Amityville: The Awakening (2017)

Not the best bit predictable but still some good bits

I grew up around the time when the story of the Amityville haunting was hot news and the eagerly anticipated Amityville Horror was released in theaters. It was a hit and one that is still a good watch despite the trend for most modern horror films to focus more on gore or jump scares to grab the audience. I was hooked and read everything Amityville related to the case, watched documentaries, and indulged in every new film that came out, even the ones that were quick cash grabs by using the Amityville name while straying into poor cinematography, cheap scares, and ludicrous plots. Most of the later films are more Mystery Science Theater fodder than anything else. Flash forward to Amityville: The Awakening. I do not consider it a terrible film, but considering the film was cut to back away from an R rating I have to wonder what the original version would have been like. As it stands, it is an enjoyable watch, but one that fails to completely break new ground in the franchise. Like the header says, I see this as the Force Awakens of the franchise. It does a godd job calling back to the original lore and story of the first film, and tries hard to bring some real quality to the production with the cinematography, effects, and acting, but is not as intense or truly frightening as it should have been. In all I found myself liking it more for the nostalgia than anything else. The plot element of the mother being aware of the house's demonic history and believing she could use it to cure her son is a bit contrived, to be honest. There was also at least one plot element that had potential, which was when the doctor caring for the boy in the vegetative state is attacked by flies, but once the scene is done we hear nothing from the character again until the end. It would have been interesting to see the doctor suffer further from the attack and how he contends with it. Given the predictability of the story, its lack of genuinely disturbing or tense moments, I can only say this is an average horror film, but at least one that rises above many previous installments in its production quality. You can tell the people making the film were trying to "do it right" and were it not for this the film would have recieved a much lower score in my opinion. If you are a fan of the franchise, I highly recommend you give the movie a try. It is definitely worth at least a one time viewing but I caution to not set your expectations too high.

Narration begins about the history of the Amityville house. Of course, Belle (Bella Thorne) moves with her mother Joan (Jennifer Jason Leigh), sister Juliet, and comatose brother James into the house proclaimed as a "passage to hell." At school, Belle learns about the notorious history. Then, James starts to show signs of life.The actors try their best, but fail. Also, the unusual surreal structure (inane horror happens, Belle wakes up from dream) manages to present an infinitesimal amount of horror.The actions of the characters are ridiculous. While there are moments of horror, the moments contain only jump scares and eliminate dread, suspense, tension, and terror. Making this film appear underdeveloped and formulaic. The narrative provides "meta" moments which detracts from the horror. Additionally, cliches abound throughout the story making the film derivative. Some camera angles are a little too dark, and squinting is a requirement. "Amityville: The Awakening" is a fatefully dull horror experience.

My quick rating 4,6/10. Well by far better than the drivel they have been attaching to the original. The story is not bad, seems to deviate a bit from what world they have created. I found amusement in the kids watching "Amityville Horror" on DVD in the movie (not really a spoiler). Jennifer Jason Leigh does just fine in her role as the mother and Bella Thorne basically walks around for most of the movie with a dumb look on her face. There were some good scares, as you would expect from a haunted house movie and does justice to the original, but I cannot figure out for the life of me what the big hold up was since this movie was complete for a release in 2012 (so it was most likely finished in 2011). In that time there have been 8 movies tied to the Amityville House along with the countless short films. So the studio is wondering why no one cared about this movie anymore? Overall, just a run of the mill haunted house flick. Don't really need to know more than that, and nothing is going to surprise you or make it worth your while to go out and find. It has its score because it isn't bad it isn't good, just there.