Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”
The last direct-to-video entry before the big budget theatrical remake, Amityville: Dollhouse adopts the same format as the last few films without contributing much new to the mix. By this point, the formula is fixed: take a haunted object that is tangentially tied to the original Long Island house, throw a dysfunctional family into the mix, and whip up a variety of bizarre events. Dollhouse follows this to a tee: it’s not bad, but the film is the least inspired entry to date, with an odd collection of half-baked ideas that don’t really come together to form a cohesive whole.
The film follows a blended family, something that first time director (and prolific Amityville producer) Steve White explains in his Vinegar Syndrome interview was a new concept in 1996. Father Bill (Robin Thomas) has a rebellious older son, Todd (Allen Cutler), and a pre-teen daughter, Jessica (Rachel Duncan). On the other side of the new union is wife Claire (Starr Andreef) and her introverted, “geek” son Jimmy (Jarrett Lennon) who is still processing the death of his military father (Clayton Murray) and actively resists the new family bonds.
Everyone moves into an isolated dream house constructed by Bill and, following the discovery of a dollhouse replica of the original house in the spooky shed, the supernatural occurrences begin anew. A lot of the action revolves around the giant fireplace, which is eventually revealed to be a portal to the dollhouse, which contains a random collection of demons. While all of this comprises the climax of the film, it barely makes sense and isn’t particularly interesting, which results in something of a bland finale.
What’s most disappointing about Dollhouse are the brief – often unconnected – flashes of weird zaniness that hint at something more fun. At one point Jimmy’s pet mouse Max escapes its cage and flees into the dollhouse, crawling under the proxy bed of Jessica’s room. In real life, a corresponding monster mouse, briefly glimpsed but larger than a large dog, nearly upends the bed with Jessica in it. It disappears when Todd intervenes and inadvertently kills the family pet by crashing into the dollhouse.
It’s an exciting moment that works in large part because it’s unexpected and weird. So much of Dollhouse is rote and predictable – it’s giving audiences exactly what they expect from the last few films, so this oddball sequence feels fresh. It’s a moment of genuine WTF in a film that is frequently content to deliver the same old plot and character beats. And while White isn’t particularly flashy in his one and only time behind the camera, this sequence pops because of how much we *don’t* see: the monstrous creature is barely visible save for the long, thick tail snaking out from under the bed.
Since this is Amityville, there’s the usual spectral hauntings, temperature increases and, yes, incest vibes. The sweats appear early on when the dollhouse turns the fireplace on by itself, spiking the temperature across the house, though this doesn’t last long.
The hauntings are courtesy of Jimmy’s Dead Dad, who worries that he’s being replaced by Bill and frequently emerges from the closet (hmmm) to encourage Jimmy to help him murder the new patriarch. The best aspect of these scenes is Murray’s genuinely threatening performance and the make-up of his deteriorating face, which becomes increasingly skeletal as the film progresses. Alas this storyline feels entirely disconnected from the others (a consistent criticism of this film, which regularly strands each character in their own subplot).
And then there’s the incest.
Much like Amityville II: The Possession, there’s a recurring subplot involving Claire as she becomes sexually infatuated with Todd. In Amityville, I’ve learned that the weirder, more uncomfortable the sequence, the more memorable it is and that’s certainly the case here.
It begins slowly: when Claire and Bill are having their requisite direct-to-video sex scene (no nudity this time, unlike A New Generation), Claire notices between thrusts that the shirtless(!) picture of her stepson on their dresser appears to be changing. As she watches, the image of Todd gets progressively closer until his face fills the frame, goading her. In a moment of absurd, unintentional hilarity, Todd seems to be giving Claire the “hey, what’s up” hand gesture, which freaks her out enough to put an end to her intimate encounter with Bill.
The obsession, however, continues for a few more scenes. First, Claire breaks a dishes while gazing lustfully at a shirtless Todd while he plays basketball. Then later she imagines her stepson helping her masturbate in a sequence that ends with the basketball bouncing off her ensuite counter; it’s a sad, mildly threatening punctuation to her failed bid at sexual gratification.
Alas so much of this weird, zany potential feels unrealized and relative newcomer Joshua Michael Stern is content to keep the screenplay in fairly safe territory, without adding anything new to the mythology or writing novel set pieces. While all of these scenes are somewhat entertaining individually, because characters don’t confide in or even really interact with one other, Dollhouse too often feels disconnected and out of synch.
Overall, Amityville: Dollhouse is another step down for the franchise. There are some fun moments here, but overall, this entry feels the least inspired of the eight.
The Amityville IP Awards
- Celebrity Cameo: Future That 70s Show star Lisa Robin Kelly plays Todd’s “bad girl” girlfriend Dana and while the actress doesn’t have a ton to do except be a bad influence, she does get a heartbreaking monologue about her crappy home life…right before her head goes up in flames.
- Best shot: Cinematographer Tom Callaway convinced White to let him shoot a breakfast scene using a spinning 360-degree camera in the center of the table. The result is akin to a fish-eye lens perspective that gives a standard dialogue scene some visually compelling flair.
- Best FX: While Dollhouse arguably features the least exciting set pieces of the entire franchise, Dead Dad’s make-up by Roy Knyrim is really great. There are three icky, gooey, skeletal stages to Dead Dad’s decomposition and the lighting really makes the hollow eyes pop on camera.
Next Time: We’re headed back to theaters for 2005’s reboot featuring Ryan Reynolds’ abs.
The post ‘Amityville: Dollhouse’ – 1996 Sequel Offers an Odd Collection of Half-Baked Ideas [The Amityville IP] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.