Probably the first of the recent horror remakes to be met with anticipation and even some praise, this reworking of the 1979 classic movie goes even further to promote the true events aspect, but doesn’t really need to as it is a good film all on it’s own without using trashy marketing gimmicks.
This time around Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George play George and Kathy Lutz who move into the iconic house in Amityville and soon live to regret it after only 28 days.
The film followed the original’s path quite closely in the beginning, before thankfully actually leading somewhere with a suitably dramatic conclusion. What I liked most about the film was that it genuinely did improve upon everything that was wrong with the original film.
Firstly, the babysitter in this version is smokin’ hot and the scenes with her in them are both hilariously funny, and terrifyingly repulsive, whilst managing to be sexy and wrong all at the same time. Next, anyone who laughed their asses off at the save the dog climax of the original will be pleased to see that they sort that crap out at the first available opportunity, much to the annoyance of dog lovers the world over I’m sure. The best aspect about this remake is the actual conclusion that had moments of terror and genuine shocks present throughout.
I wasn’t too sure about the CGI flies, but there were some genuinely frightening moments, especially one that made everyone squeal and jump with shock and delight, and I swear I will never go for a pee in the middle of the night again after that.
The cast are really good here, especially Reynolds who everyone was just dying to see fall flat on his ass in his first serious role, and it was good to see Melissa George finally get the chance to shine.
I liked the use of religious iconography and the creepy sets, but the best aspect of the film overall was that unlike the stacatto original, they trimmed off all the fat and made this into an 89 minute thrill ride that flows seamlessly from beginning to end.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Whilst the film did improve upon a lot of aspects, and was certainly entertaining, I felt that overall it was equally as good as the original.