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Some Early Looks At AMITYVILLE HORROR remake!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Hey folks, Harry here... Tomorrow night is my big House of Flies screening of AMITYVILLE HORROR that Ryan Reynolds and his Producer team will be coming to and as I was searching AICN tonight I realized I hadn't posted any reviews. So I searched my email box and found, just these 3 so far. 2 of the 3 really enjoyed the hell out of it. The third wanted it to adhere more to the original film, and I hear they went back to the book for their inspiration, while wanting the iconography from the original film in place. I'll see Thursday night, that's if my eyes are not eaten by 25,000 flies! Beware of spoilers. This first review is very spoiler light, but after that... watch out!
Last friday the arclight cinema in Hollywood had a press screening for the AMITYVILLE remake and allowed some 'real audience' to attend. It's a very solid piece of film. Parts felt a bit formula - in regards to Michael Bay's TCM success (based on true story, use of vintage news reel footage, beautiful washed out cinematography, hot cast). But then again most horror these days is totally generic and at least in this case the formula works (very well).
I don't want to "give away" the story - all who have seen the original are familiar with the plot anyhow. For the rest, I can say the story works. The scares are effectful - we're talking SHRIEKING audience. And the cast is quite great - both Ryan Reynolds and Mellisa George's performances are proof of concept that good horror needs really good actors (not some pretty face right off the latest tv teen show).
The director certainly takes his cues from asian genre films like The Grudge, but at least he does it well. "6th Sense" is another reference. And though (to me) the end felt a tad anticlimatic - the new Amityville Horror it definetly worth checking out.
ONE SPOLIER: The most memorable sequence involves a sexy babysitter. from the moment she enters the house to the scene when she is carried out on a stretcher, screaming on the brink of insanity -- the sequence holds everything the genre is great for... sex, scares and a whole popcorn bag full o' fun!
Rockin' Baby
Then there's this wildly enthusiastic review that I got back in February, but forgot to put up. Here ya go...
Harry, I saw Amityville Horror Wednesday night at a test screening and here's my shot at a review.
The screening was at the Pacific Beach Cities in El Segundo, where I see most movies and where I got invited to this one, along with what seemed like 5000 other people. I barely got in. Unlike a lot of movies that test screen there, I was motivated to actually go see this one. I have vague memories of the original- just that it scared the crap out of me and there was a pig in the window saying GET OUT!! There was no pig in this movie. But it scared the crap out of me. Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead both definitely did not suck and this movie is easily as scary, if not more. The scares are sort of like in The Ring- scary because you don’t know what’s gonna happen but you know it will be FUCKED UP!
Moving on- Amityville Horror starts like the trailer… quick cuts of the DeFeo murders at the Amityville House. DeFeo went crazy and wasted his whole family with a shotgun. Then we get the title and that music. It’s still creepy. It’s now one year after the murders and we meet the Lutz family- cute kids, hot wife, Ryan Reynolds with a beard and looking very cut (in Blade: Trinity mode). You just feel bad for this nice little family because they go looking for a house to make their lives better and find the Amityville house with the creepy eye windows. It's big and out in the country and, by the way, A MAN KILLED HIS WHOLE FAMILY THERE!!!! But they tell each other, there are not bad houses, only bad people.
So they move into the house and we see it as their home movies-Ryan Reynolds, the hot wife (Melissa George from Alias), the little girl and boy and the older boy, Billy. DAY ONE! Everything’s just great. Except that for Ryan Reynolds, the house is never warm enough. And little Chelsea, the daughter, starts talking to an imaginary friend named Jody. And while Ryan Reynolds is getting sex from his hot wife, a creepy little girl pops into the bedroom then disappears. Yes, I jumped, no, I didn’t crap my pants. A few more other disturbing things happen and you can tell they're holding back because the shit hasn't truly hit yet. But you know it will.
So, they survive Day One. But Ryan Reynolds keeps waking up at 3:15 in the morning (the hour DeFeo went through the house capping family members). He's not the kids real dad and starts getting mean, yelling at them. He’s fixated on the basement, trying to turn it into an office. But the dog keeps digging at a rotting wall in the basement. MAYBE BECAUSE THERE ARE DEAD PEOPLE IN THERE??? Just asking.
Then we meet the pot-smoking ultrahot babysitter, who used to babysit for the DeFeo’s and scares the shit out of the kids when she tells them where everybody got shot. When they get to the closet where the little girl was killed, Billy dares her to go in. But once she’s in there, the door slams and locks, blood oozes down the walls. She's pounding on the door, trying to get out, and then the fucked up little dead girl with a hole in her head (who happens to be named Jody)- grabs the babysitter’s finger and forces it into the entry wound on her head.
