The first Amityville movie was The Amityville Horror in 1979. Since then, there have been over thirty movies released. Some of them were backed by studios and Hollywood production companies. Others were independent productions. Over the past six months, I’ve watched sixteen of those movies. I’ve watched sixteen movies related to the Amityville hauntings. Some of them were more related to the hauntings thank others.
I’m getting to the end of those sixteen movies with this post. I have three movies left to write about. It has been a long journey that has had its highs and lows. Some of the movies were better than the others. Hopefully I’m not hitting any lows in these three movies. Rather than write some elaborate introduction, I’m just going to get right into them.
Amityville Toybox
Here we go again. Amityville Toybox was another Amityville movie that began with the DeFeo murders. Connecting the story to those murders isn’t inherently a bad thing. It gives a movie that isn’t set within 112 Ocean Avenue an extra bit of foundation for why it is an Amityville movie. That’s what the opening scene did. It connected to the story that took place in the current day in a different house. But at this point in the Amityville movies, seeing the DeFeo murders play out once again is like watching a Batman movie and seeing his parents die in an alleyway. It’s a little tired.
Anyway, Amityville Toybox was an alright post-remake Amityville movie. The Janson family reunited for the fiftieth birthday of the patriarch, Mark (Mark Popejoy). During the gift-giving portion of the reunion, Mark was given a toy monkey. You know, the one with the cymbals that crash together. That monkey came from 112 Ocean Avenue and brought some of the evil with it. Mark slowly unravelled, seeing his dead father, and threatening the lives of everyone in the house. Tragedy was set to strike again, forty years after the original murders.
What really worked about Amityville Toybox was that it didn’t try to reinvent the formula of the Amityville movies. It did what any of the cursed item sequels from the original run did. There was a toy monkey and with it came the evil of 112 Ocean Avenue. It didn’t add any new ripples, which was a shame. It wasn’t a clock manipulating time or a dollhouse manipulating space. But it also wasn’t the lamp, a physical representation of the evil. The toy monkey felt much more like a vessel, bringing the evil into the new home before disappearing from the story. Aside from being in the background during scenes where evil things happened. It wasn’t constantly the center of the story as the source of all evil, though, which was good.
Story-wise, Amityville Toybox was more of what had been seen numerous times throughout the Amityville franchise. A family came together. The father became possessed by some evil, and eventually lashed out on his family. The main twist of this one was that most of the aggression the evil built up within Mark was directed at his children’s sexual encounters. There was one daughter who was pregnant, and the father was absent. There was a gay son who brought his boyfriend home for the first time. There was the daughter who had a new boyfriend that he didn’t like. The drunk and promiscuous girl, and the happily single and not looking to hook up girl. Each of them, aside from the single and not looking girl, had some sort of sexual activity during the movie that fed into the evil growing within Mark. Eventually, he snapped.
And what was it about the evil that made him snap? Through the Amityville movies, there have been various ways that the evil got into people’s heads. Sometimes, it simply changed their moods. Other times, they heard voices and saw things. Mark saw his dead father, who was slowly wearing him down. Once Mark was worn down, he would be open to manipulation by the evil, through his father’s image. It was refreshing for an Amityville movie to go back to the mental manipulation side of the evil, rather than the historical repetition side of things where the modern-day people were evil and working with the evil spirits.
The repetition was still there in a way, through the DeFeo murders. The evil was pushing Mark to kill his family in the same way that Ronald DeFeo Jr. had shot his family while they slept. History still repeated itself. The difference between Amityville Toybox and movies like The Amityville Asylum or The Amityville Theater was that the repetition was only being brought on by the evil spirit. There was nobody helping the spirit for their own nefarious means. This was just what the spirit did. It was what the spirit wanted. History would repeat itself because the evil was still there. That was all.
Overall, Amityville Toybox was an enjoyable entry in the franchise. The acting might not have been the best, but there has also been much worse in previous films. The bad acting only really came out in the angrier moments. Don’t go into this one expecting anything great, but you could do worse with an Amityville movie.
