Review of Amityville II: The Possession (1982) by Zak G — 20 Apr 2005

[font=Book Antiqua]Well, this weekend, the horror [b][i]really [/i][/b]starts. That's right, the zombie epic penned by me and the darby takes off this weekend. We start shooting Saturday afternoon. I'm directing/shooting/co-writing/co-producing/co-everything on this fucker, so I have a lot of work in store for myself. One thing is for sure..................this will be ambitious as all hell. This will be the first time we have worked with make-up effects, which will be interesting, to say the least. This will also mark my first foray into directing a hugely crowded scene with about 50 extras playing ravenous zombie bastards. It's a great script, and I feel it's got some of my best writing yet. It's also surprisingly bleak and yet at the same time hopeful, which is something I can honestly say that I've never written before. To top that off, this fucker is going to be edited by none other than thedarby himself, which I have to say makes me excited. If nothing else, the film will look great(What can I say. I'm good with a camera) and flow awesomely(Darby is an exceptional editor.) On top of that, we actually have some actors that [i]can [/i]act, which is something we haven't had in the past. I'm also gonna go balls-out in the photography department, experimenting with filters, black and white, long takes, overhead shots, travelling shots, you name it. I'm also going to try and make every shot unique, you know, that whole originality thing that I like so much. The script also has an original spin on the zombie genre, so yeah. All in all, if we can pull it off the way it has already been pulled off in my head, then this one will impress. I'm also gonna send it to a couple of festivals after screening it here locally. I'll check back periodically with updates. BOOM.[/font].

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[font=Book Antiqua][b][i]AMITYVILLE 2 - THE POSSESSION[/i][/b]. How did this happen? So me and Darby are kicking it at his house as usual on Tuesday night. We're sitting in the living room, acting like asses, when Darby says to me, "We need to watch a movie." Then it happens. AMITYVILLE 2 is on cable, so we flip to it. It's widely known that a lot of folks hated this flick, and I can see why. Horrible, horrible acting. Terrible ending. Ugly people. You know what though? I found a lot of things to like about it, because that's the kind of horror film buff I am. For one thing, the camerawork in this film looks to me like Dario Argento himself shot this fucker. It's [b][i]that [/i][/b]fucking good. I'm talking steadicam out the ass, overhead shots, dolly-ins complete with zooms, tilted perspective, upside-down angles, everything. With ambition like this behind the camera, the film should have turned out much better. I also appreciated the fact that it wasn't afraid to be a hard-assed horror flick. The crazy fucker in this film mows down his entire family, including his little brother, little sister, and on top of that, he fucks his older sister. That's right, he's an incestuous fucker to boot. So the film has a fucking mean streak. I really wish this one could have been better though. The ending is awful, complete with tidy explanation on why the house is haunted, which is something that peeves the shit out of me. Fuck a bunch of explanation. [/font].

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[font=Book Antiqua]I get to finally see [b][i]KUNG-FU HUSTLE [/i][/b]this weekend. Oh, sweet justice.[/font].