Gettysburg | At Close Range | A Christmas Story | A Christmas Carol (Scrooge) | Shaft (2000) | The Perfect Storm | Star Wars Trilogy | The Bounty | Gladiator | Frequency | Escape From New York | Escape From L.A. | X-Men | Titan A.E. | Get Carter | The In Crowd | Mission: Impossible 2 | Big Momma's House | Return to Me | Malice | Final Destination | High Fidelity | Pump Up the Volume/Bed of Roses | Scream 3 | The Dead Zone | Rosemary's Baby | Never Say Never Again | Diamonds are Forever | You Only Live Twice | The Living Daylights | A View to a Kill | Brothers McMullen/She's the One | Code of Silence | Delta Force 2 | Tales of Terror | The Amityville Horror | Where the Heart is | This is Spinal Tap | Boogie Nights | Hard Eight (Sydney) | Arsenic and Old Lace | North By Northwest | Region 2 Releases | The Fog (R2) | Citizen Kane (R2) | Alligator (R2) | The Gate (R2) | The Gate II (R2) | Beastmaster (Region 2) | Hellraiser: Limited Edition Tin Set | Halloween | Halloween II/Halloween III | Halloween 5 | Friday the 13th/Friday the 13th Part 2 | Friday the 13th Part 3 | Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter | Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 | The Fly/The Fly II | Phenomena | Demons/Demons 2 | The Beyond | Tower of Evil | The Devil Rides Out | My Best Fiend | Fight Club | Edward Scissorhands | Moonlighting -- The Pilot | Die Hard | The Whole Nine Yards | Martin | Seven Days in May | Romeo Must Die | Broadcast News | The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 | Supernova | Prince of Darkness | The Quiet Man | Kelly's Heroes | Runaway | Living Out Loud | 2010 | The Last Starfighter | Enter the Dragon | Conan the Barbarian | Nashville | Highlander | Army of Darkness | Blazing Saddles | The Naked Gun | Leon: The Professional | Braveheart | Caddyshack | Land of the Lost | Blue Thunder | Marnie | Easy Money | Planet of the Apes | Shane | Exorcist III: Legion | The Invisible Man | Creature From the Black Lagoon | Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein | Supergirl | Swamp Thing | Lured | The Ninth Gate | Jaws | My Dog Skip | The World is Not Enough | Shaft | Star Trek II | Star Trek Generations | Dead Again | The Blade Runner Nexus

Home

The Latest DVD
The Amityville Horror

ninth.jpg

ninth.jpg

By Steve Vivona

MGM, Widescreen/Standard

Having lived on Long Island nearly all my life I can vividly remember the commotion caused by the release of "The Amityville Horror" more than 20 years ago. For those of you from outside the New York area it goes like this: one evening in the mid-seventies a young man killed his parents with a shotgun. Sometime later the house was sold and the new owners quickly high-tailed it out of there, claiming it was haunted. They sold their story and in 1979 the film based on these "actual events" was released, creating years of unwanted attention upon this hapless town.

James Brolin and Margot Kidder (fresh from her success as Lois Lane in "Superman") play George and Kathy Lutz, the new owners of the infamous residence. It doesn't take long for the proceedings to get creepy as George starts acting totally unlike himself (much like "The Shining") When suspicious accidents start turning deadly the Lutzes realize they may not be alone!

"The Amityville Horror" came at a time when horror films were relying more on shock value than suspense, but thankfully the film relies more on what it doesn't show and that gives it a certain credibility that its awful sequels do not. It really produces some truly scary moments and is on a par with contemporaries like "The Changeling" and even "Poltergeist."

Brolin and Kidder fill their husband and wife roles nicely and Brolin especially does a nice job essaying George's descent into madness. He never veers into Nicholson territory (the film actually predates "The Shining" by a year). In fact this is one of the most solid performances of Brolin's career.

MGM has served up a pleasing DVD presentation for "The Amityville Horror" that is the best this film has looked in years. While the transfer has some compression flaws they are minimal, and the image is sharp and clean. It's fair to say this film hasn't been taken care of over the years, but the original elements have been remastered nicely, producing the best quality image possible. A trailer has also been included.

Any serious horror fan is going to want to have this film in their collection as it represents a bygone era in the genre. It may not be a classic but it still serves up the scares and isnt the goal of any good horror film?

ninth.jpg