Amityville - Face of Terror

I love B-horror movies. Ones that are not too gory, slightly campy. Amityville 3-D is one of my favorite all time movies.

So when I saw this out on DVD, I scooped it up. I wasn't sure what to expect.

It's actually quite decent.

This guy, the father of a family, brings home this clock. Which came from the Amityville house, but has an older history than that.

The family is a bit odd - you have the father and two children (both teenagers, one a metal-head guy and the other sort of a goody girl) and an ex-girlfriend of his, living with them. She apparently helps take care of the kids while he is a away. And she has a boyfriend, a stereotypical loafer wearing psychiatrist.

Anyway, various haunting type stuff happens. Much of it is time based, since it's focused around the clock. Most of this is pretty cool, actually. Also some stuff from the original movie, the black goo coming out of the ground/pipes stuff. And some stuff seems borrowed from the Omen series. And meanwhile, the father gets possessed. Sort of. But he's not really the focus of the movie. Basically each character gets equal time, with the main focus being the ex-girlfriend.

I really enjoyed it a lot. Not scary, but lots of stuff is different than you'd expect, or think what will happen. Surprisingly intelligent. Much better than the original movie.

"Amityville: It's About Time" follows a California architect who returns from a business trip in New York, where he acquires an antique clock. Soon after his return, he is in a terrible accident that leaves him bedridden; meanwhile, his family experiences an array of bizarre occurrences in their house. Little do they know, the clock they've brought in was from the Amityville DeFeo house, and is doing more than telling time.

I'll be frank here: none of the "Amityville" films have ever been spectacular—even the original, which, though a good haunted house film, had its flaws. The sequels have been hit and miss, and 1990's "The Amityville Curse" was abhorred by many (I actually somewhat enjoyed it, but that's another story). As the installments in this series progressed, they've tended to sprawl out to the point that each haunting is incidentally connected to the Amityville house via objects rather than geography—this occurred in Part 4 where a lamp possessed evil powers, and would be re-used again in the followup to "It's About Time" in "Amityville Dollhouse." Long story short, the series as a whole is rather silly.

With that out of the way, I do think "Amityville: It's About Time" does have some goods to offer. Where the earlier films in the series were more concerned with suspense, this sequel goes straight for thrills from the beginning, though there is a bit of character building as the film meditates on the disintegration of a family. The clock itself acts as a catalyst in the warped dynamic, and there is a lot of playful writing involving the clock's powers and its relationship toward time.

The film manages to evoke a weirdly oppressive suburban atmosphere, and the performances throughout are better than what you find in most direct-to-video fodder; Stephen Macht's role as the breadwinning architect-turned-madman is decent, and Megan Ward and Damon Martin play convincing enough teenagers. Nita Talbot is a bit of a show-stealer here as a matronly neighbor who uncovers the truth behind the family's turmoil.

Overall, "Amityville: It's About Time," though not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, is one of the better "Amityville" sequels. As silly as the premise may be, there is a decent amount of fun to be had. A few memorable performances plus some appreciable special effects and playful writing render this worth a watch for genre fans. 6/10.

'It's About Time' rehashes a concept last seen in 'Amityville IV: The Evil Escapes', in that an artifact from the infamous Long Island house is relocated into the home of another family, where it soon begins to take over their lives with its demonic intentions. Hardly surprising, given that John G. Jones was the scribe for both installments.

This, I have to say, is the better attempt, and it goes a long way towards rebuilding the damage done by the painful and indeed execrable 5th film, 'The Amityville Curse'. This time around, the artifact is a clock, and its hellish influence not only possesses both the house and its occupants (naturally), but plays around with time itself, breathing at long last some new ideas into the franchise. The tension is reasonably well-paced, allowing for a gradual build until all hell breaks loose.

At the same time however, 'Amityville 1992' still suffers from a fairly silly and uneven storyline, aggravated by sloppy editing choices that prevent the overall effort from meshing together seamlessly. Add to this some rather hammy acting from veteran performers Steven Macht and Nita Talbot, along with some just plain bloody awful acting from Jonathan Penner, and it becomes difficult to take the film seriously. Thankfully the principal lead is Shawn Weatherly, who avoids the obvious temptation the script offers to go over-the-top and gives a creditable performance under the circumstances, as does Damon Martin, in what looks to be his final film.

Nonetheless, 'It's About Time' makes a far better effort to remember its roots than its two predecessors. With minimal rewrites, IV and V could very easily just be standalone horror flicks, but the plot of VI rests upon the apparently again-destroyed Amityville house's past history. On the one hand, it has no conscious ties to the DeFeo murders, but in the universe of the film franchise, these were supposed to be influenced by the house's long-present demonic incumbents, and it is here where 'It's About Time' builds its story. In the process, it grafts yet another unnecessary centuries-old European explanation for its dark history which I didn't really buy into, but I can let it slide since new ground is being explored. After all, I also have to put aside the obvious fact that if this clock has been in the house all along, why does it only manifest its powers now? Yet this is the most interesting aspect of the film, and if anything, Jones should have really let fly with the time distortion element and tried harder to pull it together into what could have been an even better and possibly mind-bending tale.

At any rate, 'It's About Time' pulls the franchise out of the mire that the previous installment dumped it into. It's still fairly silly, but a great improvement nonetheless.

Amityville 1992: It's About Time (1992)

** (out of 4)

Jacob Sterling (Stephen Macht) returns from a business trip in NY and has an antique clock with him. It turns out that this clock has a bad history including being present in the infamous Amityville house. Soon all sorts of bad things are going on so Jacob's son (Damon Martin) and girlfriend (Shawn Weatherly) must try and destroy the clock. This here was the sixth film in THE AMITYVILLE HORROR series and it was one (of many) that went direct-to-VHS back in the day. I think what really hurts this film's reputation is the "Amityville" title because I'm sure there are fans of the original three movies (why I don't know) who come to this cheap horror film and are disappointed that it's really not connected. Like HALLOWEEN III, if this film was released on its own and not part of a series then perhaps it would be enjoyed more. With that said, no one should mistake this for a good movie because it's not. However, it's still better than your typical low-budget film. The story itself isn't the greatest in the world but I think there are enough interesting ideas to where you can stay entertained. The film also benefits from some pretty good special effects and you're going to be shocked at how good they are compared to most movies like this. We get a rather vicious dog attack that looks quite real and the leftover impact of the attack is on full display throughout the rest of the movie as the wounds continue to ooze blood and other stuff. There are also a few other creative death scenes but one is without question really bad and I'm not going to spoil it but it's something that happens after an almost death by car. You won't miss the scene. The performances are also better than normal with Weatherly really coming across good as the girlfriend. AMITYVILLE 1992: IT'S ABOUT TIME shouldn't be looked at as a masterpiece or any sort of good cinema but it's certainly much better than most films in the series.

I'm binge watching the Amityville titles I haven't seen before and am being reminded that all in all this is a poor franchise.

It's About Time otherwise known as Amityville 1992 begs the question what would happen if an item from the infamous house was relocated to another? The answer is a pretty bad movie will happen.

A man buys an antique clock that came from the Amityville house, before you know it strange things are happening and himself and other family members seem to have been possessed by something evil.

This did at least feel like an Amityville movie and reminded me a lot of Amityville: Dollhouse (1996) A passable watch for fans but as a standalone movie it's really not great.

The Good:

Amityville vibe

The Bad:

Another cheating antagonist

Pets getting killed in every damn horror film is overkill

Flawed confusing story

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Amityville is a major contender for the most butchered franchise in movie history