31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 20 Amityville The Evil Escapes RIFFTRAX

 

TITLE-Amityville The Evil Escapes

SOURCE-Rifftrax Live Blu Ray

Oh Amityville. Over the many years of 31 Days of Horror I have covered some of the Amityville movies. And I did see this one,part 4,back in the day at a friend's home. Really didn't remember much about it.

Was recently at a junkstore. Saw they had a pile of Rifftrax Blu rays so grabbed a few.  I was thinking this was the Amityville about the doll house,I get all the ones after part 3 mixed up. Nah this is the start of the haunted items leave the Amityville House and go fuck with other people.

A lamp from the infamous home is sold to an old lady. Who cuts herself on it and dies from this. So the lamp gets shipped to her sister. A sister that has her daughter and the daughter's three kids living with her. The daughter is Patty Duke,yep by 1989 Patty was down to doing made for TV horror sequels.

The Made for TV budget and restrictions show. Besides the one kill from a garbage disposal there is almost no gore,and I have read that kill was cut on the tv version having been restored on home video. So you get stuff like a parrot appearing in a toaster oven. Or the old lady cutting her finger on the lap and then the finger looking like it has gangreen.

This is not a good film. It is the kind that decades ago we would have rented,sat there chugging beer and cracking jokes. Which is ,minus the chugging  beer,what the Rifftrax guys do.

Appears the only other blu ray release of this is in a out of print Vingar Syndrome boxed set. It's not worth what that set is going for now. Betting you can find this Rifftrax version fairly cheap. And it takes a D+ movie and majorly improves it.

Amityville The Evil Escapes gets a B-. Only the Rifftrax version without that it is a D+.

31 Days of Horror Day 21 Amityville Horror New Generation

Title-Amityville Horror A New Generation
Source-DVD-R

About 5 years ago I decided I wanted to see every Amityville Horror film. At the time I had seen the first 2,6,8 and the remake. I looked around online and some of the middle films in the franchise were going for way more than I wanted to pay for a DVD of a film I haven't seen. Thankfully I found a torrent that had the first 8 of the films. I burnt all the ones I didn't already own to DVD.

Amityville Horror A New Generation is the 7th film in the official Amityville Horror franchise. Going direct to video in the early fall of 1993. A pro photographer is given a creepy looking mirror from a homeless man. He brings it back to the apartment complex he lives in and weird stuff starts to happen. After a bunch of stuff our lead learns the  mirror is possessed. By the spirit of a man who killed his family on Thanksgiving Day in the Amityville house.

The FX work isn't bad. For a early 90s DTV film it is pretty decent. There is a few decent scares. With one that actually made me jump. What really saves this movie is the cast. None of the cast are household names,but 4 of them are people that most of the general public knows.

We have Julia Nickson as  Suki the love interest of our lead. She is an artist. While watching the movie I knew she looked very familiar. Then I looked her up. She is best known for playing Co-Bao in Rambo First Blood Part II. I have always thought she was a good actress. But it seems like she rarely gets a good role.

Terry O'Quinn is Detective Clark. A cop who is investigating the weird happenings at the apartment complex. O'Quinn is best known as Locke from Lost. But horror fans will remember him from the Stepfather film. He is an actor that is always good. Even in the shittest films he is worth seeing.

Pauli is played by Richard Roundtree. Sadly he isn't given much to work with in this. It would have been great to see Shaft get a bigger and better role. But he does the best with what he is given to work with.

Finally we got David Naughton as Dick Cutler. Naughton is an actor that sadly either gives it his all or sadly seems to just be there for the check. Amityville Horror A New Generation is one of the latter. The  film would have been better with Naughton in the lead. But we get some no name as the lead.

Now that I have seen all the official Amityville Horror films I can say that New Generation AKA part 7 is in the top 5 of the Amityville series. It isn't as good as parts 1 and 2. But better than most of the others.

