User Reviews

Watchable, but never scary. Some tense scenes, some campy ones. Anchored by solid performances by the 3 leads, and a very creepy music score. Best moments are small ones, like static on phone calls, doors blowing off hinges from the inside, wads of cash go missing.. And one big shocking nightmare sequence.

This is so much better than I remembered. Maybe it’s me that has matured. I probably didn’t like the slow burn the first time I watched it. You know what the film is doing way before it gets there but because of the atmosphere and slow development it actually doesn’t matter. The cinematography is possibly my favourite from this era. The ending is riveting, the slow burn really does pay off. I can see why so many films took the Amityville name and made something else like Amityville Apt. (2025), they had a fairly strong foundation to piggyback off. Except the ending which is a bit sudden. The original defines so many tropes of the haunted house film but in my opinion is overshadowed by Poltergeist (1982) that refined and improved every aspect.

An early "There's something wrong with the house" where what's wrong is mostly just priests and nuns getting spooked and the owners acting weird. The pacing and story here really drags for almost its entire runtime.

Cuesta creer que esta película haya sido tan popular en su época tomando en cuenta de que es bastante aburrida y lenta, no vale la pena.

Scary Enough Though not a classic, The Amnityville Horror has a lot creepy moments and scares to keep you satisfied.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Does a lot considering the era and budget, but the first hour is a drag of hokey haunted house tropes. Doors that close by themselves, black cats, and windows that slam shut on fingers. This movie has them all. It's not like they're something the genre has moved away from over the years, but in most of the other options out there these things are the build up to something bigger. The stuff that lets you know that evil is on the way and some real scares too. For the majority of the movie I never got that feeling. Somewhat wasting an uncomfortable atmosphere and one of the creepier houses in cinema (don't the windows look like eyes?). At least until the last 45 minutes... What kept me watching until that point was the subplot about the priest who keeps trying to save the Lutz family at great personal cost. This sort of selfless bravery reminded me of The Warrens from The Conjuring series and a depiction of the kind of warmth so few get to experience with religion. Of course it also depicts the less open side of the church as well when the larger diocese refuses to even investigate the case. Instead brushing it off as a bunch of hooey. So much for the outreach program I guess... With paranormal afflictions keeping anyone of the cloth from being able to intervene, it's up to the family's friends to try and get to the bottom of George Lutz's increasingly antisocial behavior. That's when the movie starts to get really good. Demons lurk outside windows, blood leaks from the walls, and a satanic burial ground is found in the basement. The evil that seemed like a non-presence for about the first half of the film rears it's malevolent head and the chaos begins. As a **** for possessed house films (demons are way scarier than ghosts!) this is when I started to enjoy myself. As a classic of the genre it should be watched by anyone who calls themselves an enthusiast. You can see how it influenced the countless other movies that followed. The first half+ hasn't aged well, but the final act does a lot to make up for that. Plus the no man, woman, child, or animal ending shows the world what a REAL man looks like. For once I wasn't ticked to see someone run back into danger. Instead I cheered them on. 6.9/10