Reviewed by: Cinemaniac

Starring:
Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jimmy Bennett, Jesse James, Rachel Nichols
Directed by:
Andrew Douglas
Produced by:
Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller

Category: Suspense/Horror

Duration: 1 hr. 40 min.
 

The Story
 On November 14, 1974, police received a frantic phone call that led them to a nightmarish crime scene at the Defeo residence in Amityville, Long Island - an entire family had been slaughtered in their beds. In the days that followed, Ronald Defeo confessed to methodically shooting his parents and four siblings while they slept, claiming "voices" in the house drove him to commit the grisly murders. One year later, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into the house thinking it would be their dream home. But shortly after settling in, bizarre and unexplainable events began to occur to the family as George was plagued by nightmarish visions and haunting voices from the evil presence still lurking within the residence. 28 days after moving in, the Lutzes abandoned the home - lucky to escape with their lives.

Review

     The original 1979 "The Amityville Horror," which was said to be a modest movie franchise, was based on Jay Anson's book that told the purportedly true story of how George Lutz and his family's house had been haunted when a massive murder had happened a year before.Michael Bay's produced remake claims to be "based on a true story”.

     Maybe he added that the new version of his family history is so full of falses, heavy-handed staging and unnecessary effects combined with lacking in suspense and character involvement. The new "Amityville" opens with the back story of the 1974 slaughter of an affluent Long Island family by its possessed by demons first born son

     A year later a young contractor Lutz (played by Ryan Reynolds), his new wife (played by Melissa George) and her three children are moving in a Dutch Colonial house they acquired at a bargain price because no other buyer would touch it. In that house the massive murder had happened a year earlier.

     Immediately  blood is pouring out of the light fixtures, arms are coming out of walls, the kids are having ghostly visitations, and George is chasing the rest of the family around with a grin and an axe.

     The first-time director is British video and commercial veteran Andrew Douglas, but the creative force here is Bay, a director ("The Rock," "Pearl Harbor") turned producer who also recently remade "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in his distinctively style.

     The cast, which includes Philip Baker Hall in the role of a Catholic priest whose exorcism goes awry, is likable and everyone tries hard, but a terrible script gives them nothing substantial to build on.

     Ending, the film's violence is not outrageously excessive, but the scene in which George hacks his dog to death inspired several walkouts at the Seattle press preview.Killing people is one thing, killing innocent dogs is something completely different.