It was at this point that I realized this movie is not going to let up. You don’t even want to know what happens to the family dog. There are things in the walls and in the water around them, and voices telling certain characters to do things. Ryan Reynolds gets darker, weirder, meaner. He's getting sick and wakes up every night at 3:15 and every time he wakes up, you know some FUCKED UP SHIT will occur. There’s an axe Ryan Reynolds uses to cut wood. And there’s a shotgun in the house. Then one day, he soaks into a hot bath (not a good idea)and bloody arms claw him under the water. Something is seriously fucked in the house- and there's a story behind it, but the hot wife doesn't put it together until the end.
She is is starting to realize how bad things have gotten at the Amityville house. By this time it's DAY 28!! DeFeo killed his family 28 days after he started hearing voices. Ryan Reynolds has been hearing voices since Day One.
At the end of the movie, I realized I hadn’t unclenched my jaw the whole time and it ached. I might even have crapped my pants, but I won’t tell anybody if you won’t. There’s a lot to like in this movie. I can actually say IT WILL SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!
This was a rough cut- it wasn’t finished. A lot of shots looked washed out and there were a couple of parts that didn’t belong in the movie at all. The audience clapped at certain points (I don’t want to spoil this), but at this one part after Ryan Reynold’s bath from hell, there’s a shot of the hot wife holding him like a baby- everybody actually laughed. It was just strange. I don’t want to give the ending away, but there was one other shot like that (BLOOD SHOWER!!!) that that didn’t make much sense.
The acting was outstandng, especially the kid who played Billy. He’s the one who knows that Ryan Reynolds is becoming dangerous before anyone else. The hot wife and the kids all act like a family does. That’s what stuck with me, because the stuff that happens to them you wouldn’t want to happen to people like that.
I thought it was very well directed. Let me put it this way- it’s fast, brutal and FUCKED UP! My only suggestion to the director (I filled out one of those cards at the end of the screening and wrote this on it) would be to take out that bathtub shot and the that shot near the end. And while I’m at it, how about full frontal nudity from the hot wife?
Hope I didn’t totally fuck up this review. Good luck with your leg. If you use it, call me IL DUCE!
Then there's this far less enthusiastic review. It is filled with spoilers throughout, so read at your own risk...
Many salutations Harry, not too long time reader but much enthused none the less. The following is review of the newly remade Amityville Horror I was able to see at an advance screening Tuesday, April 12, 2005, at around 7:30 PM. I was able to score free entry into it due to this friend of mine who works at the local cinema. As I waited in line I wondered how many of the under 17 kids had actually seen the original and how the hell they got admittance into this flick. And yes it is a “flick”. I was not able to see this movie as a younger child but have rented and totally enjoyed the original at the ripe age of 21. I found the original to be very creepy, creepy to where I was hearing “GET OUT!!!” in my mind as I walked down the hall to pee! Well that’s enough babble, on to the review…shall we…
*** There will be some spoilers in the review that follows. ***
Warning aside, the movie starts with Ronnie Defeo as he seems to just lose it and gets his shotgun and decides to kill everyone. The “VOICE” has become a whisper, not the demonic yell that I was accustomed to hearing in the original. This time though as he makes his rounds, his youngest sister, Jodie, hears the gun shots and proceeds to hide in her closet. The exchange dialogue and Ronnie shots her. This is where it bothered me, someone got up! The thing I found creepy in the original was that no one heard the shots, as if the house muted them.
Enter the Lutz Family. Ryan Reynolds is still sporting the “Jesus Abs” from Blade: Trinity. The actress who plays his wife is pretty convincing. This time though she has 3 children instead of two, who we learn have lost the father to some demise that is never spoken of. So we have the younger brother and sister, but enter a new 12 year old-I’m pissed my father is gone-boy. I could have done without the added kid and his problems, but he does serve his purpose later on. Of course you know the rest, they buy the house and the realtor decides to really punctuate how great the house is, with “A family was murdered here…” So they look past the house’s past and go for the buy! God I love capitalism!
The next scene is an old home movie of the family movie in, joyful over their new home. It is all fun and games, with upbeat music playing. I liked the juxtaposition of tone used form that to a black screen with white lettering spelling out “DAY 1.” Pretty emphatic those good times are over. I was really pulling for the movie at this point but…
There is no priest that comes over to bless the house when the move in. I was ready for the priest to show up, freak out at the voice, flies, and get terribly and GET OUT! No such luck early on. You notice a shift in Reynolds’ tone and over all demeanor. He doesn’t come off as mean but more of a smart ass. He gets mad at the youngest step son for getting something from the basement. He then tells the child, “My office…” He hugs the kid and apologizes for being harsh with his tone.