It looks like the DVD of this is out of print. So good luck tracking down a copy. I have seen that on Daily Motion and Vimeo someone has uploaded the unrated version. Yep this is one of those 90s horror films that has a R rated and Unrated version. My copy is the Unrated version. And I don't seem much in it that would go past a R rating. But from my research lots of 90s horror films ,especially DTV movies,will keep a few scenes out of the R rated cut. Thinking that when people see a film is released unrated they will be more inclined to rent it.

Amityville Horror A New Generation gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror Day 05 Amityville:No Escape

Title-Amityville:No Escape
Source-DVD

Yep another low budget unofficial Amityville sequel. This one from the folks at Camp Motion  Pictures. Camp has become known over the past 15 years for bringing lots of 80s and 90s DTV horror movies to DVD. Stuff like Ghoul School,Video Violence 1&2 and the infamous Splatter Farm.The past few years they have even started making new movies. In 2016 they released Amityville No Escape.No one working behind or in front of the camera is anyone I have ever heard of.

Like lots of indie horror in the past 5 or so years Amityville No Escape is a found footage film. Fuck I am so tired of low budget ,and even big budget ,found footage films. Released at the end of summer in 2016 Amityville No Escape is about a group of college students that go off into the woods of Amityville. They go into these woods,supposedly the most haunted woods on the planet.

The movie was originally titled The Fear Tapes. I am assuming it was retitled after filming in hopes that people would rent/buy it cause they thought it was part of the official Amityville franchise.

The cast tries their best. And are pretty good. But they aren't given much to work with.The film's low budget and rushed production show. I am not a fan of found footage movies. The last 10 years it is more of an excuse to have shitty acting,camera work,etc. And Amityville No Escape has it's share of bad camera work.Why must every found footage film be filled with shaky cam?

I do like how since part of the film is set in the mid 90s whoever was in  charge of the production tries to make sure everyone is wearing 97ish clothing. And even the footage from the 90s part of the film are in 4:3 instead of 16:9. But that and the film's short running time,with credits and all it is barely 78 minutes long,are the only good parts of the film.

One other positive I can say for Amityville No Escape is it isn't the worst found footage Amityville movie. That would be the previously reviewed Amityville Haunting. Amityville No Escape is a half step better than that piece of crap.

Amityville:No Escape gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror Day 03 The Amityville Haunting

Title-The Amityville Haunting
Source-DVRed off one of the movie channels

7 years ago the gang at The Asylum,best known for the popular Sharknado franchise,went where many indy film studios have been. They made an unofficial entry in the long running Amityville series of films. Some of the Asylums films can be fun. With a few of them being actually pretty good. And most horror fans know what to expect from a horror film from The Asylum. You usually get cheesy CGI effects work. At least a few cameos from B,or lower,level celebs. Plus the Asylum tries to get at least one main cast member who is a name. Sure it might be someone like Vanessa "I peaked with Weird Science the TV show" Angel. Or Jerrry O'Connell's brother. This time they got no one. Looking thru the cast at IMDB most of them haven't done jacksquat before or after this film.

It seems that this film was made to ride on the coattails of a film that never got made.At the 2011 Cannes film festival the Weinsteins announced an upcoming found footage Amityville film,The Amityville Horror the Lost Tapes. This film was never made and kinda morphed into 2014s,released finally in 2017 and reviewed here as on the first day of October 2018,Amityville:The Awakening. The Asylum,before Sharknado became a hit,was best known for making so called Mockbusters. Say a new Transformers movie was hitting theaters. The Asylum would make Transmorphers,with a cover and poster that at a quick glance looks like the Transformers poster. Then either a week before ,the week of,or the week after Transformers hit theaters,Transmorphers would hit DVD and air as a SyFy Channel original. Banking on two types of people to watch/rent/buy the film. The first type isn't the brightest and looks at the cover fast and thinks they have just found a movie that is still in theaters ,or in some cases not in theaters yet,for rent. The second type is the film fan that loves watching a  shitty movie with friends and cracking jokes about it.

The film feels like whoever wrote the script had not even seen the original Amityville Horror. And besides the name and a ghost named ,in the credits only,after Ronald Defeo jr,there is no connection to the Amityville franchise.What we end up with is a badly done low budget rip off of the Paranormal Activity series of films.

