31 Days of Horror Day 09 Mr Sardonicus

Title-Mr Sardonicus
Source-MeTV Svengoolie airing

Last year I reviewed at least one film that Svengoolie was showing. But back then I didn't get MeTV. For some reason even though I get most of the Jackson channels on DISH,they didn't give us MeTV. Then back in March they added MeTV to our lineup. So each week I would go see what Svengoolie was airing and sometimes DVR it.

Since there is only one TV in the house with a DVR I am lucky if I get maybe 4 hours a week to watch what I have DVRed. I have built up a bunch of episodes of Svengoolie to watch. Was trying to decide which one to watch and realized while I have seen pieces of the film and read a decent amount about it I do not think I have ever seen all of Mr Sardonicus.

Released in 1961 Mr Sardonicus was directed by William Castle. Who was known for how most of his films had gimmicks. Like the skeletons that would fly around the theater on wires during House on Haunted Hill. Or 13 Ghosts ghost viewers. With Mr Sardonicus they had the punishment poll. As you entered the theater you were given a card. With a glow in the dark thumb on it. Near the end of the film Castle would appear and ask if the audience thought Mr Sardonicus should be punished. And you gave a thumbs up or thumbs down. Castle would pretend to count the votes then would show the ending the audience had voted for. Now Castle swore that he had filmed two endings. But so far the only one that has been proven to exist is the one were Sardonicus gets punished.

The plot is simple a doctor gets summoned to a remote castle. In a made up Eastern Euro country. And over the course of the 1 1/2 hours of the film odder and odder things happen. The owner of the castle,Mr Sardonicus,wears a full face mask at all times. There is two reasons for this. One is so when his face is revealed near the end it would shock the audience. The other is cause the actor playing Sardonicus,Guy Rolfe who is best known for being the Puppet Master in Puppet Master III,could only wear the makeup  for an hour without it causing him pain.

So what does Mr Sardonicus look like........ Well let me warn you he is pretty hideous.

Anyways it is a fun film. Svengoolie's bits are pretty funny. And if you get a chance catch this one when Sven reruns it.

Mr Sardonicus gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 08 Anthropophagus

Title-Anthropophagous
Source-Midnight Video VHS

Also known as The Grim Reaper,Anthropophagous is an infamous film from Italian director Joe D'Amato. It is a movie that has suffered from being censored many times in various countries. In the States the first release ,known under the title Grim Reaper,was heavily cut. I had heard for years about all the stuff that was cut.

Then in the mid 90s at a con I found someone selling copies of Midnight Video's full uncut version of the movie. Midnight Video used many sources to make what was the first fully uncut version in  English. The main source was a Japanese VHS release.So lots of the film on this VHS has Japanese subtitles on the bottom of the screen. But even that Japanese VHS was missing two scenes. The first is a pre-credits of a couple being attacked on a beach,which sadly is in French with no subtitles. The other scene is from near the end of the film. It is the famous ending shot of the killer eating his own disemboweled intestines,which supposedly was only ever released on a hard to find VHS that came out in Venezuela. The only other scene in this version that wasn't in the Grim Reaper release is when the killer kills a pregnant woman then eats her fetus.

A group of young adults are on a cruise in their yacht during the summer. They agree to take a young American woman to a Greek island. They get to the island and there is no one there. And the telegraph line has been cut. Our young adults leave the pregnant member of their group on the boat and go explore the island.

On the  island they find a young blind girl. Who keeps telling them about an evil presence on the island. One by one the leads are attacked and killed by the title killer. Played by George Eastman aka Luigi Montefiori. Who is the son of a wealthy family. He got shipwrecked on the island.Becoming a cannibal after eating his wife and son.

It seems Midnight Video spent right at 3 years assembling their cut of this movie. Most of this version is made up of footage from the previously mentioned Japanese VHS. For some reason that VHS had audio in French. So the people at Midnight Video took the video from the Japanese VHS and married it with a English soundtrack. I admire all the work they did back then. In the days before we had easy to get audio and video editing software doing stuff like that was very hard to do and very very time consuming. Of course since this VHS came out there has been a few DVD releases. All of which now make this VHS look like crap. But back in the mid 90s this was the best you could do.

