THE AMITYVILLE HORROR

3/5
stars ryan reynolds, melissa george

"...houses don't kill people; people kill people" - george lutz

i'm not a huge fan of the horror movie genre, but when i had read the book to which this film is based, it scared the shit out of me. seriously, it was prob the scariest book i'd ever read.

so when i heard about the movie coming out, i was quite interested. there had also been two or three other versions made of the book, but i hadn't seen them. so i hired the better version and had a look. it was alright.

back to the remake...

i can say that this followed the book a lot closer than the original (but i can't be 100% sure since i read the book a while back). for those of you who don't know the story, this is basically it:
* a guy wakes up in the middle of the night (3:15am) and shoots dead his entire family
* when he was questioned by police, he said there were voices in his head that were telling thim to "ketchem and kill 'em"
* one year later, the Lutz's (reynolds, george, and thier kids) move into what they think is the home of their dreams
* weird shit starts happening

of course there's planty more that goes on, but i wouldn't want to ruin it for you. the film is quite scary also, but not in a "Ring" kind of scary. the editing in the film relies heavily on "loud bang" kind of scares, rather than any real evoking of fear. but hey, they cheap scares work fine and you'll prob be turning your head from the screen or blocking your ears half the time.

there's a dead kid in named jodie, who is probably the freakiest little shit you'd come across... she's a ghost who's looking for a permanent playmate, and unfortunately for this new family, they've got a six year-old daughter. creepy shit.

special effects and make-up wise, this film is awesome. lots of blood, lots of guts, lots of axes to the body - you name it, this film pretty much has it all. the music in the film is also really effective in creating a suspenseful atmosphere.

there was a bit in the film which i thought didn't really fit in, but at the time when i was watching it it was kinda cool.

i'd probably see this movie again.. but not alone.

by the way, this film was based on a true story.

-LOki

(btw, see shaun of the dead :P)