Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Amityville Horror

(1979) ***

Newlyweds James Brolin and Margot Kidder (and Margot's 3 unappealing children) move into their big new home on Long Island. The house would have been way out of their price range, but a year before a young man had murdered the rest of his family in the house. This turns out to be a relevent detail, as creepy things start to happen, and it is clear something is going on, though not exactly what.

The Amityville Horror is one of my "neglected classics" efforts; I'd never seen it before and was expecting it to be more scary. It was creepy and atmospheric but not especially well acted (surprising given the cast) and I found the plot vague in places. Loved the setting, the evil-looking house, the rain, the music; was expecting more from the religious angle, which seemed to (heh) peter out. Not a bad film, but not a great one either.

6 comments:

DKC said...

I don't know that I have actually seen this whole movie. I know I have watched parts of it over the years and always thought it vaguely scary.

Julie said...

My avatar is from this movie. The doll with red eyes scared the hell out of me and my brother. We saw it on In Search Of. Remember that show? Leonard Nimoy? I was afraid to see this movie all these years because of that episode of In Search Of. Maybe I should catch this one and free myself of that old childhood fear.

JPX said...

I agree, ac, this movie is pretty scareless and pretty uneventful. It's one of those films from childhood that I always heard about in the schoolyard from the older kids but when I finally saw it many years later I thought it was a whole lotta nothin'.

miko564 said...

This is another one I saw as a kid. (Seriously, did I have NO parental supervision?!) It scared the crap out of me then, so I probably remember it as more frightening than it actually is.

AC said...

"vaguely scary" is a good term dcd.

julie, lots of "in search of" segments scared me as a kid. i say go for it! btw i just picked up the 70s version of "the omen" based on your star ratings only (again, thanks for the spoiler warnings).

jpx, seems like several of my missed classics are gonna fit that description.

miko, i am sure this movie would have scared me silly as a kid too (considering "in search of" scared me). frankly, i can't remember purposefully watching horror movies till i was in my 20s.

Catfreeek said...

It was scary back when it came out but unfortunately I think it lost most of it's scare power over the years. That happens to too may of these older movies.

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...