Review of The Amityville Haunting (2011) by Joe J — 21 Apr 2012

Former Marine Douglas (Jason Williams) moves his wife, his teenage daughter, his young son and young daughter into a house in Amityville, which they discover was the old Amityville home where Ronald J. Defeo Jr. massacred his family, and the same house the Lutz family lived in as well.

Using first person camerawork from the son Tyler (Devin Clark), and surveillance cameras set up in the house, we're treated to a bunch of light scares, horrible acting, and a plot so paper thin if you turned it sideways you wouldn't be able to see it.

I heard about this film and was intrigued, but when I saw it was done by Asylum, my hopes diminished greatly. For those who don't know, Asylum makes horrid straight-to-DVD rip-offs of big motion pictures. And this one is no exception. Not only does it rip off the Amityville franchise, but the Paranormal Activity ones as well.

The storyline, as stated earlier, was just horrid. Two people died while the family moved in, and they didn't really give it much heed. The kid captures a lot of paranormal stuff on his camera, but not once did they ask to actually SEE what he recorded. Some of the scares were cool, and the dad's meltdown into insanity was funny to see, but other than that, it was just really bad.

Not to mention they really hold to the fact that this "is a real movie" based on "real found footage," even going to the lengths of not having a cast listed, and a special "documentary" about what really happened in the house. Complete with spelling errors (such as calling a Sheriff a "Sherrif") and listing the coroners reports with "extram" instead of "extreme.".

So call the "Sherrif" because this movie is "extram" trash.