So the mom (sorry don’t know the actress’s name at the moment) goes up stairs to do something, and she goes into her daughter’s room and asks who she was talking to. The girl says her new friend Jodie, as the mom passes Jodie appears. Later on that night the youngest son runs to pee at, you guessed it, 3:15, and after he tinkles there is some gruesome corpse ghost is over his shoulder. In the same night, Reynolds awakes to his wife getting undressed and the engage in some activities related to being married, and Reynolds sees Jodie hanging from a noose. This is where I really started to have issues. I mean when was this movie a ghost story? Oh yeah and the daughter trying to commit suicide, was a bit much for me. The ghosts play too much of a part in this. But the magnets on the fridge were a nice touch.
The babysitter, well she is a hottie, but what happens to hotties who smoke pot in the bathroom and are mean to the kids they sit? This is probably the only scene that really reminds me of the original except, the babysitter has a run in with Jodie. I missed the whole, dark closet, don’t know what’s in there type thing going on.
Reynolds’ descent into madness is kind of convincing. The whole having the step child hold the wood he is chopping is down right abusive instead of mean. You can clearly see that the blood shot eyes are contacts. But that is a nitpick.
The priest is finally introduced but he goes to the house way too late. It was not like the original where he shows up and what happens sets the mood for the entire movie. The holy water sizzles on the floor, which was neat. But the moment the swarm of flies knocked him down, well, I was just about done. He doesn’t get sick at all or almost crash. He leaves scared, and that is about as much of him you will get. I feel he was greatly under-used.
So “DAY 28” rolls around. Mind you it jumps from day 1 to 15 then to 28. The wife goes to the library and views the micro films about the Defeo murders. At this time she researches some vital information about the house, which I was thoroughly bothered by. Why do studios or writers feel they need to humanize everything? I mean look what they did to Leatherface in the new “Chainsaw.” Ugh
Well, I do not like the direction they took needless to say. Why can’t the house be a demonic doorway to hell as I interpreted from the original? I can’t say to avoid this movie like the plague because I saw numerous tweens grabbing hold for life on to their mommies. It has its moments as any film does…oops, sorry…as any flick does. My date decided that the feeling my arm was not as important as her needing to hide from the ghosts on screen. I do feel the original will hold up better. Its tone, look and overall story telling was enjoyable. Movies nowadays feel the need to explain everything. Why can’t some things be left untainted.
Harry at the off chance to you do use this, please call me…
Ra-Ra
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The potting shed calls. I must plant more.
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The story is superweak, the performances are unconvincing, and despite two or three good scares, the movie is just plain STUPID. It's a dumb fucking movie, with dumb characters, dumb dialogue and dumb scare scenes. Most of it comes across as some sort of twisted parody. I thought, aside from the jump scenes early on, it was a shite movie, not even up to snuff with Platinum Dunes' TCM remake (which I also thought was balls).
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Apr 13, 2005 7:11:29 AM CDT
Erm Harry...ya did post Il Duce's review a while back...
by big_bubbaloola
either that or i'm gettin a nasty case of deja vous!!
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Apr 13, 2005 7:33:53 AM CDT
Looks like the positive hype machine is up and spinning about th
by jackburton
Because from everything I've heard from people I personally know who have seen it, and from other general word I've heard on the old grapevine, this film sits somewhere between being truly mediocre and just plain outright fucking sucking. Me, I'll wait and see and make up my own mind for myself, just like I always do, but I gotta say, I'm hardly optimistic about this one.
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..then it must be faithful to the original film, because it is absolute garbage. I recently watched it, and apart from Margot's cleavage, there's nothing to reccomend it. The best thing about the original is the marketing.
It looked and played like a tv movie, and once I saw the horribly superimposed Jody the pig in the window, I figured it couldn't get any worse. The babysitter scene was nice, but that's about it. Rod Steiger's overacting was on full throttle, and Helen Shaver's psychic rantings were laughable.
Yes, we remember things differently from when we were younger and what was cool then just isn't the same now.
When I was 14 I thought Lifeforce was great, but at 35, with all the added scenes on the dvd, it's really awful. Of course Mathilda May's body is still worth the watch.
That said, I think the Amityville remake had potential until I saw all the Asian horror influenced crap. If they went back to the book, why is Jody a little girl with wet looking hair?
Oh well, it'll make it's money back and next year there will be another remake (maybe Happy Birthday To Me, or Terror Train), with a creepy long haired girl thrown in to add to the horror. -
Apr 13, 2005 7:56:21 AM CDT
Bah, they should remake Re-animator with Hulk Hogan as the decap
by judge doom
"Need me some blowjob, brother"
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...and never had seen it I rented it and OMG what a peice of shit it was...not scary,unitentionally funny & totally stupid. I expect this remake to be pretty much the same then?
