Amityville Cop

This really proves you don't need a big budget to make things work. Loved the make up, effects and the quirky scenes. Scary at times and a little funny also. Watch Amityville Cop and support indie films like this!

Of course I harbored zero expectations to director Gregory Hatanaka, as I sat down to watch the 2021 horror movie "Amityville Cop". I mean, given the movie's title alone, then I figured that it would just be another bad attempt at a horror movie where they just slapped an "Amityville" label on it.

Yet, I still opted to sit down and watch what writer Geno McGahee brought to the table with this 2021 horror movie.

And just as expected, this was another dubious horror movie that just cashed in on the "Amityville" brand. But whom is the bigger fool here; the ones making the movies or the ones actually sitting down to watch it?

The storyline in "Amityville Cop" was indeed a bland and rather generic one, so writer Geno McGahee didn't exactly impress with this movie. But then again, a glorious rating of 2.5 here on IMDb, in the very moment I am writing this review, is a testament to the quality of movie that you're in for, should you opt to sit down and watch director Gregory Hatanaka's "Amityville Cop" movie.

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. The acting performances were fair enough, when you take into consideration the contents of the script, character gallery and storyline that the actors and actresses had to work with. Of course you'll not be in for any grand cinematic experience here, nor any award-winning performances.

Visually then "Amityville Cop" wasn't a particularly good movie either. So not even that was working in favor of the movie. And I am not really sure what the police officer in the movie was supposed to be. A demonic entity? A reanimated dead? A possessed officer? Something else entirely? Well, it hardly mattered, because I just couldn't take it serious.

So yeah, this is definitely not a movie that I would recommend you to waste your time, money or effort on. Some of us suffered through 68 minutes of this movie, so you don't have to. You're very welcome. If anything, then sit down to watch any of the "Maniac Cop" movies instead.

My rating of "Amityville Cop" lands on a generous three out of two stars.

Amityville Cop opens with an adequate kill scene reminiscent of the original Maniac Cop. We are then treated to a horrible comedy scene between our main character Detective and his captain with a bizarre swing music soundtrack.

The rest of the runtime consists mostly of very stilted dialogue scenes shot in the police station (someone's empty house), stock drone footage, and non-gory kill scenes.

The casting of Laurene Landon as a cult leader solidifies the Maniac Cop 'inspiration'. Cult favorite Lisa London also appears as the only two notable faces on display. The rest of the cast are regulars of Hatanaka's other films and little else.

Speaking of director Gregory Hatanaka, he was also the director of the abysmal Samurai Cop 2 along with a number of small films, but seems to make his living as a distribution consultant on larger films and somehow was a music supervisor on Kill Bill.

Most recent Amityville films have little to do with the house, but there seems to be no tie whatsoever with Amityville Cop. It's not even a good sequel to Maniac Cop either.

Bottom line: boring story, bad cast (especially the lead detective's terrible attempts at being funny), little action or kills make for a very bad film. Still, at least the runtime is a mercifully short 68 minutes and it's not the worst of the endless Amityville films (Amityville Witches or Amityville Vanishing Point earn that title... for now...)

When I first saw the poster, I thought it looked like it was a half-decent production, but literally 10 seconds in...and I realise it isn't.

Horrible, horrible lighting...can hardly see the actor's faces. I understand the cop at night is supposed to be dark, but then scenes in an office in the day, with the lights on...all you can see are shadows cast across all the actor's faces...and the background looks dull, listless and unlit.

Awful, awful sound...it sounds like they used a voice recording app on a phone, in an empty room...it's just low, reverberating, poor quality audio.

Terrible, terrible acting...actors stumble and struggle to deliver lines on time, (could be down to editing)...actors gaze into space and look absolutely gormless. To top it off, there's a guy that's trying to be Will Smith, Chris Tucker and Mike Epps all at the same time...and he was annoying as hell!

Stock footage of cities, that doesn't fit in with the movie. They look like 4K...and the film looks barely 720p.

Switched off after 10 minutes...as it was clear to see where it was going.

Avoid!

This is down right insufferable. There is nothing what so ever here worth reviewing. An absolute insult to even B movies. Avoid like the plague unless you and some drinking buddies need something to ridicule.