Some things are best left as originally intended...
...Sad to say, but this is pretty much true for the new remake of
The Amityville Horror. It was just missing something - or maybe it had too much of something? There were points I thought "Hey maybe this will be better than good" but then my hopes were dashed by some thrown in scene or some over usage of what I like to call seizure cam (you know where the camera is sped up and different scenes are flashed like the camera man is having a terrible seizure?).
They seemed to try to go in a different direction with this film than the original, which is fine but they never really seemed to get where they were going. And it seemed to me that they threw in the scene with Father Callaway (Phillip Baker Hall) because they felt they had to. It didn't make any sense. What priest would come to a home like this, see what he saw, then run and not ever try to make contact with the family again? Plus, I think it is a sin to have Phillip Baker Hall in a movie and use him for less than 15 minutes.
I did like that they went into a little more detail about the Defeo murders. Jodie (Isabel Conner), the baby of the Defeo family was great as Chelsea's invisible friend. I enjoyed the focus on the relationship between Chelsea (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Jodie. Although, I did miss the red eyed pig from the original version.
I did not however enjoy the introduction of Lisa (Rachel Nichols), the pot smoking babysitter who comes back to sit the Lutz children. This is an example of the thrown in scenes I talked about earlier. Her scenes were forced and you sense that she was written in just to inform the kiddies of exactly whose beds they were sleeping in and what went on in their new home. And let's be honest, what mother in her right mind would let someone they've never even met before into their home to babysit, especially when she practically strips in front of your son? Lisa does get one thing right though, she does suck at babysitting.
George Lutz's character (Ryan Reynolds) had a bit more depth in this version. He was not just the wood chopping lunatic, although there was plenty of wood chopping and stacking going on. There was definite child and spousal abuse this time around. And throughout the film watch Lutz's eyes. They say they are the window to the soul...
Melissa George as Kathy Lutz just downright annoyed me, well to be fair maybe it was just the writing. I felt that her mothering skills were lacking to say the least. It was just flabbergasting that she would leave her children alone with George after he began acting they way he did. Also, calling to give George the heads up about her wanting to just skedaddle from the house seemed utterly insane given his reaction to her talking about it earlier.
All in all
The Amityville Horror remake was just okay for me. In my opinion, if they were going to try to give you something new to watch they should've stuck with that theme. In other words, don't try to use all of the really great scenes from the original version if the story wasn't there to support them. They deliberately stuck scenes in to try to make it work, but in the end it didn't work for me.
The Amityville Horror Movie Cast and Credits
Directed by
Andrew Douglas
Writing credits (WGA)
Jay Anson (novel)
Sandor Stern (earlier screenplay)
Scott Kosar (screenplay)
Cast (in credits order)
Ryan Reynolds .... George Lutz
Melissa George .... Kathy Lutz
Jesse James .... Billy Lutz
Jimmy Bennett .... Michael Lutz
Chloe Moretz .... Chelsea Lutz (as Chloë Grace Moretz)
Rachel Nichols .... Lisa
Philip Baker Hall .... Father Callaway
Isabel Conner .... Jodie Defeo
Brendan Donaldson .... Ronald Defeo
Annabel Armour .... Realtor
Rich Komenich .... Chief of Police
David Gee .... ER Doctor
Danny McCarthy .... Officer Greguski
Nancy Lollar .... Librarian
José Taitano .... Stitch
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jason Padgett .... Charlie (uncredited)
Sean Skowronski .... Waiter (uncredited)More Amityville Horror Movie Reviews and Info
The Truth about The Amityville Horror Movie from AmityvilleHorrorTruth.comThe Amityville Horror Movie Reviews from The Internet Movie Database
