Amityville: A New Generation

Ignore the ridiculous 1 star reviews from people who can't even get the plot points right, this is a decent enough movie with a cast of professional actors who can all act.

Not really a true Amityville movie, a cynic might suggest that they tacked on the name Amityville...shame on you! Haha. This is worth a watch, just don't expect too much.

Ok, I admit, I have not seen the original yet; but in all this movie isn't all that bad. The idea of objects (like a clock in Amityville 6 (1992 it's about time) or a mirror in this tale (Amityville 7) carrying the original horrors are a bit hokey, but then again it makes sense. I liked this movie better than its time traveling predecessor and this one gives an interesting history if an Amityville family through the deranged father/psyco-killer handing the mirror and its inner demons to his son (who unknowingly accepts the gift and the re-opening of buried images/memories). Maybe it was because I was in New York and Amityville is in Long Island, but this film is at least average (hence a 5 or 6).

First a lamp, then a clock, now a mirror. The Amityville yard sale terror lives on as this time an artist is gifted a possessed mirror from the haunted house by a homeless man (who may or may not be the surviving kid from part 2). As usual weird possession things happen, and people die. There's some good stuff here like a scene where a family gets wrecked by a shotgun, and the supporting cast is pretty impressive including the addition of Terry O'Quinn. Not quite as good or as crazy as It's About Time, but not bad either.

To my own surprise, I liked the other two nineties' outings in the franchise, namely "Amityville 1992: It's About Time" and "Amityville: Dollhouse", so I was reasonably confident I would at least enjoy this in-between sequel to a certain extent as well.

Wrong way of thinking, obviously, as this installment truly sucks. I should have guessed in advance, because even the title-addition "A New Generation" is boring and uninspired compared to the other two entries in the mid-nineties' trilogy. The story itself revolves around the most irritating and redundant type of people in the world, namely pseudo-artists. Not real artists, but obnoxious and wannabe amateurs that live in a ramshackle apartment block in a dangerous neighborhood and think of themselves as talented. When photographer Keyes Terry receives the gift of a mirror from a homeless man, the ugly antique thing appears to have a direct link with a vicious family massacre that occurred at the notorious Amityville house. Oh, and there's a connection between Keyes and the culprit of the massacre as well.

"Amityville: A New Generation" is dull and far too pretentious for a straight-to-video sequel from the early 90s. There is potential, for sure, but director John Murlowski fails to generate any tension or atmosphere, and a half-decent connection with the lead characters never gets established. The kills are too few and unmemorable, and the whole climax is a joke. The film is mainly a waste of a good cast, as it's full of familiar faces that can do (and have done) better. There's David McNaughton ("An American Werewolf in London"), Richard Roundtree ("Shaft"), Terry O'Quinn ("The Stepfather"), and Lin Shaye ("Dead End") and all of them deserve better.

'A New Generation' is the third Amityville entry to base its plot around writer John G. Jones's premise of an item taken from the Long Island house that causes spectral misery and death for its new owners. First a lamp, then a clock, and now a mirror. However, this is also the first Amityville since 'The Possession' to directly tie in to the real- life events that started the whole series. This time around, Keyes Terry (Robert Partridge), an artist, is given a macabre-looking mirror by a homeless man one day. Soon enough, people around him start to die, eventually leading to his discovery that the mirror once hung in the Amityville house - indeed on the very night a man named Franklin Bronner (Sonny Montelli in 'Amityville II') murdered his entire family. Unfortunately for Terry, his discovery of the mirror isn't entirely coincidental, and he soon learns the truth about his past a truth he's kept buried since childhood.

This 7th installment in the often worn-out franchise is something of a disappointment for me. Things were starting to pick up with the silly and uneven, yet entertaining 'It's About Time', and given how much this film tries to draw upon its roots - not the first episode, but the source material itself - it should have been better than it was.

However, three trips to the same well with yet another evil artifact from the Amityville house with yet another explanation for the malign paranormal visitations is wearing on me, to say the least. One of the biggest weaknesses of the Amityville franchise is the steadfast determination by each set of producers to completely ignore every other episode in the series. On the one hand, it's perfectly reasonable that they don't want to be tied to someone else's continuity, but at the very least, they could maybe acknowledge story lines that have already been done and just possibly *not repeat them over and over again*.

There's also something rather plodding about the way in which the story unfolds, doubtless due to the inevitability this repetition-fest brings. Since you already know what's going to happen, the carefully-paced build-up is simply slow and tedious. Or maybe it's just tedious anyway. Director John Murlowski probably could have done more to heighten the tense atmosphere associated with the mirror rather than simply having it flash red and emit chattering 'evil' voices, which lacks any kind of subtlety. There were times when characters seemed fairly unfazed by its otherworldly qualities. If they don't take it too seriously, why should we?

Which is a shame, because 'A New Generation' has a more-than-capable cast. I was going to hold off on watching this until I saw the name 'Julia Nickson' in the credits. She captivated my attention just as she always does, and if anything, I was annoyed her part wasn't more extensive. Terry O'Quinn was equally charismatic and again, underused. Partridge himself in the lead role clearly fits the early 90s over-coiffed lumberjack-shirted square-jawed hero type, and while I'm not sure he really gave it the gravitas needed, it's not as if anyone here is performing Ibsen.

The sets are also worthy of note, from the dramatic artwork filling Suki's room, to the claustrophobic corridors featured in flashback/supernatural sequences. Getting the look of these right is especially important given how certain sequences are repeated throughout the film to simulated fragmented memories. Clearly, Murlowski is more of a visual director rather than either an actor's director or one of horror. Unfortunately, it is meant to be a horror film, after all.

'A New Generation' sees the same race being run for the third time in 4 years. Add to this the lack of direction where it was really needed and the whole effort fails to stand as tall as it should. However, it should be acknowledged for its strong ties with the source material and some good actors in not necessarily their finest hours. Honestly, the ideal person for this is someone who hasn't seen any of the sequels past 'The Possession', for whom the story won't be such a massive deja-vu trip.