|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Reviews are in GREEN and my comments on the reviews are highlighted in PURPLE text within brackets.
It might seem like I am looking for even the smallest faults in the reviews but I don't like nasty people being horrible about my favourite movie.
So There!! ha ha.
The A - Z of Horror Films By Howard Maxford
Amityville 2 : The Possession
USA 1982 104m DeLuxe
The eldest son of an unsuspecting family turns into a demon after unwittingly moving into the house of horror.
Outlandish "prequel" which is little more than an artless rip-off of The Exorcist
(Artless ?!, the camerawork in the scene where the demon is going around the house (when the crucifix is covered with the tablecloth) is a beautifully filmed part of the movie and hardly artless. Martin Scorsese and to a certain extent Stanley Kubrick (although Damiani did not use a steady-cam for this scene) have used techniques like this as well (e.g. the scene in Goodfellas where Ray Liotta & girlfriend walk into the club and the corridor scenes with Danny on his trike in the Shining ) are all (more or less) the same technique and you could hardly call them artless could you?.
God, I can see myself getting a bit of hate mail for comparing Damiano Damiani to Kubrick & Scorsese.
Halliwell's Film & Video Guide 2000
Amityville 2 : The Possession
USA 1982 104m DeLuxe
Dino DeLaurentis/Orion (Ira N Smith, Stephen R.Greenwald
The sequel turns out to be a prequel, dealing with the events which led to the house at Amityville becoming haunted (Huh? What possessed Sonny then, if it wasn't the demons haunting the house?)
Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into this ghoulish brew, and most of it is red, but the script is hopeless from the start. (Everything BUT the kitchen sink, don't the taps on the kitchen sink pour blood ? )
Variety Movie Guide
Amityville 2 : The Possession
1982 104m US
It is never quite explained in the context of this film whether this is a prequel, sequel or entirely new version of the Amityville story.
No matter, We still have the same house of horrors about to be occupied by a family who, as usual never think to leave the house once it starts taking on a personality of it's own (WHAT ?!, The Lutz Family left as soon as things got really bad i.e. blood coming out of the walls etc.. and the Montelli's in Amityville 2 didn't have any clue that the house was "taking on a personality of it's own, they just thought the family were coming apart at the seams i.e. Mr Montelli going apeshit at the slightest little thing, Trish & Sonny getting "friendlier than most other brothers and sisters" as it were etc.. all of which could not be directly linked to the house. So using the phrase "As Usual" is stupid seeing as this was only the 2nd film in the franchise at the time and in both movies the families who occupied the house could not directly attribute the weird goings on to their change of address)
Of course this is NOT the average American family, Burt Young, who gives new meaning to the term "one-dimensional" in his portrait of the father loves beating the daylights of of his wife & kids, Jack Magner, a screen newcomer saddles with the plum (?) role of the oldest son, begins finding his sister sexually attractive. (Oh c'mon, who DOESN'T find Diane Franklin sexually attractive, oops that sounds like I'm condoning incest!, ha ha)
And Rutyana Alda, who does a lot of screaming as the spineless mother, spends a lot of time praying her problem will go away.
There are actually two films meandering in this mess - one a second-rate horror flick about a family in peril, and another that is a slight variation on the demon-possessed Exorcist theme.
(Yeah but the family IS in peril because of the "demon-possessed exorcist theme", all of the horrific events in the movie (the incest, murder etc..) are all the result of the demons inside the house working through Sonny)
Variety Magazine
"There probably isn't a more unsympathetic bunch on screen this year, They're sure to make audiences root for the house"
(Ha ha, I liked this one, I have to agree with this statement)
AMITYVILLE 2: THE POSSESSION
1982 Cert. 18 Length: 99 mins.
Available on: Quantum Leap Group, QLG5006 Price: £6.99
A chilling sequel in which all the original Amityville happenings occur to a second family.
Comments: There's nothing like a nice little bit of possession to keep you interested in the supernatural, unfortunately, there is nothing nice about this possession at all. The ugly actors and darkly shot scenes detract from the overall horror of the movie considerably but there are some fantastic moments of bloodshed and the deranged son is worthy of the Anthony Perkins prize for loopiness. My favourite bit is when the son seduces his little sister... who's yo daddy!!!
Dr Blood's rating: 5/10
(Ha ha, "Ugly actors", That's a real funny thing to distract from the movie hee hee
But Diane Franklin is hardly ugly though!, but the rest of them... euuurgh! ha ha)
Amityville 2 - The Possession
Category: Horror/Suspense
Running Time: 1 hr 44 mins Rating: R Distributor: New Line Home
Video Summary: Now it's not just the house that's haunted, but also the dwelling's ill-fated inhabitants. Shortly after the original tenants fled in terror from the Amityville home, a new family moved in and its members became possessed by the demonic presence which pervades the house.
Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Officially a prequel to THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, but actually just a ripoff.
A loathsome lout (Burt Young) moves into notorious Long Island house with his troubled family and all hell breaks loose.
Alternately dull and disgusting.
(What? A rip-off of the Amityville Horror?, Is The Godfather Part 2 a rip-off of The Godfather?
I guess if they use the same house it's a "rip-off"
But calling Mr Montelli a "Loathsome Lout" made me laugh!)
Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Amityville 2 : The Possession
Dysfunctional family moves into the infamous house and oldest son Burt Young finds himself being taken over by an evil demon who wants him to kill them all.
Better than the tedious original, this sequel manages to be decent viewing until it degenerates into silliness in the final third.
Writer Wallace would move on to directing many a lambasted sequel (including the notorious Halloween III).
Directed By: Damiano Damiani. Written By: Tommy Lee Wallace.
(Hmm.. In never noticed Burt Young playing the possessed son, that would have been a VERY BAD casting move!, I mean his parents would have had to been played by a pair of 85 year olds!
Can you imagine what kind of a film that would have been)