seanahalpin

This is an absolutely funny movie, but you might miss all the humour the first time around. There are so many excellent character actors here - Tim Curry playing Wadsworth and Eileen Brennan playing Mrs Peacock are just brilliant. We watch this movie over and over again, with different criteria (for example, "let's watch everybody's eyes and see what they are looking at" etc). The polt is not particularly gripping, but this frees you up to listen for all the one-liners. I would also recommend that you watch this movie at least twice. Once you know what happens, you can watch it again and see so many more clues. An absolute masterpiece.

Well, I just bought this movie on DVD - it had been my absolute favourite horror movie when I was a kid... and now... well, put it this way. From my now adult perspective it was kind of icky. The incest thing was unpleasant (but note the suggestion of incest in the actual DeFeo case, as discussed in the book "Murder in Amityville".

The scene where the little boy is chased around the house and finally shot is also quite distressing.

But, to be fair, this is a horror movie. Nobody can expect the Sound of Music. And it is horrific and builds suspense well. The atmosphere is tense, and the house is the perfect "haunted house" gothic tableau for the supernatural ghastliness.

Everything is excellent until that awful last half hour - suspense is sacrificed and in its place are some fake-looking unspecial effects, over the top exorcism scenes and other hoo-har.

And yet, I cannot look away!