Andrew Douglas
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Filmography
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The Amityville Horror (1979)
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
influenced The Amityville Horror (2005)
Plot
That The Amityville Horror is generally considered a classic horror flick is somewhat baffling, though it certainly looks a whole lot better when compared to its sequels.
They play a couple named George and Kathy Lutz, whose experiences inspired a bestselling book named, of course, "The Amityville Horror," and who moved out of their house and left their furniture behind and moved to San Diego, fulfilling all of our dreams.
Like The Exorcist and The Omen, the real baddie of The Amityville Horror is Satan, who drove a boy to kill his parents and four siblings in cold blood, and whose wicked spirit, one year later, possesses new occupant George Lutz (James Brolin) and convinces him to do away with his new wife Kathy (Margot Kidder) and her three annoying kids.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, The Amityville Horror is pure grade B Wisconsin cheese, and for the 17-24 demographic, it works like a charm.
The Shining (1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced The Amityville Horror (2005)
Plot Visuals Themes
Whereas the '79 Horror primarily stole from The Exorcist (complete with a put-upon priest played by Rod Steiger), the 2005 model, with an additional 26 years to draw from, manages to additionally rip off The Shining, Poltergeist, The Sixth Sense and The Ring — heck, this movie is so shameless, there's probably a swipe from Scooby Doo On Zombie Island as well.
The secondary lessons are that remakes of inessential 1970s horror movies are doubly inessential, that ripping off "The Shining" adds insult to injury and that Ryan Reynolds is no Jack Nicholson.
The new Amityville owes a great deal to both The Exorcist and The Shining but lacks both Friedkin's attention to detail and Kubrick's supreme patience.
The fairly restrained first half of the film is quite faithful to the original, but it soon turns into "The Shining," complete with splatters of blood and over-the-top histrionics.
But like The Shining , the sinister atmosphere comes from watching a seemingly normal, happy man transformed into a crazed homicidal maniac, urged on by a place with a malevolent history.
Faster than you can say "boo," blood is pouring out of the light fixtures, arms are coming out of walls, the kids are having ghostly visitations, and George turns into Jack Nicholson in "The Shining," chasing the rest of the family around with a grin and an ax.
This film is purportedly pulled from the files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, real-life “demonologists” best known for their involvement with the events that inspired the 1977 book (and subsequent 1979 and 2005 films) The Amityville Horror.
It’s the first in what I’d guess will be a series of films about Lorraine and Ed Warren, real-life paranormal experts most famous for investigating “The Amityville Horror’’ house on Long Island — though they were depicted neither in the 1978 film nor its woeful 2005 remake.
Shortly thereafter, American International Pictures adapted Jay Anson's book to the big screen, and it was successful enough to spawn two more Amityville films that were released in theaters: Amityville II: The Possession (1982) was a highly fictionalized prequel about the De Feo massacre, while Amityville 3-D (1983) was a completely fictionalized sequel.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
influenced The Amityville Horror (2005)
Visuals Plot
But when it comes time to put a fresh spin on things, the filmmakers have zero ideas and instead blatantly borrow from "The Ring," "The Sixth Sense" and Nine Inch Nails videos.
Whereas the '79 Horror primarily stole from The Exorcist (complete with a put-upon priest played by Rod Steiger), the 2005 model, with an additional 26 years to draw from, manages to additionally rip off The Shining, Poltergeist, The Sixth Sense and The Ring — heck, this movie is so shameless, there's probably a swipe from Scooby Doo On Zombie Island as well.
Many of the special and makeup effects are cribbed from Asian horror ("The Grudge's" ghosts, "The Ring's" eerie photographs) and a scene where young Michael (Jimmy Bennett, "Hostage") visits the bathroom in the middle of the night parallels a scene in "The Sixth Sense."
