I am now five movies into the Amityville franchise and things have changed a lot since I started. Not for me. It hasn’t been that long since I began this journey. For the movies. The first three movies were based on some form of reality. They were about people who were associated with 112 Ocean Avenue in one way or another. Their names may have been changed in the sequels, but real people inspired the stories being told. They were also theatrically released at that point.
When it came time for a fourth Amityville movie, theatrical release was no longer an option for the franchise. Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes was a television movie and The Amityville Curse was direct-to-video. Neither movie was based on real people. The fourth film was an original story about one of the Amityville demons taking control of a lamp and being shipped to California, while the fifth film wasn’t connected to 112 Ocean Avenue at all. The series was branching out into fully fictional tales.
Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes was an interesting insight into where the series would go. It was one of the weaker entries, especially in that original run, but it hinted at things to come. The lamp was a terrible “personification” of the evil. It was a lamp so ugly that I couldn’t believe anyone would actually want it. More importantly, there was nothing about the lamp that made it any different than the evil that audiences had grown accustomed to throughout the franchise. It placed the evil in an object without building on that, simply to allow the evil to go elsewhere.
The three movies that I’ll be covering in this post could be seen as the continuation of this idea, though each of them did it much better. Some people refer to this section of the Amityville saga as the “cursed object” movies. That makes complete sense. Each of the movies featured an object that was either evil or influenced by the evil. The difference between these and the aforementioned lamp was that these objects allowed the evil to mess with people in new and interesting ways. The first of the cursed objects was utilized in…
Amityville: It’s About Time
Okay, so I’m not going to bury the lede here. This was my favourite of the franchise so far. I liked it more than the first and second films, which are typically seen as the best. And I might agree that they are better made movies. Well, the first one, at least. I just had a better time with the sixth entry. So I’m going into this part of the post a little hyped up about what I saw.
Amityville: It’s About Time was as accurate as a title could be when it came to what the movie was about. The Amityville haunting continued, only, this time, the paranormal entity could manipulate time. It was an Amityville movie about time manipulation. That’s a pretty accurate title. Jacob Sterling (Stephen Macht) returned home from a business trip in Amityville. He was an architect building a new subdivision. He came home with a clock, taken directly from 112 Ocean Avenue. His son, Rusty (Damon Martin), and ex-girlfriend, Andrea (Shawn Weatherly), soon noticed strange things. Time seemed to slow down or speed up. People began acting differently. They had to figure out what was causing the trouble and how to get rid of it before it was too late.
The clock caused all the problems. When I wrote about Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes, I complained about the possessed lamp being a dumb villain. I don’t feel that way about the clock in Amityville: It’s About Time. Let me explain why. Amityville: The Evil Escapes was essentially your average Amityville movie. There were a bunch of people being harassed by the same evil force that was in the Amityville house. The only differences were a change of house and that the evil force was personified in a lamp that nobody would want. Otherwise, the villain was the same as before. Amityville: It’s About Time changed things up enough that it felt fresh. First, the clock wasn’t as atrocious as the lamp. Would I want it in my house? Maybe not. But I could much more easily see it in someone’s house. The force in the clock also played with time, making it something different than what came before. It wasn’t simply the evil force put into an object. It was an evil force put into an object with different abilities than the evil force from before.
There were a few ways that the clock was able to manipulate time. The first was when Rusty went downstairs for a late-night snack. Rusty walked past the room where the clock was, and he saw something strange. He backtracked. When he threw on the light, the room transformed into what looked like either a dungeon or a medieval smithy. He threw the light off and back on and it was the normal room. Off and on and it was back to the medieval room. The clock was changing the Rusty’s perception of time within his own home. It would later torment Dr. Leonard Stafford (Jonathan Penner), Andrea’s new boyfriend. He put a snack in the microwave late one night. Twenty seconds. As the time wound down, it got slower and slower and slower, until it eventually stopped altogether. During the time stoppage, Leonard saw things that the demonic presence wanted him to see, and started freaking out. Then time started up again, everything went back to normal, and the microwave finished. It was using a different means to torment people, all through manipulating time.