The Amityville Terror
You might be expecting me to say “and this is where we get worse.” That wouldn’t be true. The Amityville Terror was actually a pretty good movie. Did it have the big budget or studio backing of the original eight movies? No. It didn’t even have the production value of most of the direct-to-video entries during that studio era of Amityville movies. However, it did have good production value for something made relatively cheaply outside of that big studio system. And, it might even be better than some of those older movies.
Todd (Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau) and Jessica Jacobson (Kim Nielsen) moved into a new house with their daughter Hailey (Nicole Tompkins) and Todd’s sister Shae (Amanda Barton). It was a nice, big house in a nice, small town. Only, things weren’t as nice as they seemed. Strange things began to happen. Shae was acting weird. People around town weren’t getting too friendly with the family. Todd’s boss died under odd circumstances. It seemed like there might be something involving their new home that caused all the strange happenings.
I’m not entirely sure if The Amityville Terror was connected to the previous Amityville stories in any way. Or even if it was connected to the Amityville hauntings or murders at all. It felt very much like a standalone movie. What happened in the Jacobson house was something that hadn’t happened before. It shared similarities, mostly in that an evil spirit terrorized the occupants of a house, manipulating what they heard, saw, and did, and eventually possessed someone. That’s fairly standard for an Amityville movie. But it wasn’t the house. There was no mention of the Lutz family or the DeFeos. The only connection to Amityville was that they lived in a haunted house in Amityville.
The Amityville Terror fit into the same mould as The Amityville Asylum and The Amityville Theater. It was another movie where people were brought into the location by a knowing outsider to sacrifice them to the demonic force. I’d say that, at this point in the Amityville saga, it was the best representation of that storyline. Even if it didn’t connect to the DeFeos like the other two movies did, it executed the story much better. The acting, the writing, the scope… It was all a step forward that made up for losing the connection to the Amityville legend.
I want to talk about the scope, most of all. The Amityville Terror broadened the world beyond the house and into the town. Many of the post-remake movies kept the story to minimal locations. It was nice to see one movie decide to go the opposite direction. The house was an important location, to be sure. (Side note: the interior was filmed in the same house as Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes). But there were other locations that The Amityville Terror visited. There was a mechanic’s garage, a high school, a cabin where the teenagers hung out, a restaurant, and someone else’s house. The town of Amityville felt like a town. It didn’t feel like the house, or the theater, or the asylum, was just in some sort of limbo with nobody else around. It was a nice change of pace.
As for the haunting, it was standard stuff. One of the family members was possessed by whatever evil spirit was in the house. There was a little incest, which wasn’t the first, second, or third time for the Amityville movies. The realtor moved families into the house to sacrifice them to whatever evil was in there, which was also a standard enough storyline for the movies. It wasn’t anything overly inventive, but each of those elements were put to good use. It was a compelling haunting that I’d definitely revisit if I felt like watching a post-remake Amityville movie again.
I’m a week out from when these posts are going to drop, which means I’m definitely not going to get through all the Amityville movies. I’m not even going to get to the point I wanted to. I do have enough time for one more movie, though, so I’m going to move onto the next Amityville movie, and the final one I’ll be checking out. For now.
Amityville: No Escape
This was an interesting movie to end on. It dealt with the idea of history repeating itself, which has been a common theme throughout the Amityville movies. It featured 112 Ocean Avenue. Plus, it went back to the found footage format, which came up previously in The Amityville Haunting. It was a movie that felt like history repeating while presenting a story about history repeating. Only, this one was terrible.
Amityville: No Escape wasn’t on the same level of terrible as The Amityville Asylum or The Amityville Playhouse. It was competently made. The actors felt like real actors. Well, aside from that guy with the gun in the woods. The interactions felt natural, like real conversations between real people. The story, itself, aside from the final twist, was a decent enough story. The problem was mainly that everything was boring. It was boring beyond belief.
There were two timelines in Amityville: No Escape. The first took place in 1997. Lina (Julia Gomez) moved into 112 Ocean Avenue by herself. She was waiting for her husband to join her after his tour of duty. She didn’t know about the history of the house, but quickly learned as she experienced a bunch of spooky situations. Things were moving. Doors were opening. The house was clearly haunted. It was recorded on video as Lina made diaries for her soldier husband. In the present day, George Harris (Josh Miller) took his sister Elizabeth (Allison Egan), his girlfriend Sarah (Joni Durian), and a couple of their friends to camp out near 112 Ocean Avenue as part of his college thesis about fear. They brought a couple cameras and spent a couple nights. Obviously, things got scarier than they anticipated.
