Amityville 3D aka Amityville: The Demon 1983
John Baxter works for a magazine, his job? To de bunk the paranormal. Hes tired of this work and yearns to be a serious writer (dont we all *wink) After busting a ladies scam in the infamous Amityville house he decides to buy it and settle down. Because after all he doesn't believe in no ghosts.(who yah gonna call?) However as you can guess the house decides to make a believer out of him.
Holding a 0% rating on Rotten Tomato I thought i was really in for some self torture. However the film has some depth that many horror films of the decade lacked. Here me out. While sure everyone including myself loves 80s slashers lets face it, it was more about the gore than fleshed out characters, and i`m not talking about just seeing characters flesh. Amityville 3 actually tries to and for the most part succeeds in showcasing people that are more than just butcher block fodder. The concept of our hero going in de bunking the claims is interesting And of course its a nice (albiet not subtle) wink at the real life haunted house which was proved to be nothing more than a hoax cooked up by the Lutz,the Warrens and author Jay Anson, which paid off BIG time. Its far more clever than just having a new family move in (which was done brilliantly in A II: The possession) I was also stunned by some actual creepy moments and deaths. Surprising some main characters actually end of dying pretty gruesome deaths, most notably the woman being burnt alive. So is it a classic, no not even close. Sadly for all that works for the film its just simply not remarkable. Structurally its uneven and while yes some of the death scenes are decent they do nothing to move the story forward just simply going from one set piece to another. Richard Fleischer whose cinematic career spanned over four decades did his best to break the mold but still failed to really deliver a scary film. Still its not the stinkburger I thought it would be, I can see what it tried to do but it never really escapes its mediocrity. Its not all bad though. Plus we get to see a young Meg Ryan and Lori Loughlin (Full House and soon Fuller House)
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