The last thing I need to bring up about Amityville: It’s About Time was how it had the Rube Goldberg sort of death that Final Destination popularized less than a decade later. Rusty confided in one of the neighbours about the supernatural happenings. She believed him and tried to help him conquer the evil. The evil put and end to that by ending the neighbour’s life. As she went for a walk, her cane got stuck in a crack in the road. A diaper truck that was parked down the street began rolling toward her. She tried to get the cane out but couldn’t. She left it behind. The woman ran onto the lawn, the truck swerved, and she dove behind a pillar. The truck hit the pillar and stopped. She lay on the ground and stared up at it in shock and disbelief. A stork figure on the top of the truck began to rock back and forth. Before she could get up, the figure fell and impaled her, causing her to bleed out and die. It very much reminded me of the style of death throughout the Final Destination franchise, only almost a decade before those films.
So far, Amityville: It’s About Time has been my favourite of the franchise. It continued the franchise in a way that helped it grow, while still feeling like it fit with the other films. The entity had a similar effect on Jacob Sterling in this film as it did on George Lutz. But it also manipulated time, which was new for the franchise. The house had a face, much like the original Amityville home. But it was updated to some modern, 80s-ish architecture, allowing the franchise to feel more modern. All in all, it was a good step forward for a franchise which was growing stagnant.
Amityville: A New Generation
Okay, so like any Amityville sequel, this one kind of took the lore that had built up and scrapped it. They’re basically all just standalone films that reference the “real” events that happened. They don’t reference the movies that came before them. This one went back to the source of all the terror through the Amityville franchise. It went back to before the DeFeo murders. It was a sequel to a prequel that didn’t exist and wasn’t mentioned until this point.
Amityville: A New Generation was about Keyes Terry (Ross Partridge), a photographer who was given a mirror by a homeless man near his home. The mirror happened to be a possessed mirror from the Amityville house that had been present when Franklin Bronner (Jack Orend) killed his parents and siblings during Thanksgiving dinner in 1966. Keyes soon discovered that the mirror was possessed by whatever evil had captured Franklin’s mind, and the mirror started killing Keyes’s friends. Detective Clark (Terry O’Quinn) investigated the new murders. Through the detective, Keyes’s learned that Franklin was actually his dad.
There’s a lot to unpack there. Well, not really. But I didn’t do the best job describing it. Let’s just say that Keyes’s father, Franklin Bronner, was a murderer. He had been possessed by an evil mirror. He was locked up for many years, out of Keyes’s life. Keyes forgot all about him. In the present day, he found an unknowing Keyes and gifted him that same mirror. Now Keyes’s friends were being killed by the mirror. Or, better yet, the mirror was possessing the friends to kill each other and themselves. Is that any clearer? Not really? I don’t know how to make it much clearer. You have all the clues.
There were some really good things in Amityville: A New Generation. While it was a basic demonic force changing people’s personalities and mentally tormenting them, it went about it in a slightly different way. It possessed people, through the mirror, to attack and/or kill other people and themselves. The force wasn’t using people as a simple vessel to physically act out its violent desires. It got them to commit the same violence on themselves to tie up loose ends. That was why Keyes’s friend Suki hanged herself in her art studio. She was a loose end after the force took control of her. She had to go as much as anyone it targeted. This need to tie up loose ends gave the evil force more depth than simply being evil chaos.
The other good quality of Amityville: A New Generation was the family connection. It really was a new generation. Keyes was the son of a man who murdered his family during Thanksgiving dinner. His father had been possessed by the force in the mirror. Now Keyes had the mirror and the force was coming for him. He spent the movie in fear that he would become like his father, as if the evil was inside him and was hereditary. Looking in the mirror, he saw himself, but also saw his father. Was his father inside him? He questioned whether the possession of the mirror was real, or whether he was going insane. This could have been better played had the movie been its own thing, without so many Amityville entries letting the audience know that the evil force was real. It would have been fun to be along with Keyes for the ride as he questioned his sanity. That’s not to say it was a bad ride. It was still fun, regardless of the perspective it gave.