When watching this movie I keep having a nagging feeling I had seen it before. But was wondering where I had seen it. Then it clicked. A light bulb went off over my head and I figured it out. Back in 2011 my cousin had gotten a new TV.It was a smart TV. And she wanted to watch a horror movie using her new subscription to Netflix. Like me she had seen a few of the earlier films in the Amityville franchise. We started the film with her,her husband and two kids watching it with me. After 20 minutes both the kids were bored and wanted to go play video games. At about the 40 minute mark her husband go on his phone and started messing around with his fantasy football team. Her and I were the only ones to really watch  it to the end.

Now having seen it two times I can say this isn't the worst Amityville film I have seen. That would be Amityville Exorcism. Which I reviewed earlier this month. But Amityville Haunting is barely better than Amityville Exorcism.

The Amityville Haunting gets a D-.

31 Days of Horror Day 02 Amityville Exorcism

Title-The Amityville Exorcism
Source-Digital Copy

This is a film I didn't know about. Hell I would have never even seen it. But thanks to a friend that I know through a now defunct horror forum I got sent a digital screener.

I knew going in that this is one of the many indie horror films that use the Amityville name to get the film some press and word of mouth. And that the film wasn't part of the official Amityville franchise. So when I started up the file I  had my expectations very low.

Then I saw it was released by Wild Eye Releasing. I am sure Wild Eye tries their best with the resources they have...but every film I have seen from them was bad. Like barely a step above a SyFy original movie bad. Then to my horror/amusement I saw the film was directed and produced by Mark Polonia. The now only living member of the infamous DTV film making Polonia brothers. If you look back at previous 31 days of Horror I have covered the first film from the Polonia brothers that got a wide release. A film shot when they were both teens  and a film that became a infamous gore film. One of the earliest straight to VHS horror films Splatter Farm.

After seeing Mark Polonia's name I paused the film to look up some info on it. And found out that Amityville Death House,another of the unofficial Amityville sequels and one I have wanted to see for a few years cause of this great poster it has...

Come on after seeing that cover,I couldn't find a good copy of the poster,and seeing that Biloxi Mississippi's own Eric Roberts is in the film I had to see it. So this is Mark Polonia's second Amityville movie. Maybe that means he will make a good movie.

Sadly he didn't make a good movie.A Catholic priest,who's brother died trying to exorcism the Amityville house,now has to help a family deal with demonic possession. I am guessing this brother is suppose to be the priest that shows up in the late 70s Amityville Horror film.

Now the Amityville series became known for how in the later sequels the ways the evil spirits got from the original house to where ever the sequels were set being usually pretty dumb. There is one were a lamp from the original house is the conduit for the evil spirits attacking a new family. And another were it is a possessed mirror,IIRC that is Amityville part 7 and it is one of the better films in the franchise. So who ever wrote the script to Amityville Exorcism took the fad of reclaimed lumber and has this new family being bothered by evil spirits cause the father is a carpenter and he has used reclaimed lumber from the Amityville house in the new home he has built his family. This is a cheesy idea that could actually work well with a good script,good acting and good effects work. Yea this film is missing all three.

Lets talk about the FX. The demon looks like someone in a cheap red cloak that was bought at the Dollar Tree after Halloween sale.And the mask the demon is wearing is barely a step above those horrible Ben Cooper half face plastic mask lots of us Generation X kids wore in the late 70s thru the mid 80s. The prosthetic make up work looks like someone took dollar store playdough and let it harden for weeks.

The film looks like it might have been shot using a crew members 2 year old iPhone. And I was pretty sure that is what they used. Then in one scene I caught the reflection of a camera mounted on a tripod.

The film starts off with Charles in a mental hospital.He is about to be executed for killing his family. And starts telling the priest giving him last rites that Charles was possessed. All because of that damn reclaimed wood from the Amityville house. Damn you all those house flipping shows. Making the general public believe that reclaimed wood isn't evil and a product of Satan. Charles begs the priest to go help out the other families living in homes that also contain some of this Satanic reclaimed lumber.