Honestly Anthropophagus is worth seeing if you are interested in late 70s/early 80s Italian gore movies. And thanks to Youtube you don't have to spend a bunch of money on the movie. I paid IIRC 30 bucks for the VHS. And I bet the DVD was about that price when it came out.

Here is the trailer. It isn't safe for work. But it does give you a good idea of what the film is about.

                                     

Anthropophagus gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror Day 07 2008 Gross ILE Halloween Horrorthon

Title-2008's Gross Ile Halloween Horrorthong Hosted by Deadpit Radio's Uncle Bill and the Creepy Kentuckian
Source-Deadpit.com DVD

Over the last 8 years I have mentioned Deadpit.com and the Deadpit Radio podcast a few times on this blog. Even reviewing some of their fan commentaries during my annual 31 Days of Horror. Late last year I was sent a big box of DVDs from a former fan of Deadpit. Most of the DVDs were various Deadpit fan commentaries synced up with the films they commentaries were made for. The other DVDs were either collections of the now defunct Deadpit on the Road Youtube series,the Into the Pit documentary and the dvd pictured above.

I didn't start listening to Deadpit Radio until sometime in 2010. I heard it mentioned on another horror podcast I listened to,the fun Dread Media. By the time I started listening to Deadpit Radio and visiting the site the above DVD was out of print.And I never heard anyone mentioning it.

Well my buddy CodyLL had bought a bunch of DVDs off the Deadpit guys at conventions. And after the hosts of Deadpit had managed to piss Cody off enough that he stopped listening to their show,he offered to send me all his Deadpit stuff. I can't remember if he mentioned this Horrorthon DVD or not when he told me he was sending me the package.

I got in the package and was flipping through all the DVDs. Trying to figure out to watch first. Then I saw this Horrorthon DVD.From what I saw on the cover I figured it was Uncle Bill and the Creepy Kentuckian hosting 2 horror films. The two films are Night of the Living Dead,the original from 1968,and Jerry Warren's Man Beast,which is from 1955.

Now of course I have seen NotLD many times,but had never even heard of Man Beast. So I threw the DVD into my player.Started it up. The first film they show is NotLD. With CK and Uncle Bill doing the horror host duties. Like telling us a bit about NotLD.Now both these guys claim to be horror experts. But really in their intro they mention nothing about NotLD that any horror fan wouldn't already know. So I ended up skipping through NotLD and figured I would watch Man Beast. Not knowing anything about Jerry Warren or Man Beast I enjoyed hearing what Creepy Kentuckian and Uncle Bill had to say about both subjects.

Connie is looking for her long lost brother. Who disappeared while searching for the yeti in the Himalayas. She leads a group to the area hoping to find her brother.She finds the last place her brother was seen and ends up running into a strange guide named Varga. They are quickly attacked by a giant monster and we find out that Varga has sinister plans for Connie.

Lots of the film looks like it is made up of stock footage. Which appears to be way older than the rest of the film. While the movie is only a bit over an hour it feels much much longer. Not sure if it is the print used,but the movie looks horrible. I know that lots of films that are in the public domain the easiest versions to find are from 16mm prints. And both Night of the Living Dead and Man Beast look like 16mm prints.

After about 15 minutes of watching Man Beast I was pretty bored. By the 20 minute mark myself and the other people watching the DVD with me had dug out our phones/tablets and were half watching the movie,half fucking off online.

This is a hard one to give a grade to. Cause Night of the Living Dead is a horror classic. One that if I meet someone that is over the age of 30 and claims to be a horror fan but doesn't like Night of the Living Dead I start to question if they are really a horror fan. But then Man Beast is just horrible.I get the feeling it was the third movie on lots of drive in theater's triple bills. For those of yall too young to have gotten to experience the drive in movie circuit in it's haydays,if the theater was having a double or triple feature they would usually put the best movie on first. With the second or third film being an older film that wasn't that great. The host segments are ok at best. Deadpit Radio had a sense of humor that is funny at first. Then after a bit you realize how limited their style of humor is. And quickly it goes from being funny to just being annoying.With Creepy Kentuckian being the biggest offender in the annoying department. He seems to take pride in how dumb and childish he is. 

