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Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”

This editorial series has spilled a lot of digital ink analyzing how IP is the driving factor in the vast majority of Amityville films. This is hardly surprising considering Hollywood’s predilection for repurposing /capitalizing on successful titles and the legal freedom that the Amityville name provides as both a selling feature and an easy cash grab.

Throughout the history of the ~45 films we’ve looked at to date, there have been no shortage of individuals who have picked up a camera (or phone), shot some footage over a weekend, and then waited for the money to roll in.

Artistically this hasn’t produced the most creative or interesting selection of films, however. Folks who have been reading along for the last...

Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”

Part of the structure of this editorial series is working through the Amityville “franchise” in chronological order, so it was surprising to discover that Amityville Cop (2021) wasn’t listed on the Wikipedia list of titles.

Turns out Amityville Cop is something of an Amityville Prison (aka Against the Night) in which the word “Amityville” is never spoken and there’s no concrete connection to any of the other films. Sure, there’s a Satanic cult who dress in red, but there are none of Dustin Ferguson’s masks like Amityville in the Hood and the cult leader, Empress Ciara (Laurene Landon), has no back story that connects to any of the other villains in the “series.”

The film is set at a...

On November 13, 1974, at 112 Ocean Ave. in Amityville, New York, a young man named Ronald DeFeo woke up in the middle of the night, took up a shotgun, and went from room to room in his home, systematically murdering six members of his family. DeFeo was apprehended by the police. At first, DeFeo claimed the murders were mob-related, but he later confessed to committing the crimes himself. He was sentenced to 25 years to life for his crimes. DeFeo died in prison in 2021. 

DeFeo's murders became notorious with the publication of Jay Anson's nonfiction book "The Amityville Horror" in 1977. After the killings, the Lutz family moved into 112 Ocean Ave., and they claimed to experience a panoply of paranormal phenomena. Flies mobbed the building, and the entire Lutz family reported hearing eerie voices. George Lutz, the family patriarch, claimed to be possessed by a demonic presence that was driving him to kill his family.

Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”

After an “in name only” outing with Amityville Prison (aka Against The Night), there’s something reassuring about Amityville Exorcism, which delivers exactly what the title suggests.

This is the second outing for director Mark Polonia after Amityville Death House, who swaps out writer John Oak Dalton for “franchise” newcomer Billy D’Amato. Alas, what made Death House an entertaining, albeit uneven, watch – ie: a pair of gonzo sequences – is mostly absent in this film.

Exorcism begins with a typical Amityville set piece in which father Charles Humes (Ken Van Sant) murders his wife and daughters in their home. Polonia and cinematographer Lukas K. Reynolds shoot this sequence in a dream-like fashion: partially in slow motion, with an accentuated heartbeat pounding on the soundtrack.

Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”

Over the history of this editorial series, there have been persistent comments that the Dtv entries – or at least the ones that follow The Amityville Horror remake – are unworthy of being described as part of the “franchise.” There’s a reason why the very first entry highlighted how Amityville became available for independent filmmakers to use as a free for all marketing gimmick. It’s the same reason why this series was strategically called “The Amityville IP” and the word “franchise” is always in quotations – these films have few ties to each other, there’s barely a “canon” for the mythology, and most of the films are little more than cash grabs.

We all implicitly understand this.

Despite this lengthy preamble, even...