Print Topic

SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  /  The Amityville Horror (2005)
Posted by: Antemasque, April 16th, 2005, 4:25pm
I saw this last night with my girlfriend and i was interested the whole time. Some scary scenes but after watching th movie you don't care about the scare scenes. This was a good movie and kept me interested and thats what i look for. No dull parts and you are always waiting and wondering what will happen. One quick scene i thought was rather cheesy and laughable but it was like a 2 second shot. I was suprised on how good it was. I will definitly buy this on DVD.

Posted by: Old Time Wesley, April 16th, 2005, 4:47pm; Reply: 1
Eventhough the legitimicy of the story is in question, so it may not actually be a true story as billed but as long as the film is good who really cares.
Posted by: Chris_MacGuffin, April 16th, 2005, 7:07pm; Reply: 2
Yeah the story's bullshit, Lutz is either highly delusional or else just a greedy bastard who doesn't know when to just say the entire things a hoax. I guess I'll check it out, once it comes out on video. Though, to me at least it looks sort of piss poor, you know.
Though I may be wrong and it may turn out to be like "Dawn of the Dead" (2004)
Posted by: R.E._Freak (Guest), April 16th, 2005, 7:46pm; Reply: 3
I really like movies like this, so I'm hoping to see it in theaters in the next couple of weeks (plus I got a free ticket).

On a side note, the original trilogy is available in a pretty nice box set (with a fourth disc). I was able to pick it up for $25 where I live, which I thought was pretty good. It comes with the free ticket to the remake.
Posted by: Old Time Wesley, April 16th, 2005, 8:46pm; Reply: 4
The guys son who was in the house in question has said it wasn't to the extent it's been made out to be, there are lawsuits and stuff. But he never said it didn't happen, just not not to the extent we all have been told.
Posted by: -Ben-, October 18th, 2005, 3:32am; Reply: 5
I had big expentancies for this film after hearing people saying it"The scariest moviethey've seen." To put it flatly, it didn;t live yup to that at all. It was creepy, gory, and, yes, scary, but not that scary. The original was corny, and i hated it. Butrt thsi one amde up for it. I know a lot of poeople hate remakes, but this noe was ACTUALL GOOD. Not ver cliched, and very cool. And the ending is even satisfying makingup for other silyl horror movie endings..
So don't listen to thiose reviews that say its the scariest movie ever, but do watch it-you'll still get very scared.
OVERALL: 5/5
Posted by: George Willson, October 18th, 2005, 11:44am; Reply: 6
What I think is funny are those place the merits of the movie within the question of its truth or not. Yes, by billing it as true some of the more gullible will be freaked out, but The Blair Witch Project pulled the same thing...errr...after...or before...or before and after this film. I kept hearing some DJ on a local radio station say "But it's totally fake" and I think to myself "What are you? Stupid? It's a movie. Movies ARE fake." Even movies based on a true stories have been augments with some extra drama to make them into movies. Sorry, people, life is boring to watch.
Posted by: Balt (Guest), October 18th, 2005, 12:14pm; Reply: 7
I thought it was yet another piss poor remake that missed the mark big time. The original was clever, scary and seemed very logical. This new one is just ass.

I remember the big stand out scene in the original where the priest comes to the house to bless it and shit and they are outside and he's in that room looking out at them. The flys start buzzing  around getting thicker and thicker and he starts to sweat. The door slams and the long pause......... Then GET OUT!!!! GET..... OUT!!!!!

WOW! That was friggin' intense. Loved that scene. The new one was for shit! Of course it was to be expected. Ryan Reynolds had big shoes to fill and the tips of his toes were about 6 inch back.

