Rating: 
Summary: Haunted House
Review: OK, let's forget the contreversy that the Lutz's made up the story and the murders that really happened in the house. No matter what, this movie is still the best haunted house movie in modern film history. Goerge and Cathy Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder) move into a beautiful house in New England, and slowly discover that the house is haunted. The ghost's (or what ever force it is) subtle assault on the family is brilliant. Money disappears, the air gets chilly, closets locks all by itself, and all sorts of other things. The movie is pure cheese, but it's effective chesse. Brolin, is really the best part of the film, who's slowly losing his mind. I think this a classic that ranks up there with "Poltrigist". Just completly ignore the endless sequals. There isn't a lot of violence, but is spooky
Rating: 
Summary: Hamityville
Review: I remembered this being good - I was wrong. Perhaps I have been spoiled by a couple of decades of CGI's intervening, and also in those days, pre-video, too young to bluff my way into the cinema...you took what horror movies you could get.
James Brolin's acting is the strongest thing in the movie, but the script is poor - the menace never materialises (think of the climax when he returns for the dog...what happens? er...not a lot) Rod Steiger as usual hams it up, and the rest of the cast is mediocre. Avoid.
Rating: 
Summary: It IS a hoax...geez
Review: Okay first and most important, the movie itself isn't all that bad. For the time period when it came out it was, in fact, pretty decent. It is a pretty good ghost-like story (I won't go into details as most people know them).But one thing that bothers me is the hoax vs not a hoax thing. The house is REAL....the murders are REAL....the tale of the haunting is 100% a hoax! The LUTZ family THEMSELVES came out and said it was made up years later....okay? Is that convincing enough for everyone? They came out and said it was a hoax. Period, end of story. But the movie is still a fun watch ;)
Rating:
Summary: was one of the greats when it came out
Review: ok, so by todays standards this film is not too scary, but it still is a pretty good horror flick
i saw this film the first time back when I was 10 in 1982 or so and it was one of the scariest films then
i honor it as a classic, and will soon add it to my personal collection
Rating:
Summary: Its not a hoax!!
Review: I live about 10 minutes from Amityville, and the house is real. That's not a question. My dad has showed me newspaper articles from 1974 which cleary show that its not a hoax. It became a movie after the residents claimed their house was haunted, yes. But the killings had happened years later and just weren't up for public mockary yet. Don't even try to say that it's a hoax, Amityville horror house still stands!!
Rating:
Summary: Not A Hoax
Review: First off, this is not a hoax. This is a factual story. The site of the Amityville House was once used to house criminally insane native americans. Now for modern history: On November 13, 1974, Ronny DeFeo murdered his parents, & 4 brothers & sisters with a shotgun at 3:15 a.m. (The Lutzes would later let their sleep in the very bed that the DeFeo children were murdered in.) A year later, the lutzes moved in. In an erie coincidence, George Lutz looked like Ronny Defeo's twin. Weird things started almost immediately. When a priest, who was a family friend, tried to bless the house. The room became filled with flies, he became extremely ill, & a voice told him to get out. Later, when he tried to call & warn his friends, the line went to static & the phone burned his hands. Kathy Lutz's aunt was a nun, & she too became violently ill & fled. The daughter, Amie, kept talking about an "Imaginary Friend", Jodi. When Kathy tried to say noone was there, Amy said she went out the window. Kathy looked and SAW a pig with glowing red eyes. George saw it from the yard also. Probaby the most erie, George woke up EVERY NIGHT at exactly 3:15 a.m. (The time of the murders) The idea that this was a hoax was started by a man who was called to investigate, & was thrown out for bringing 6 witches & a news crew. He NEVER set one toe in the house. He later recanted & apologized shortly before his book, "The Amityville Conspiracy" was released, but died shortly after, even before his book hit the stands. Also, a story abounds that the Lutz's lawyer helped them conjur this over a bottle of wine, but the Lutz's didn't drink AT ALL. All that they had in the house was one bottle of blessed wine. If anyone doubts this story, I invite you to do as I did: go to a web site called "The Warrens Investigate The Amityville Horror. There are even photographs to prove it. The Warrens were going to write the book, but Jay Anson simply beat them to it. Coincidentally, Mr. Anson sufferd a heart attack while completing the book, & sufferd a fatal while trying to write a follow up.