The Exorcist (1973)
Directed by William Friedkin
influenced The Amityville Horror (2005)
Plot Visuals
Whereas the '79 Horror primarily stole from The Exorcist (complete with a put-upon priest played by Rod Steiger), the 2005 model, with an additional 26 years to draw from, manages to additionally rip off The Shining, Poltergeist, The Sixth Sense and The Ring — heck, this movie is so shameless, there's probably a swipe from Scooby Doo On Zombie Island as well.
The new Amityville owes a great deal to both The Exorcist and The Shining but lacks both Friedkin's attention to detail and Kubrick's supreme patience.
The original was directed by Stuart Rosenberg, a competent journeyman with two great films to his credit (Cool Hand Luke and The Pope of Greenwich Village), and at least the first film tried to follow the book.
Wan also embraces the horror movie tradition of homage: nods to the new-age fantasy of Insidious, Asian horror tropes, and, of course, The Conjuring's forbearers Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, and The Exorcist are on full display.
"The Conjuring 2" brings back Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), the real-life ghost busters — he a Vatican-authorized demonologist, she a clairvoyant who can sense evil spirits — who became famous with the case that inspired "The Amityville Horror."
Being able to tie the “true story” behind another horror classic from his youth to this one (“ The Amityville Horror ”) only sweetens the deal.
There’s no shortage of shocks in the “The Conjuring 2,’’ a mostly satisfying follow-up that brings back the excellent Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real-life paranormal experts most famous for investigating “The Amityville Horror’’ house.
Though it is never directly stated (it doesn’t need to be), dialogue and camera shots indicate that this site is the famous house in “The Amityville Horror,” and the fallout related to the exact same family that was featured in said film.
Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) are the ghost-hunting duo in question – a real-life couple best known for investigating the home at the center of The Amityville Horror .
But casual horror fans would hardly want an endless "Star Wars"-like scroll full of caveats, maybes and perhapses to slog down the thrills.
That said, the assertion that this cliché-ridden, special effects-heavy movie is true is absurd; it’s like saying that Star Wars was based on actual historical events simply because a long time ago there really was a galaxy far, far away.
What was the tale of the Lutz family, who moved into a deal-of-the-century home only to find that it's pervaded by evil spirits, now finds patriarch George (a convincingly charismatic-to-psychopathic Ryan Reynolds) being possessed not by the devil but by Bill Paxton in "Frailty."
Evil Dead is slightly better than the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Friday the 13th (2009), The Amityville Horror (2005), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).
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 sense-battering style.
Michael Bay, one of those Son-of-Satan filmmakers who is doing his best to turn the cinematic artform into one big McMovie, occasionally takes a break from directing crap like Bad Boys II and Pearl Harbor to produce slicked up remakes of 70s horror classics.
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 sense-battering style.
As Naomi Watts did with the American remake of The Ring, Hawkes classes up the genre (and looks a lot more comfortable in these horror surroundings than say Daniel Craig did in the awful Dream House or Ryan Reynolds trying to pull off a credible killer in the remake of The Amityville Horror).
Color Out of Space (2020)
Directed by Richard Stanley
influenced by The Amityville Horror (2005)
Themes
Influences, from The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist to The Thing , are clear, although the work of Lovecraft has had such an impact on genre cinema that such homage is expected.
Instead of going for a relatable suburban setting like The Amityville Horror (a story the Warrens have been able to sell an improbable number of times), The Nun moves the action to 1952 Romania.
We’ve had many horror films about fathers compelled to kill their families, from The Shining, to The Amityville Horror, to last year’s Insidious 2. The idea of a mother compelled in the very same way strikes one as even more sinister, a fact Kent uses brilliantly in the film to add layers of depth to the characters and genuine terror for the audience.
It’s a well-worn trope that’s long been employed in home-invasion thrillers ( The Strangers , Funny Games ), supernatural frightfests ( The Amityville Horror , Poltergeist ), and even comedy ( What About Bob? ).
Michael Bay, one of those Son-of-Satan filmmakers who is doing his best to turn the cinematic artform into one big McMovie, occasionally takes a break from directing crap like Bad Boys II and Pearl Harbor to produce slicked up remakes of 70s horror classics.