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How has this hoax persisted this long anyway? Does it REALLY warrant a "remake" to keep it going? The Lutzes made up the whole thing. Other than the DeFeo family murders nothing out of the ordinary has happened in the home. I know I know it'll be box office $$$ but I guess that trumps truth in history nowadays doesn't it?
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without a doubt
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Apr 13, 2005 9:49:32 AM CDT
Too bad the priest is underused. He's played by Philip Baker Ha
by frankdrebin
I think these reviewers are the easily-amused type. According to IMDB, it's rated R, but not for gore, just "violence, disturbing images, language, brief sexuality and drug use" and was "edited for re-rating".
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What the hell does that mean?
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Apr 13, 2005 11:18:38 AM CDT
Any indication anywhere on the advertising that the original sto
by exit272
I don't mind a good ghost story, just don't insult my intelligence by putting "Based on a True Story" on the one-sheet. Especially when The Truth Is Out There. http://www.csicop.org/si/2003-01/amityville.html
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Apr 13, 2005 12:31:29 PM CDT
It's funny hearing the Lutz's whine that this film doesn't tell
by bigtuna
Who cares. Their story wasa just fiction anyways.
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Did anyone think that maybe the Blair Witch may be responsible for the weird happenings and not Ronald DeFeo Jr?
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... seems like all these friggin' ghosts would've been throroughly chastised and dutifully writing out checks to pay their "overdue ectoplasm" fines in record time. He's "one tough cookie"!
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It's okay for one film to deceive the public just because another one did? And hey, just because Bushco and their cronies believe "truth is relative" doesn't make it true!
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Apr 13, 2005 2:36:40 PM CDT
Wow, looks like someone went to Pottery Barn and purchased some.
by lost skeleton
plastic PLANTS!!!
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Those damn DOLLS on the upper right corner of this page scare me more than any haunted house. Are there really fat, jerk-off, mama's boys who buy that stuff??
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Especially when they are based on a "true story"...but that just makes them more entertaining, just ask the Cohen brothers.
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of Amityville 2 will be missing from this one. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
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...the better movie would be a comedy based ont he Lutz's scam. You could tell the whole thing from the point of view of an actual ghost trapped in the house but unable to interact with this horrible white trash family perpetrating the fraud. Ashton Kutcher could be George and Demi could play Kathy.
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dumbass
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embiggen your vocabulary
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How exactly did the Lutzes profit from this "hoax". They certainly did not become rich from it.
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...but since King Kong, Batman, War of the Worlds and shit like this, they rule!
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They sold their story. And the son, who's own story greatly inspired the original book now says his dad, George Lutz made everything up.
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to know that a story about ghosts, and bleeding walls, and a house that yells "Get out!" LOL , and a blue pig named Jodie,.... and other such screwy supernatural stuff is BULLSHIT - as all supernatural stuff is.
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God the amount of sexual references made by the acne faced teens on this site. "Hot baby sitter", "let's have some full frontal nudity of the babysitter"... all this spew reminds me of is that bit in Futurama when Amy and Leela go into the sex chatroom full of geeks who are yelling "Where are the hots chicks? I'm a stud and I want some action." and then Leela says "I'm a woman." and all the geeks cower away.
God, it's just utterly pathetic. -
You're missing the entire point "Omegaman". This has nothing to do with whether you believe in the supernatural or not. It has to do with the fact that the Lutzes sold their "story" for about $30,000. That's 1 year's salary for someone working at close to poverty level. The Lutzes definitely didn't get rich off this story and ended up spending the rest of their lives dodging reporters, obsessed fans, non-believers and the like. So I ask all you Lutz haters: how exactly did they benefit from concocting this hoax?
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The definition of "profit" is what's tripping you up here. The Lutz's, who were pretty poor and probably really could have used that $30,000 in 1970-whatever dollars, also got out of a mortgage that they couldn't really afford (the point of making up the story). While it may not have made them rich, they certainly eliminated some debt, which almost always gets chalked up as a financial positive. And if they (or their heirs) sold the rights to the "true" story about how they shammed their way out of that potantially crippling debt, especially in today's starkly divided economic climate, they'd not only "profit," they'd become working class hero/legends like D.B. Cooper.
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Apr 14, 2005 4:14:35 PM CDT
I don't think quoting Futurama is helping your case Chirko
by theaflacduck
Just sayin'. & you know you want to see those sweet tittays as much as the next guy.
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Actually, I'm gay so no, not in the mood for the titties.
moviemack, are you sure, some of the geeks are sounding VERY desperate. Just read the new Survivor post. God, the way they're drooling about Steph... I think they're sick of Madame Palm and her 5 wonderful sisters.
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