Yep the movie is as bad as it sounds. Usually when I get screeners,which isn't that often, after watching the film I will either decide to keep it. Or if I don't enjoy the movie just give the copy to one of the members of my friends and family that loves horror. I did neither with Amityville Exorcism. This movie is so bad I was worried if I gave to someone that knew me they might get possessed by that reclaimed lumber and try to come kill me. So once the film was over. And I managed to take my brain ,which had been turned to mush by how bad the film was,and get it back into my head I quickly deleted the file and sent a message to the person that hooked me up with the screener. Asking them what I had ever done to them to deserve such punishment.

Amityville Exorcism gets a F.

31 Days of Horror Day 01 Amityville:The Awakening

Title-Amityville:The Awakening
Source-VOD

Yep the newest Amityville film that sat on the shelves for 3 years. To only then get dumped on VOD and DVD in October of 2017. For a long time it looked like this film wouldn't be released. Dimension films kept changing the release date. Even moving it to the middle of the summer one time. Which is a sure sign that the distributor has no faith in a horror film.

Made in 2014 this film takes an new spin on the Amityville theme. Cause Amityville is the name of a town in New York anyone can use that name. So lots of indie horror films end up with Amityville in the title.Plus there is what 8 films now in the official franchise.The original which I have reviewed before,6 sequels. With parts 2,6 and 7 being pretty good. Then the kinda crappy remake from almost a decade ago now.

This new spin I mentioned is in the world of Amityville:The Awakening the original film,the second film which is a prequel and the modern remake all exist. One of the characters in this film even talks about watching one  of the Amityville films while living in the real house the events supposedly happened in. Too bad the script writers didn't take this neat idea and do more with it.

The plot is a well wore trope. The mother,Jennifer Jason Leigh, moves into the infamous Amityville house to be closer to her sister and closer to medical care for her teenage son who is in a coma. Not long after Jennifer and her 3 kids move in weird stuff starts to happen. The youngest daughter starts talking speaking to someone only see can see.The comatose boy's twin sister,played by Bella Thorne,blames herself for her brother's condition. It seems the brother fell off a roof after confronting a boy who was passing around revealing photos of Bella.

After having been in the coma for 2 years ,while the doctor is visiting,the brother opens his eyes for the first time. This gets the family's hopes up. But Bella starts having nightmares about her brother killing the entire family. Pretty soon using a computer messaging program the family starts receiving messages supposedly from the comatose brother. And after telling her new friend about this Bella finds out about the DeFalco family and the supposed curse on the house in Amityville.

It is rare that a film sits on the shelves for years then gets a release and the film is great and worth the wait. The only modern example I can think of is the anthology film Trick R Treat. Amityville:The Awakening isn't a bad film. But I bet if it hadn't been held up for so long no one would even be talking about it.

The acting is decent. Jennifer Jason Leigh is almost always good. She gets totally into her character and I for a bit forgot she was the same actress I have been watching in films since Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Bella Thorne,who before this I had only see in kid's yogurt commercials,does the best with what she is given. Sadly in horror films the teenage goth girl is a well worn trope.

If you are a fan of the Amityville franchise or just enjoy possession and/or ghost films this is worth a rental or a buy if you find it cheap. But don't go in expecting a great film. It is just an average or barely above average horror film.

Amityville:The Awakening gets a C+

31 Days of Horror Day 10 Amityville Horror II:The Possession

Amityville Horror II:The Possession
1982
MGM DVD

Now I might have seen this years ago.Pretty sure at one time I made it a point to watch the first 5 Amityville films. But I remembered nothing about it. But after I finished reading the novel and watching the original film I was interested in seeing this "prequel". Which is supposedly inspired by the real events that happened before the Lutzs moved into the home.

An Italian family moves into the house. With Paulie from Rocky playing the Dad and Diane Franklin as the daughter. The house takes control of the eldest brother and then it gets gory and sleazy.

We get walls dripping blood.Strange noises and happenings.Then just when I think the film has hit it's peak we get this icky scene where the oldest brother starts macking on his sister,played by Diane Franklin.

Honestly I find this to be a much better film that any of the other Amityville films I have seen.

Amityville Horror II:The Possession gets a B+.