The Amityville Murders

It's 1974, three weeks before the infamous murders. Ronnie DeFeo (Paul Ben-Victor) and Louise DeFeo (Diane Franklin) have five children; college-age Butch (John Robinson), Dawn (Chelsea Ricketts), Allison, Marc, and Jody. Butch and Dawn are calling upon the spirits in the red room. Ronnie has nefarious dealings and brutally beats his family. Butch has nightmarish visions and continues to deteriorate. Butch is sick and alone at home on Halloween. The house is ransacked and Ronnie's money is stolen from his safe.

This is based on true events. As always, one has to take it with a good helping of salt. It comes with the supernatural anyways so the pretense is pretty thin. At least, it's trying to fit the true story in and around the spirit world. The most compelling part may be the return of Diane Franklin. This really should be the story of Dawn. She's the 'normal' character and the story could be seen through her eyes. The supernatural part should be in question for the majority of the movie. The drama isn't there. As a horror, it could be much better. There is potential but it's concentrating on the wrong character.

Oh yay, another Amityville film! Because that's what 2018 needed *Sigh*.

Starring a couple of industry veterans and former cast members of previous Amityville movies this dull lifeless effort has done nothing to reinvigorate a stale franchise or turn this dreadful year for movies around.

Instead of covering the Lutz family as many of the previous have it tells the original story of the Defeo family building up to the tragedy that befell them. The trouble is alike the Lutz's we don't really know what happened and therefore a huge chunk of the movie is pure fiction and supernatural garbage.

Ronnie Defeo went from room to room shooting his family as they lay in bed. The mystery being how none of them heard the gunshots, how they were all shot in bed (Blood stains proved they hadn't been moved) and why neighbours also were oblivious to what took place. Yes it's a mystery, no I don't believe it was demonic forces!

The Amityville murders does have some good performances and it was fantastic to see Burt Young on screen in 2018, but it's so darn boring!

For huge fans of the Amityville legend only I'd say.

The Good:

Dead Island trailer theme (Weirdly)

Some good cast members

Good performances in places

The Bad:

Criminally boring

Just shouldn't exist

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Mothers are more concerned with their kids art style than their drug use

Changing the details in a true story makes perfect sense

This film essentially begins a couple of weeks before a young man named "Ronald 'Butch' DeFeo Jr." (played by John Robinson) kills his parents and all four siblings with a rifle he claims was given to him by an evil entity within the house in Amityville, New York. Just prior to the killings, the film incorporates a number of scenes in which Butch DeFeo's father "Ronnie DeFeo Sr." (Paul Ben-Victor) physically abuses his son on a number of occasions. And it's primarily for this reason that Butch becomes heavily involved in drugs--which further hastens his mental and emotional decline into complete insanity. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film is basically a remake of the prequel known as "Amityville II-The Possession" produced back in 1982. Unlike that movie, however, this film doesn't quite have the same creepy atmosphere due to the primary focus being on drug abuse over that of an evil presence within the house. Having said that, while this film is definitely better than a number of others in this series, I don't consider it to be on the same level as the 1982 film, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

By now I guess everybody know the history of 112 Ocean Avenue. Based on true events so many flicks were made about the most famous possessed house that it wasn't neccesary to make another one.

the 1979 and 2005 version were okay, all other flicks in the franchise wer pure fiction and only made a business on the name Amityville.

So another if you like remake here that adds nothing to the story. Extremely slow, no scary parts, the ghost effects were laughable. The killings are really not the name horror worthly. Only the dream sequences of the death family is bloody.

The last 5 minutes are the best, footage from 1974 and a bit of history of the Lutz family moving in for only 28 days.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1,5/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

I was expecting little to nothing from this entry. Am not a huge fan of the series. Thought the original and the Ryan Reynolds reboot had their respective merits. Figured I could passively watch this while multi-tasking. To my surprise it was very good. By no means on any of my "all times" list but far better than I could have reasonably expected. Don't know how accurate it is--and the people that would know are not talking--but, assuming it is, it's a good account of the events that led up to the original film. If you are interested in a slow-burn thriller--ostensibly based on real events--check this one out.