The Amityville Curse (1990)

I have said it a Thousand times and I will say it again. Another perfect example why horror was dead at the end of the eighties, early nineties. This has nothing to offer and has in fact nothing to do with the original one. It's just cashing in the money due the name Amityville.Only the last 12 minutes do offer horror but the other 75 minutes are a pure waist of time. There are things that should be scary but it's so cheesy that it isn't scary but laughable. It's so sad that a lot of franchises had to end this way...Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

This series has a few crappy STV sequels, but this one is the worst of the lot by a wide margin. It is cheap as hell, dreary looking, and extremely boring. NOTHING happens for the most part, aside from a bit of chaos in the finale, and even that was tame. I'm not an Amityville fan at all. There isn't one movie that stands out, not even the theatrical releases, except for Amityville Part II. This movie is approximately 87 minutes long. It honestly felt like two hours. I was pleading for the running time to move quicker. There isn't much gore and the makeup is terrible. We get a nasty cut on somebody's hand with broken glass, people get hit with nail guns. We get deformities on people's faces, and a little more. If I wasn't angered enough, they even play the start of the Psycho score during a lame Tarantula scene. It doesn't have much going for it, so it tries to use classic things. The house used in this one looks nothing like The Amityville house. It wasn't eerie in the slightest. There are far too many scenes of people wandering around the house with nothing happening. It was nothing but "Talk, talk, talk, talk, and more talk" Like most of these movies. I really question the motives. Why do they stay in the house so long, knowing very well something isn't right? Get out! it shouldn't take life threatening experiences to discern such a thing. The acting is awful. Kim Coates sleepwalks through most of it before waking up in the finale. He decides to ham it up. I didn't buy it at all. He also smokes way too much in scenes. Dawna Wightman (Debbie) is one of the most insufferable women I have ever had to endure a movie. Her constant sniveling and OTT hysterics made me wanna slap her silly. She over did it completely. Cassandra Giva is pretty sexy, but her character is stupid. I'm guessing Jan Rubes needed to pay some bills pretty badly, because it screams "Paycheck" role. The finale tries for controversy, to try to spice things up a bit, to no availFinal Thoughts: I hated this movie. It is the worst STV sequel in the series. That is saying something, believe me. It has no suspense, no thrills, and you'll be bored to tears. Stay away! don't put yourself through unwarranted torture.DUD

This straight-to-video effort has somewhat of a terrible reputation, especially compared to the rest of the series. I haven't seen any of the other films to follow it, but the ones before; the theatrical releases (1, 2 & 3) and straight-to-TV (4) production were much better for entertainment. Were as the previous entry "The Evil Escapes" didn't feature the haunted house; "The Amityville Curse" goes go back to the earlier films formula, although the house has taken on a different transformation and the visual impact of that is less imposing. But that wasn't the main issue. This goes to the storytelling (which this plot has nothing do with the actual Amityville curse), pacing and performances. Especially the acting. David Stain and Dawna Wightman simply aggravate as the obnoxious leads, one being pompous and the other simply whining. An unbearable combination. Helen Hughes gives the usual batty old lady shtick. Then there are static turns by Kim Coates and Cassandra Cava. Only Anthony Dean Rubes showed any sort of spark. Father Parcaecus is brutally murdered in his own confessional by a mysterious assailant. After the murder, the church is closed and the belongings along with the confessional are sealed in a small room in the basement of Parcaecus' house. Years have passed when Debbie and Marvin come across the vacant house and decide to purchase it for their investment club. They invite a couple of friends up to help renovate the old house, but this weekend turns out be a nightmare with a wave of supernatural events occurring. Bog-standard shenanigans (disappearing ghostly figures) populate mostly an uneventful and tedious haunted house story spending plenty of time on filler (house in need of repairs) and non-existent chills. The story is uninteresting, plods and the final revelation you can see coming miles away. The stale script is terrible. It throws many different and hysterical ideas about, but never convincingly gels them together and leaves things rather unfulfilled. Like Debbie's baffling connection to the house. Loose and lazy work with mystery plot ties. Technically speaking it's solid, but mechanically tired and flat in its execution. Not much in the way of bumps in the night. The "Curse" is a real snooze. "Things are usually cheap for a reason."

I wish I could give it negative stars. If you are a fan of The Amityville series, or just movies in general, do not waste your time on this. You will be horribly disappointed. The plot and characters are poorly written., The writers obviously thought that riding the Amityville coat tales would be enough for a semi successful movie. They could not have been more wrong. This movie goes nowhere. It was like watching a poorly written sitcom: weak ploy, weak acting, It is not to often than one comes across a movie this horrible. I tried watching just hoping it would get better but I could not get through 20 minutes before shutting it off.