Review of Amityville II: The Possession (1982) by Tuney L — 08 Nov 2016

Despite the title, this is actually a prequel of the first Amityville Horror movie. It is, however, a fictionalized story and not based on the same accounts as the previous movie. Real or not, there are some scary and unnerving things about this movie and some quality moments in the direction.

There is not much fall of from the first haunted house film, but the story is darker and has some strangely unsettling plot points. The actors are adequate, but the characters do not feel as realistic as they did in the first movie.

It is very much a divided movie of two halves. The first hour involves a family moving into the haunted house where the oldest son becomes possessed by demon type power. The second part focuses on a priest who is determined to fight the evil within the house.

That shift in the plot is shockingly abrupt. I much prefer the intangibility and tension of the first half of the movie. Politics and events of the priest's story go on too long and do not have the same emotional impact.

Without this final half hour, the tone of the movie would be unreasonably cruel. The story makes sense as a whole but concluding scene is a directorial mess. Most of the special effects are impressive, but in the climax, they are simply bad.

There are structural flaws here, but it is scary and uses the characters to tell a story effectively. It is far from perfect, but most horror movies fail to do some of the things this one gets right.