One other quick thing I want to bring up, and something that is completely unrelated to the quality of Amityville: A New Generation, is that the exterior for Keyes’s apartment was the same exterior that would later be used for Paddy’s Pub in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. That marks the second time I’ve recognized a home in the franchise for something outside the franchise. The first was in Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes, when the interior of the house was the same house used in 8213: Gacy House, the final segment of V/H/S, and the music video for Awolnation’s Sail. So that’s fun.
Amityville: A New Generation was a fun addition to the Amityville franchise. It wasn’t the scariest entry and wasn’t my favourite, but I still had a good time with it. It tried some stuff with the familial relation that brought a new layer to the proceedings. It tried something a little different, which gave some life into what could have otherwise been another standard “person gets cursed object” entry. We’ll see if the franchise can keep that up with the final entry before the remake.
Amityville Dollhouse
Yeah, it kept that up. Amityville Dollhouse took the Amityville concept to some new places, thanks to a dollhouse, while also staying true to the Amityville roots. The haunting was still there. The force was still toying with people’s mental states, changing them negatively. There was still a family, there was still a house with the windows for eyes, and there was still a fiery explosion sort of deal at the end. It was very much like any of the classic Amityville flicks. But the dollhouse allowed for something new to come into the picture.
At this point, eight movies into a franchise about a haunted house, it’s kind of surprising to have these new layers successfully introduced. It didn’t feel like Amityville Dollhouse had gone off the rails. Bill (Robin Thomas) and Claire (Starr Andreeff) were newly married and moved with their children Todd (Allen Cutler), Jessica (Rachel Duncan), and Jimmy (Jarrett Lennon) into a new home. Jessica’s birthday was coming up. Bill couldn’t figure out the right gift for her but found a dollhouse in the shed out back. The dollhouse ended up being a source of terror, bringing an evil force into the house. A house that happened to maybe be built on the site of the original Amityville home.
Let me start by describing the Martin family. Bill and Claire had just gotten married. They had kids from previous relationships. Todd and Jessica were Bill’s kids, while Jimmy was Claire’s son. For some reason, they all shared a last name. It didn’t make much sense because they family had recently come together. Whatever. I can overlook that. What I really need to point out is how this final entry in the original series brought things full circle. It wasn’t the Lutz family returning to the house. Instead, it was another blended family. A mom, a dad, two sons, and a daughter. Much like the Lutz family, all the kids took on the name of someone who their mother married well after they were born. Odd thing to do. The daughter ended up being the closest to the evil force, much like Amy Lutz was friends with Jody. There was even a father trying to kill the rest of the family, only it was Jimmy’s dad (Clayton Murray), back from the dead, as opposed to Bill, the patriarch of the family. Many of the familial elements were borrowed from the first film.
As for what Amityville Dollhouse brought in terms of new stuff, it had to do with a connection between the house and the dollhouse. The house was implied to be built on the ground where the original Amityville home had been destroyed. This may have put it within continuity with Amityville 3-D, though this is an Amityville movie, so who knows? There was no explanation for where the dollhouse came from, though its resemblance to the original house for sure linked it to the evil that had haunted so many. The connection between house and dollhouse was more than the surface looks. In one scene, Jimmy’s pet mouse ran into the dollhouse and hid under a bed. That caused a giant mouse to be under Jessica’s bed, showing that what happened in the dollhouse could happen in the larger house. Later in the movie, Bill dove through the fireplace and ended up in an alternate universe, which was seemingly the attic of the dollhouse. The dollhouse was the center of the disturbances happening in their house and through defeating what was in the dollhouse, they were able to flee their home and the evil.