Earlier this year I did a quick video review/showcase of this DVD. And while doing it I read the back of the DVD case for the first time. Which is a long piece full of praise for Deadpit and it's two hosts. And hey you gotta promote yourself.But one of them,and I am betting it is Creepy Kentuckian,attributes the quote on the back to Lucio Fulci. Which is just stupid. First off by the time this was done Fulci had been dead for close to 2 decades. Secondly even if he was alive Fulci wouldn't be watching a mega hack like Creepy Kentuckian badly hosting 2 films.


2008's Gross Ile Halloween Horrorthon gets a D.

31 Days of Horror Day 06 Operation Nazi Zombies

Title-Operation Nazi Zombies AKA Maplewoods
Source-Brain Damage Films DVD

I have loved Zombie films since I first saw Night of the Living Dead,the original of course,back when I was 8 or so. So even if I got a feeling the movie is gonna be crap I will give most zombie films a chance.

One day earlier this year I was killing time waiting on a friend to get off from work. Stopped at Family Dollar and saw they had restocked their "Top Hits DVD" bins. I am sure some of yall have seen these. Mostly they seem to be stocked at places like Dollar Tree,Dollar General,Family Dollar and other budget stores. They are usually former Blockbuster or Netflix rental dvds. That get packaged in cardboard sleeves. Then sold for  a buck or two. You never know what you will find. It could be a well known released from Criterion or it might be some low budget mockbuster from the Asylum. In the many copies of Love Guru I found 3 DVDs I wanted. 2 were collections of Public Domain cartoons,one with Casper the ghost and the other with Bugs Bunny. The other DVD I got that day was Operation Nazi Zombies.They were priced at 2 bucks each. But when they got rung up they were only a buck each. SCORE!

Made in 1999 under the title Maplewoods,Operation Nazi Zombies wasn't released until in 2003. Then in early May 2012 Brain Damage Films,who it seems have went out of business,got the DVD rights and retitled the film Operation Nazi Zombies. Which  makes sense,the new title will get more attention. Cause I know if I saw a film named Maplewoods and a film titled Operation Nazi Zombies I am gonna be more inclined to watch/buy the latter one.

I hope that works. It is the trailer for the movie. As you will see it is after Brain Damage Films got the rights and retitled it.

So how is the movie?Back in the 70s a man was using some research the Nazi's had done during World War II. The plan was to use zombies as your basic ground troops in the big war.Which when you think about it is a good idea. In war there is always plenty of dead.So if there was a way to turn these dead into soldiers why not?

The entire film is told in flashback style. With the narrator being held prisoner in a military jail.By the end of the film we are given a total non-ending.Our narrator is told he will never be able to escape. And it ends.

The acting ranges from decent to kindergarten play levels. The script seems to be decent. But some of the dialogue is very clunky. Not sure how much of that is a fault of whoever wrote the dialogue and how much is the fault of the actor/actress saying the dialogue. The special effects work is the same mixed bag. Some of it is fairly impressive when you take into mind how low budget the movie is. I keep seeing that this film cost around 250,000 to make. Which isn't much at all. Then some of the FX work looks really bad. There doesn't seem to be much CGI in the film. Most of the FX work seems to be practical.

The movie isn't a total piece of shit. And yea I only paid a buck for it. It is a film that I wouldn't recommend to people unless they are hardcore horror and/or zombie fans. Really it makes for a good "Hey I want to see a horror film and I want it to be one I haven't seen before" movie. I wouldn't be surprised if this was up on Hulu,Netflix,Tubi,Pluto TV or one of the many streaming services. And for free or extremely cheap it is worth watching once. Just don't go in expecting a great film.

Operation Nazi Zombies gets a C.

EDIT-Not long after I finished writing this I discovered that the entire film is on Youtube. In previous years during 31 Days of Horror I have mentioned the Youtube channel Kings of Horror. A channel that gets permission to upload lots of independent horror films. IIRC last year or the year before I watched and reviewed Pop Punk Zombies off the Kings of Horror channel.So ,and I hope this work I really wish blogger made it easier to embed youtube videos,here is the full movie.

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 04 Svengoolie's Twilight Zone marathon

Title-Svengoolie's Twilight Zone Marathon
Source-DVD-r recording of the original TV airing.