Rating: 
Summary: "Houses don't have memories"
Review: Maybe I've seen too many horror movies, but I really didn't find this all that frightening. There were suspenseful moments, but they got mired in a whole lot of padding. And the whole thing had television production feel to it. The story starts out with the murder of a family while they sleep. Then we skip to a year later and we see a young couple, played by James Brolin and Margot Kidder, taking a tour with a real estate agent of the same house. The real estate agent seems impatient to unload the house, and the house is apparently selling for a great deal less than it's worth, due to the murders that occurred a year prior. Kathy (Margot Kidder) states that it's a great house, but she states her reluctance to buy a house where such gruesome murders occurred. George (James Brolin) tells her "Houses have no memories" and they decide to take the house. We also find out that they are newlyweds, and Kathy has three children, 2 boys and a girl, from a previous marriage. So the Lutz family moves in, and strange things start happening. The Catholic priest, played by Rod Steiger, comes over to bless the house, and he encounters an evil presence and some flies. He starts to try and perform the blessing, but is taken ill and basically chased out of the house by voices and more flies. The Lutz family, who happen to be outside at the time, don't get to experience the show. The priest runs away, but tries to contact the Lutz family numerous times on the phone, but keeps getting cut off. The mood of the movie suggests evil forces at work, but I wouldn't discount poor phone service. Anyway, more crazy stuff starts happening, cold drafts, noises, doors getting ripped off hinges, the family dog getting a little nutty, the daughter talking to a new pretend friend, chairs rocking on their own, things getting lost, baby sitter getting locked in a closet and freaking out, etc. George starts to lose it, getting all moody like, and apparently begins to take on the appearance of the killer of the previous family that lived in the house, who happened to be the older son of said family. Now I just want to say that, while this movie is two hours long, there's no real depth provided for the main characters, so you don't really become involved with them, and basically don't care what happens to them. At least that's how it was for me. The house, however, was presented in such a way that it became a character in the movie, a creepy, eerie character that I wanted to know more about. Other stuff happens, and we eventually find out through George's business partner's girlfriend, who apparently possesses some limited psychic ability, that the house was built on a spot where something terrible happened, and now the spirits of the victims of that terrible event are in the house. After a month, the Lutz family finally has had enough, and leaves the house without taking anything but the clothes on their back. Having forgotten the dog, George does go back to retrieve it, but based on what happened when he did so, I would have just gotten a new dog. Anyway, not a bad movie, but a little longer than necessary, and not a whole lot of depth to the characters, except maybe the house. Had they cut the running time down, made us more involved with the characters, and added a few more levels to the creep factor, this could have been a really great, scary movie, instead of a somewhat scary more often boring movie. There are a few truly creepy scenes, but they are far and few between. There is a trailer, but that's about it for extras. I would have liked to seen a little more with regards to the history of the house, or production notes, but that would have required someone to do a little extra work, and I guess this movie wasn't worth it. Oh well, there is always the book.... Cookieman108
Rating:
Summary: Hoax or no hoax is not the point. The point is it's great!!
Review: I don't know if this film is based on an allegement or actual events, and honestly, I don't care. We are not here to review whether or not it is based on fact or not, we are here to review the MOVIE, which in this case was excellent. As a matter of fact, most of the Amityville films are good, as I have both seen and reviewed all of them. The suspense is built up high in this video with a horrific climax, and deserves credit for it. The picture quality is less than perfect, but hey, you can't have everything!!! Watch it, you'll be amazed!!
Rating:
Summary: Really good movie!
Review: THE AMITYVILLE HORROR was released five years after the tragic DeFeo murders and one year after the Lutz family owned it. The film portrays all the supernatural phonominons the Lutz family claimed happened to them for the short time they owned the house; from waking up at the exact time the murders occured to the constantly freezing cold rooms, to the faint whispering of voices belonging to no one in the house, to the crucifixes turning upside-down every few minutes. Brolin and Kidder do great as the Lutzes and their chemistry together almost makes you think that they are really married! THE AMITYVILLE HORROR will give you chills and thrills, so rent this classic if you want a great horror film!
Rating:
Summary: Lousy
Review: I rented this movie because of my parents talk of it being one of the scariest films of all time. Me being a horror fan I rented it and it stunk. This feeling was when I thought it really happened. When I realized it wasn't even true, that put the icing on the cake. I mean come on, they throw a platic pig at the audiece with glowing eyes! Come on! And to add something, the scarist momment in this film was when the door opened by itself. Don't rent this laugh-out loud, so-called horror film. You'll be truly disappointed and will feel that your money has been wasted. If I could've, I'd've given this film no stars.
|
