Amityville - Darkforce

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.

Here we go again, another mediocre entry to the Amityville franchise that seems to get less interesting the further along it goes. I don't know, but I do miss the ominous house itself which featured prominently in the first three films. Sure it has connections and even the image of it appears in the haunted antique mirror which came from infamous Long Island house, but it's just not the same. The straight-to-video fare "A New Generation" is the seventh film, where the terror scraps suburbia for an urban apartment building filled with budding artists who one-by- one fall to the evil entity.

An antique mirror is given to a photographer by a homeless man. Soon after accepting the gift, the man starts having haunting visions of a killing spree which might just have some relevance to him. But he's not the only one who's been affected by the demonic force within the mirror, but those living in his studio building begin to find themselves possessed/or infatuated by these dark forces.

The plot tries to tie in a little more to the history of the Long House island, especially with the main character's (an affable Ross Partridge) connection to what's actually happening. So most of the time is spent with Partridge's character trying to uncover the truth and dealing with flashbacks. Didn't make it any more interesting though. Predictable and interchangeable. The imitating special effects do have its moments, but there's a real lack of atmosphere and thrills. Sure it's slickly directed, but feels vapid and flat. There's a good supporting cast featuring Terry O'Quinn, Richard Roundtree. Julia Nickson-Soul and a very twitchy David Naughton that do enliven things.

Hardly terrible, but rather uninspired.

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.

An L.A. photographer gets an antique mirror from a homeless man which triggers memories of his mysterious past and also allows a demons to rampage the lofts where he lives and terrorize the residents.

Amityville: A New Generation has a few memorable moments, but a lot of the horror scenes read more goofy than scary, especially any time the demon manifests. It does function as a fascinating 90's time capsule, though, and the cast is much more staked than other entries in the franchise with several horror regulars showing up for supporting roles.

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).