The Amityville Horror

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DanTheMan 2 A double-dosing of horror with 𝔸ℕℕ𝔸. Really, more about the deep-seated, primal fear of family members inflicting violence on each other than it is about ghosts and demonic spirits, The Amityville Horror has often been cited as one of the quintessential haunted house horrors despite its dubious true crime roots. Reading more about anxiety over homeownership and financial turmoil, there's an endless stream of great ideas and spooky moments, but it doesn't come together as neatly as you'd hope it would. The pacing is off, there are too many subplots that go nowhere, and it seems just to come to a clunking halt at the end, but the film's lack of commitment to any single reading of its narrative architecture is precisely what makes it so uncanny. The workman-like direction from Stuart Rosenberg serves the film well, as do the committed central performances from Brolin and Kidder, and Lalo Schifrin's eerie musical score, which adds a lot to the film's atmosphere, but the lackadaisical editing and the thinly realised screenplay just don't deliver creating a slow and somewhat messy film. While it's periodically dull, The Amityville Horror is a blunt and effective horror that still packs enough of a whallop to warrant a sceptical visit. It's certainly a watchable film, but more so as a character study than the flat-out horror it promises. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/17/25 Full Review Mike P Smash hit horror film; which launched a whole franchise; based mostly on the big publicity stunt that this Long Island haunted house story was "for real"...Although this famous epic about the Lutzes and the Defeos and reliving the Sins of the Father in this Fall of the House of Usher type story is a limp, disjointed affair. A good cast is wasted, (James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and Rod Steiger)...And the direction is mostly amateur hour. The film also isn't sure if it wants to be Pulp Fiction or a cinema verité style docudrama; and so it lands somewhere awkwardly in between. The Shining which came out in 80 and then Poltergeist in 82 were much better genre examples, (and then especially Insidious, decades later)... Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/05/25 Full Review Christian K An early "There's something wrong with the house" where what's wrong is mostly just priests and nuns getting spooked and the owners acting weird. The pacing and story here really drags for almost its entire runtime. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/26/25 Full Review thiago s Filme mais ou menos, o roteiro é mais ou menos, o filme tem cenas bacaninhas de terror, mas os personagens não são tão bons, e a história é mais ou menos, e o filme deveria ser bem melhor e com cenas melhores. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/03/25 Full Review Anton H Creepy house atmosphere, real-life horror of violent family dysfunction, and a haunting score by Lalo Schifrin make this a guilty pleasure favorite. Not an excellent film, but a worthy horror classic. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/08/24 Full Review Andy F Looking at it all these years later, it's actually a brilliantly acted masterclass of subtle horror. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/01/24 Full Review Read all reviews

The Amityville Horror

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