Amityville: No Escape

This movie started strong enough and had some good, legitimate scares, for some reason some of the paranormal activity angles get to me a bit even if I know it's only a movie. Unlike what most slasher movies have ever devolved to nowadays with usually no scares.

This had a few good paranormal activity type moments with Julia Gomez. She was fun to watch and annoying as hell to an extent at the same time. Her aerobic workout bits were a bit comical besides a bit sexy also.

The more present day storyline was fine but not necessarily as strong, had some good mixed elements though none the less, and you didn't have a clue what was going to happen.

Those looking for gore will be disappointed as there really wasn't any, but the movie threw in some quick nudity bits right in the beginning of the film as a kind of quick tease I guess.

The ending of both storylines seemed hurried and incomplete for me. Like they ran out of money or time or both to complete the movie more how as envisioned. The 1997 storyline was more disappointing as the ending didn't make the most sense at all as it was unexplained exactly what happened even though they tried to show you.

It was refreshing they tried to tie both storylines to Amityville and the famous house unlike some of the other recent "Amityville" movies that don't do that at all or very well.

The DVD had a short movie called the Christmas Presence again with Julia Gomez that was kind of cool and kind of had a shock ending too.

This film essentially involves two different scenarios recorded on tape by both parties. The first one involves a young woman named "Lina" (Julia Gomez) who purchased the haunted house in Amityville in 1997 just after her husband was sent overseas on military duty. So, to keep him up to date on everything, she records all of her thoughts and feelings on a camcorder to share with him later. She is completely unaware that the house is haunted. The other recording is done by a small group of college students who go on a field trip near the Amityville house for research purposes involving the nature of fear. Although they are familiar with the legends pertaining to the haunted house, their leader "George Wells" (Josh Miller) deliberately uses these stories to further his agenda. But what none of these people realize, however, is the actual evil they will eventually come into contact with in the very near future. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this extremely low-budget production contained the same flaws typically associated with "found footage" videos of this type--shaky camera work, bad acting and a rather basic script. In short, it was both boring and amateurish, and I have rated it accordingly.

What to say. It's found footage, but honestly, even with the 1997 VHS segments inserted oh-so-random, for the first 2/3 it was fine for what it is. It even had nudity, so BW is already beaten. And the setup is there for the third third.

Then the whole thing collapses. Spectacularly. I first thought the editing went wrong, but as the minutes passed, I had to realise, no, the whole script just blew in yo face.

I'm 15 minutes in and already I'm looking at my phone wishing I didn't commit to watching this. Personally I've removed the word ugly from my vocabulary, but these people are hideously unattractive. They all look like meth heads with the ugliest tattoos and awful hair. And that scene with the girl being topless in the pool and her brother is also in the pool with her and she's like "it's like when we were kids." No. No it isn't! Disgusting just like her awkward nips. The woman in the video is forcing her acting, which is worse than a kindergarten play. All thumbs down!

And we're back to the dreadful Amityville films, I thought it was too good to be true.

Here we have another found footage effort, this one however tries to distance itself from the others by telling two separate but connected story lines. A girl living in the Amityville house and a group of students going into the woods to do a study on fear.

The plot is thinner than Patrick Stewarts hairline, it's all poorly made and alike many movies of its ilk nothing actually happens.

Unforgivable boredom.

The Good:

Cast aren't terrible

The Bad:

Pretty much every square inch of the film

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Nobody but me noticed that girl is clearly a vampire

If gunfire reminds a girl of her partner she should reconsider her choice