Having the two storylines run concurrently was a nice bit of history repeating itself. Lina experienced her haunting while George experienced his. There were references to the DeFeo murders and references to the Lutz family leaving all their belongings behind. Based on that information, the paranormal activities at 112 Ocean Avenue had happened at least four times. History kept repeating itself. The stories didn’t really connect all that much, though. Lina wasn’t related to any of the characters in George’s storyline. She didn’t know them, and they didn’t know her. There was one little connection at the end of the movie, but that was it. As nice as it was to see history repeating itself, a theme that has come up time and time again in these movies, it would have been nice to have some direct connections between the timelines. As it was, Amityville: No Escape felt like two movies spliced together for no rhyme or reason.
And both stories were boring. Lina went about her daily diaries. She talked to her husband, with no response, about nothing. She did aerobics. Sometimes a mug moved or a cupboard door opened. Mostly she just said she missed him and wanted him home. It barely even picked up at the end when the climax happened. George’s story was a little better. The characters talked about their deepest fears, and then experienced fear. The main problem was when things really started to get going. Characters kept dying off screen. Out of the five characters and the guy with the gun in the woods, four of them died off screen. They basically went with a tell don’t show approach, which is the opposite of what a movie should do.
It felt like a chore to get through Amityville: No Escape. The movies had been on an upswing. They had been improving. This one brought that all crashing down. It wasn’t in the sub-basement, but it was pushing its way there. Simply because it was boring. A good half of the movie was spent with nothing happening. No action, no character development… Nothing. Add in the found footage camerawork and there were no exciting visuals, either. This one was a dud.
I expected to end week 500 on a low note, if I’m being completely honest. I’m sixteen (seventeen when you count the one I didn’t watch) movies into a series that isn’t known for being good. And I’m out of the recognizable Hollywood ones. I’m into the direct-to-video or limited theatrical release independent movies. The chances of ending on a high note with those was slim to begin with. I could have stopped while I was ahead, but thought I’d push for one more. Oh well.
This has been a fun journey through sixteen Amityville movies. There were highs and there were lows. I don’t regret watching any of them. Even if I just made it sound like I regretted watching the last one. I found some movies I quite enjoyed that I had never seen before. Amityville: It’s About Time still stands as my favourite. Amityville Dollhouse isn’t far behind. The Amityville Terror was a surprise delight, too. There were some good ones in there, aside from the theatrical ones, and I’m glad I found them.
At some point, I’ll return to the Amityville movies. There are still a whole bunch that I need to check out. Some of them have crazy names like Amityville in Space, Amityville Karen, and Amityville Vibrator. You know I need to see those. For now, this is where I’m packing it in. Sixteen movies. I only had to skip one because I couldn’t find a way to watch it. 500 weeks of Sunday “Bad” Movies. What a wild ride this has been.
Now for notes about these three movies:
- The Amityville Terror featured Sarah Lieving, who was in The Beast of Bray Road (week 176) and Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (week 300).
- Another three-timer in The Amityville Terror was Amanda Barton from The Beast of Bray Road (week 176) and Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver (week 302).
- Kaiwi Lyman was in Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (week 300) and The Amityville Terror.
- Finally, Tonya Kay appeared in both The Amityville Terror and Evil Bong 666 (week 482).
- Have you seen Amityville Toybox? Have you seen The Amityville Terror? Have you seen Amityville: No Escape? What did you think of them? The comments are a good place to let me know, as is Twitter.
- If there are any movies that you think would make a good fit for Sunday “Bad” Movies, tell me. Find me on Twitter. Find me in the comments. Tell me what would fit.
- You can find more Sunday “Bad” Movies goodies on Instagram.
- And now we have a look at what will be coming up next week. This coming weekend will be both Canada Day in Canada and Independence Day in the US. I thought I’d go with a bad Canadian movie in celebration. When I went searching, I stumbled upon something called Ryan’s Babe. I thought I’d give it a shot. We’ll see how that goes. See you in a week!
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