The final new aspect to the Amityville franchise was a physical representation of the evil. Sure, people had been possessed in previous movies. Yeah, there was a demon in Amityville 3-D. This was a little different. There were insect-like creatures sprouting from dolls that were in the dollhouse. One of the dolls was investigated by Tobias (Franc Ross) and Marla (Lenore Kasdorf), aunt and uncle to the kids. They realized that the dolls were hosts to small demonic beings, which Tobias confronted with Bill after jumping through the fireplace and into what seemed like the attic of the dollhouse. The evil had rarely been given a distinct look beyond a seemingly inanimate object. It was a change to have that happen in Amityville Dollhouse, and only helped to make the movie stand out.
Three movies. Three different cursed objects haunting people. Three different ways that the evil manipulated people. The Amityville movies were swinging for the fences and, I would say, succeeding. They were three solid horror movies. And they didn’t feel like direct-to-video entries, even though they all were. It’s a shame that they didn’t put out a couple more of these before the reboot. What can you do, though? The past is the past. It is what it is.
There was a nine-year break between the release of Amityville Dollhouse in 1996 and The Amityville Horror in 2005. That meant that for almost nine years, there were no Amityville movies. There were none in the theater. None on television. None that went direct-to-video. New ones, I mean. I’m sure the original eight were being shown on cable networks and people were watching them at home. This kind of break was rare for the franchise. It definitely won’t be happening again any time soon. There are a handful of Amityville movies every year, now.
Things were about to change for the franchise. They were about to change quickly. The remake of The Amityville Horror in 2005 would signal that change, a change that I’ll get into in much more depth come the next post. The one, continuous (albeit, mostly standalone movies) series came to an end with Amityville Dollhouse. Things were going to be reset, and then explode. Kind of like an Amityville house.
Here are a few notes to wrap things up:
- Amityville: A New Generation was directed by John Murlowski, who also directed Santa with Muscles (week 211).
- Stephen Macht starred in Amityville: It’s About Time. He was previously featured in Galaxina (week 432) and Atlas Shrugged:Part II (week 490).
- Jonathan Penner was featured in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (week 85) before Amityville: It’s About Time.
- Willie C. Carpenter has been featured in two Sunday “Bad” Movies. They were Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood (week 120) and Amityville: It’s About Time.
- Megan Ward was in Amityville: It’s About Time and Freaked (week 131).
- Dean Cochran returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Amityville: It’s About Time, after first appearing in Batman and Robin (week 138).
- The great Dick Miller was in both Amityville: It’s About Time and Chopping Mall (week 306).
- Finishing off Amityville: It’s About Time was Shawn Weatherly from Police Academy 3: Back in Training (week 400).
- Robert Harvey made his fourth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance in Amityville: A New Generation. His other appearances were in Jack and Jill (week 101), Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (week 221), and Sandy Wexler (week 231).
- The great Richard Roundtree was in Amityville: A New Generation, as well as Steel (week 127), Theodore Rex (week 223), and Maniac Cop (week 480).
- Lin Shaye had a bit role in Amityville: A New Generation. She was also in Surf School (week 42), Big Ass Spider! (week 61), and Say It Isn’t So (week 481).
- Robert Hammond became a Sunday “Bad” Movies three-timer with Amityville: A New Generation. He was previously seen in Captain America (week 181) and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (week 350).
- Karl Johnson was in Laser Mission (week 139) and Amityville: A New Generation.
- Finally, Amityville: A New Generation featured Bob Jennings from Road House (week 200).
- Have you seen Amityville: It’s About Time? Have you seen Amityville: A New Generation? Have you seen Amityville Dollhouse? What did you think of them? You can share your thoughts on Twitter or in the comments.
- You can also find me on Twitter or in the comments if there are any movies you think would make a good fit for Sunday “Bad” Movies. I’m open to suggestions.
- There’s more Sunday “Bad” Movies fun to be had on Instagram. Check it out.
- I’m guessing you already know what the next post will be. I watched more Amityville movies. I wrote about them. Which ones, though? The next post will be about the remake of The Amityville Horror, and then I’ll be tackling The Amityville Haunting. If those sound interesting to you, make sure to check out the post when it goes up soon.
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