I cannont believe people condone these remakes. Dawn remake being good, Amityville remake being good... What next The Fog remake beaing brilliant? Geeeezzeeee.... I just really don't think people watch the original ones to see how far away all these movies really got from the original concept.
Posted by: George Willson, October 18th, 2005, 6:53pm; Reply: 8
I personally believe people should try to remake films (if they simply MUST do a remake instead of something original) that had a good premise but poor execution the first time around. That way there is a second chance for a film that might have worked if it had someone better attached to it. Maybe the writer had a good idea but he wasn't able to do it justice himself. Maybe the director got stuck on his own kick and completely departed from the script. Maybe the lead actor was so high and mighty that he made them rewrite for his own now forgotten career. Who knows?

Point is, do good remakes of bad films, not bad remakes of good films. Case in point: Little Shop of Horrors. Original film was ok, but not really good. The 1986 musical remake: awesome. The unfortunate reality is that bad films don't get remade, and good films have enough of a fan base to condemn those remakes. Oh well.

Maybe they should write something original...
Posted by: Balt (Guest), October 18th, 2005, 8:26pm; Reply: 9
Now I believe the original little shop of horrors was brilliant. It was dark, moody and had a very unsetteling ending with all the heads in the blooms of the plant. WOW! I liked that.

I did and didn't like the remake of it. I thought it was okay for what it was but it was still a remake... a vastly departed version of the original, in my opinion.

As for Amity... the original was very good. Very scary and still holds up to this day. The remake was for shit and it proves it with every frame.

Balt~
Posted by: Ian, November 13th, 2005, 11:07pm; Reply: 10
I prefer it when remakes differ greatly from the orginals. It means you end up with two very different films rather than an identical copy (like  the remake of Psycho >shudders<). This has nothing to do with the film in question because I haven't seen the original lol, I'm just continuing the debate.

Anyway, this film. In a word, dire. I really don't care about the real life story behind this. Was it a hoax? Did it really happen? Either way does the "based on a true story" tagline make this film more scary. No.
The story doesn't seem to have a clear point that it's trying to reach. The ghosts are a mix of family members and Indians, which to me is kind of strange. Nothing seems defined. All sorts of random "scares" occur that don't seem to have much point or make much sense, like the little girl being "hugged" against the ceiling in the closet (you'll know what I mean if you've seen it). It's like someone said "Omg, lets do it like this because it will look way cool" every time something supernatural happens. It never seems to have any meaning within the story (probably because there isn't much of one). The ending was totally weak too. The whole thing is just a mish-mash of effects. The director didn't even manage to create any cheap jump scares (except for maybe the ghost appearing in the mirror when the little kid goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night) because he's in such a rush to get to the next one that he doesn't build any suspense. He blows his entire load with the first scare, holding nothing back. We see it all. A ghost. Not a shadow, or a quick glimpse, that gives us a taster for a full revelation further on, but a full view of a ghost. Just like that. We've seen it now, and every time it appears later it simply has no effect. And the "scares" come thick and fast after that. Films like this need to be more slow burning, and should NEVER use flashy MTV style cuts. It's cheap, and it isn't even unsettling. It's just irritating. This one had no build up and was therefore completely ineffective. I really don't understand what people see in this. I think it could have been at least adequate had the director taken his time and implied more and shown less (come on, this story SHOULD have creepy written all over it), but he didn't. And it sucked. Hard.

I will say a few positive things though. The aforementioned ghost in the mirror jump did get me. It was a cheap scare, but I jumped. So well done to the director, 1/167 jolts actually worked. The scene with the babysitter getting trapped in the closet was quite intense too, but there was serious overkill with the ghost. Had we not seen the ghost and the whole thing had played off the babysitter's reactions, with her screaming and banging on the door, it probably would've been more effective. The ghost was lame. It was the babysitter’s screams I found chilling. The scene where the daughter climbs onto the roof was also good. Probably the scariest part of the film for me, and it was in broad daylight and there were no ghosts. Go figure. The acting is pretty decent for the most part too. Nothing special, but never BAD. That's about all I can muster.
Print page generated: May 5th, 2024, 11:21am