLE: DOLLHOUSE (1996): This time yet another family finds a Amityville artifact.  In this case, a large dollhouse shaped like the original house mysteriously shows up in their shack.  Stupid, but at least it has some goofy moments.  Not good.

I'm not really looking forward to the remake, but I'll go watch it.  I've comitted myself this far, there's no going back.  Now if anybody wants to know about the CHILDREN OF THE CORN movies. . .

[Menard]

Mofo Rising, you are truly a masochist.

I have only seen the first two and must agree that the first movie is simply dull and annoyingly paced. It also suffers from a bad special effect or two that apparently were thrown in after the fact of the script, as the cast has little or no reaction to an apparition of the killer's head and apparently does not notice that he looks exactly like the father.

The second movie is really bad. Of course it is completely thrown off by the fact that it is a prequel to the first, yet, it takes place in the present (when the movie was done), which makes no sense. Then they added a really bad attempt at an Exorcist ripoff. It at least has its own badness going for it, and can be entertaining in that respect.

I have only seen parts of AMITYVILLE 3-D, yet I can comment that it is not a sequel to the first two. It is a different story using the house as a background. It is intended to be AMITYVILLE 3-D and not AMITYVILLE 3. That is why the video still carries the 3-D designation.

I do not know what to expect from the remake, but considering the botched job Michael Bay did with THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake, I wonder how bad he can remake a movie that was not that good with which to begin.

[Scott]

The original movie isn't that great. It was only a great film back when it was released because us kids were told it was a true story that really happened. That made for a really creepy film that made you wonder. Of course later it was revealed that it wasn't a true story (probably even before the movie came out). Remember seeing it at the drive-in in Bath, New York and I think AMITYVILLE HORROR double billed with DRACULA (1979) that night.

I also saw the second one, but remember very little about the film.

[Mr Hockstatter]

I thought the first one was mildly scary, but James Brolin's character was one of those humorless jerks so common in '70s movies.  It was also boring.  The second one, well, it was definitely sick.  Probably the best one in my opinion.  The third one was utterly boring, but at least Lori Loughlin was cute.

I had no idea there were other sequels beyond that.  Why?

[BoyScoutKevin]

And the whole series of films based on the surprising best seller "The Amityville Horror" by Jay Anson. Which is suppose to be a true accounting of what went on in the house, but is a really almost a  total fabrication of events. Except, for perhaps, the original murders, which occured in the house.

[saintmort]

See here's my theory...There's very few people who actually think that the original Amityville Horror was good. So when I heard about the remake I was pretty happy. I mean if they're gonna do remakes, remake movies that sucked and leave TCM and House of Wax alone, you know?

Plus it's got Ryan Reynolds of Van Wilder Fame. As weird as he is I always am entertained watching him act, his got chrisma. Plus the trailer doesn't look THAT bad.

[Alan Smithee]

This movie freaked me out when I was a kid. The red glowing eyes always did it for me. I watched it again recently after all these years and thought it was dry and shrill.

But trust me, it's nowhere as bad as that other haunted house movie- Burnt Offerings.

Oliver Reed, may you rest in peace.