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.”
Less than a year after the possessed lamp made its debut, Canada delivers the fifth entry in the Amityville franchise…and the result is a little ho-hum.
I’m still unsure at what point I need to start grading on a new curve, but now that the films have moved entirely into the realm of made-for-TV, there’s a noticeable shift in quality. While The Evil Escapes suffered from over-lit scenes but at least attempted to connect its narrative back to the original house, The Amityville Curse is the first film to basically retain the name and mostly jettison the rest.
I say “mostly” because there is an offhand remark in a scene set at Daughery’s, the local tavern, when a local makes a comment about the legend of what is clearly the DeFeo murders. Aside from that, however, The Amityville Curse has no relationship to its predecessors.
Hell, the creative team doesn’t even attempt to dress the house up to look like the iconic cat’s eye windows!
In the brand new Vinegar Syndrome release of the film, there’s a vibe from both director Tom Berry, as well as cinematographer Rodney Gibbons, that the film is basically a cash grab. They’re clearly proud of their work on the film, but neither man makes any pretense about caring about the mythology of the franchise or making a stand-out entry (Berry admits they wanted to do their own thing and that his film doesn’t stand up to analysis, while Gibbons actually throws the acting in the film under the bus!).
For purists, this may seem like the beginning of the end. If anything, this is a film whose production history is more interesting than anything that happens onscreen: author Hans Holzer famously sued to try and get more money after the film rights for his source material were purchased, demanding first $10K and then $100k, but a judge sided with the production and ordered him to pay the six figure legal fees…which he did not do.
As for the 1990 film itself, it’s both undercooked and overstuffed in equal doses. The basic story finds psychologist Marvin (David Stein) and his wife Debbie (Dawna Wightman) purchasing a former rectory in Amityville with plans to flip it. They employ the help of their college friends, including Bill (Anthony Dean Rubeš) and newlyweds Frank (Kim Coates!) and Abigail (Cassandra Gava), to help them make repairs over a weekend.
Almost immediately Debbie connects with the supernatural elements haunting the property: she sees a dour Thin Boy (Scott Yaphne) and his dog, who attacks Frank on a smoke break. Debbie also has prophetic dreams that guide her to a hidden door in the basement, behind which lies a confessional that was moved from a nearby church after a Priest (Jan Rubeš) was murdered in it in the opening scene.
The vast majority of the film involves Debbie trying to convince her disbelieving husband that something nefarious is happening, while no one notices that Frank is slowly becoming possessed. Unfortunately, there aren’t many significant set pieces; aside from the violent climax, the most notable sequence is Debbie’s gothic nightmare, which Gibbons shoots in dim lighting from angles that alternate between high and Dutch.
Arguably the most memorable aspect of The Amityville Curse is the way it is filmed. Berry tends to film in extreme close-up at key moments, especially when Debbie’s ESP is active, and the result is an incredibly intimate and ultimately unnerving viewing experience.
Alas, there are too many unnecessary or ill-conceived elements at play in the finished film. The connection between Frank’s possession (surprisingly underplayed by Coates until film’s end) and the murder of the Priest isn’t handled particularly well. The reveal that the house is a rectory where objects were moved following the murder is also a superfluous and unnecessary detail (it occurs roughly 2/3 of the way through the film, by which point the murder has nearly been forgotten).
Similarly, basic character work has fallen by the wayside. For example: Frank has an amnesia of sorts about his childhood, but how that contributes to his possession is left for audiences to infer. And while the younger Rubeš gives an amusing performance in his film debut, Bill simply isn’t a vital character. The narrative seemingly agrees: he’s killed off-screen and his death is barely evident, to the point that it’s not clear what fate had befallen him until the denouement.
Still, the relationship between the friend group, and particularly the hot and heavy interactions between Frank and Abby, feel very natural (everyone cajoling Marvin about the weekend’s workload with constant refrains of “Minor repairs!” is similarly amusing). There’s also a fun sequence where Marvin videotapes his friends that anticipates the deluge of found footage films in the 2000s and several FX-heavy sequences look reasonably good (it doesn’t hurt that Saban insisted the film be shot on 35mm).
Overall The Amityville Curse is the slightest and least engaging entry in the franchise. It’s still watchable, but ultimately it’s fairly forgettable.
The Amityville IP Awards
- Best Performance: Helen Hughes plays Mrs. Moriarty like the sober religious sister of Mrs. Mac from Black Christmas, which is to say she’s acting in a completely different, wackier film.
- Best Sequence: While the finale is the least exciting of the first five films, Debbie’s showdown with a possessed Frank does involve her hurling bandsaws at him and eventually impaling him with a processional cross. All this to say: the climax makes up for a slightly snoozy preceding 80 mins or so.
- Best FX: Debbie uses a door to deglove Frank. When he attempts to wriggle his hand free of a door she has shut on him, the skin on his hand begins to bunch and slide off. It’s gooey and great.
- Honorable Mention: It’s clearly indebted to A Nightmare on Elm Street, but in Debbie’s nightmare the malevolent entity presses itself out of the wall of the confessional. It’s very evocative.
Next time: it’s about time that we discuss the haunted clock entry, Amityville 1992: It’s About Time!
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