Review of The Amityville Horror (2005) by Christopher C — 12 Oct 2011

In a stunning twist for me, this remake (by producer Michael Bay no less) is actually somewhat of an improvement of it's sluggish 1977 predecessor in terms of scares. But as bad as the first film was it doesn't take much to make it scarier.

This film takes far more liberties with the story (so much so take George Lutz, the actual make that James Brolin and Ryan Reynolds character was based on, has taken legal action against this film). However from a third party perspective it doesn't matter seeing as how neither of these films, and certainly not the book it is based on is based on any actual events and have nothing to do with documentation and everything to do with fabrication to make a buck.

But taking that out of the equation and just looking at it as a typical haunted house story it is an improvement on the original. That doesn't make it good though. It doesn't take much to be better than that.

Ryan Reynolds unintentionally hilarious bouts of rage serve as probably the most entertaining aspect of the film. It both benefits and suffers from the magic of CGI. It pulls off many very eerie moments, such as the scene with the priest in this version I thought was particularly creepy, but the introduction of a questionably motivated ghost child (who at certain points seems sinister, but at other points feels as though we are to feel sympathy for) leaves us more puzzled than freighted.

Also, the film completely derails once a blatant "Shining" rip-off premise begins to take place. It's a bad horror film, but it is a horror film. It did provoke some scares in me, which is more than I can say for the 1977 film where not one part of the film did I find even remotely scary, I just wished it would end.

If you're a horror film fanatic, you may like the atmosphere of it and would certainly find it interesting to see both films and compare and contrast. But if you're not, I wouldn't suggest wasting your time with it.