| Film Review | Dana Place |
The Amityville Horror (2005)
Ryan Reynolds
Melissa George
Jesse James
Jimmy Bennett
Director: Andrew Douglas
Plot:
A young family finds the deal of a lifetime in an old
Victorian home in upstate New York. After finding out that
the deal was only possible because the previous owners were
all murdered in the house, they decide the offer is too good
to pass up. After moving in they realize that the house may
have played an integral part in the family's murder and is
slowly taking over the mind of the father.
Review: If you have seen any of the other Amityville
movies, then you have seen this one. This movie is a direct
adaptation of the original and the only difference is the
writers decided to try and explain why the house is
tormenting its occupants. I personally believe that in
horror films where you have an unimaginable terror
tormenting the characters, it should stay that way, that
maybe you should just let evil be evil for its own sake. Are
we really trying to rationalize why a demonic house is
trying to kill its occupants? But my problems with the movie
do not stop there. The director of this movie uses a style
of filmmaking that was popular with the Texas Chainsaw
Massacre to bump up the creepiness factor and it just seems
old hat here. Trying to play up the "based on a true story"
angle by using sepia toned grainy footage to show flashbacks
and old horrors and flashes of newspaper clippings to give
it some authenticity.
But can it play as just a good old fashioned turn off your
brain horror flick you ask. Well no, not really. The only
bright spot of the movie was watching Ryan Reynolds go from
nice guy to crazy bat shit killer guy. His sarcastic humor
makes the transformation actually pretty fun to watch. There
really isn't a whole lot of creepiness to the movie and it
actually drags any time Ryan is not onscreen. I was so
disinterested in the movie by the time the big finale came
around that as I was watching this psycho killer running
around trying to catch his wife (with children in tow) my
mind started wandering and it felt like I was watching a
twisted version of the Sound of Music. So needless to say, I
giggled through most of the climax, especially any wide shot
with all of them holding hands and running through the yard,
which seemed to inexplicably happen a few times. I am sure
that was not the intention of the director. At least I hope
not.