It was  few years ago I finally got to see Svengoolie for the first time. Sven has been a horror host in the Chicago greater area for decades now. And thanks to him getting a slot on MeTV,Saturday nights at 8pm central,Svengoolie is one  of the few horror hosts that has nationwide TV. Until earlier this year I didn't MeTV.Dish network wasn't carrying it in my area. And I would have to spend a bit over 100 bucks for an antenna to get the channel. So I had a friend that got the show that would record the episodes to DVDs then mail me boxes of DVDs a few times a year.

Ever since I have been watching Sven on MeTV he shows horror films from the Universal library. Which I do enjoy cause Universal has made some great horror films. I know that before Sven was on MeTV he was airing films from many different studios. But until I was sent this DVD I had no idea he had ever did a Twilight Zone mini marathon.

The show starts off like most episodes of Svengoolie does. We get some info about what we are about to watch. Sven cracks some bad jokes and the movie starts. This time instead of a film we get 4 episodes of from the original run  of the science ficiton anthology classic The Twilight Zone.

Growing up my parents would tell me all the time about the Twilight Zone. Even at a young age I was into horror. Not long after Twilight Zone the Movie had come out one of the local UHF channels started airing the classic Twilight Zone episodes every night at 10pm. Even though at the time my bedtime was 10pm,my parents would most nights let me stay up to watch Twilight Zone. It wasn't long after this that the 80s Twilight Zone series started up. And I was so happy. Not only did I get 5 episodes off the classic show each week,but I  also got a new episodes each week.

So what episodes is Sven showing us the loyal viewers? The first one is the infamous "Wish you into the cornfield" episode. Starring a young Bill Mumy this one is about a young boy who has God like powers. It is considered one of the best episodes of the original run. And was even remade as part of the previously mentioned Twilight Zone the Movie.

The second episode is one that I don't remember seeing as a kid. I think the first time I saw it was during one of SyFy Channels New Years Twilight Zone marathons. It is titled,I think,Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder.Our lead has her head wrapped in bandages. And we find out she has had surgery to "make her no so ugly". Of course near the end of the episode the bandages are removed and we see our lead is played by Ellie May Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies who is far from being an  ugly woman. It  is after this reveal that we noticed that all through out this episode we never saw anyone's face. They  were always in shadow or blocked by something. When the other peoples' faces are revealed we see that everyone has this weird deformed pig like face.

The third episode is another one that is considered a classic. Starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner it is about a man who has had some mental issues. He is flying and sees what at first he thinks is a man on the airplane wing. But this is no man. It is one of the gremlins some fighter pilots in the big war claimed to have seen. The Shat starts freaking out cause he is sure this creature is damaging the planes wing and engine. Like the first episode in this Sven mini marathon this one was also redone in Twilight Zone the movie. It was the last story in the film. With John Lithgow in the role Shatner played. It is one that I saw the original episode after having seen the film. Which explains why while I get why this episode is considered a classic to me cause of how cheesy the suit the gremlin is wearing I prefer the version from Twilight Zone the Movie.

The final episode is another I didn't see until the Syfy marathons. We got a group of older men that hang out at the local general store. One of whom is Floyd the Barber of Andy Griffith fame. The lead guy is able to weave a fairly entertaining tall tale about his time in the war. He ends up getting kidnapped by some aliens. Then discovers a weakness the aliens have. Lets just say that I get the feeling Tim Burton got the idea for the Martians in the Mars Attacks film's weakness from this episode.

Out of the four episodes included in this Svengoolie Twilight Zone Mini Marathon 3 of them are episodes I would consider some of the best the original Twilight Zone produced. But that final episode is just not that good. It has a decent cast and a good idea. But the execution fails.

Still this was a fun watch. I got to see 3 great episodes of TZ. Plus got to see the ads and stuff from Sven's non-MeTV show. There is even a commercial for the midnight airings of Sven's old shows. If anyone reading this has copies of the pre-MeTV episodes of Svengoolie please leave a comment. I am more than willing to pay you for copies of these episodes.

Svengoolie's Twilight Zone Marathon gets a A-.

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-.

Cody's Film, TV, and Video Game Blog: The Sound of Silence: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (192...

Cody's Film, TV, and Video Game Blog: The Sound of Silence: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (192...: As with Dracula , Frankenstein , and other similar stories, my first exposure to the classic horror tale of Jekyll and Hyde came from the ...

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+