Its ghosts against the Mafia in this tale of horror called The Amityville Murders. Based on true events, the movie takes place in the same house that the previous stories were told. The film does have a few scary moments and an awful lot of blood and carnage, but if it’s your kind of entertainment, then it’s right down your ally. Horror fans who have seen the other depictions of the murders, will probably get a bit bored. The names of the people involved have not been changed from the original version of the murders in The Amityville Horror.
The DeFeo’s are enjoying an eighteenth birthday party for their twins, Ron Jr. “Butch” DeFeo (John Robinson) and Dawn DeFeo (Chelsea Ricketts) in their big back yard. As usual their father has been drinking and has displayed his usual meanness to his family. Grandpa Brigante (Burt Young) and Nona (Lainie Kazan), members of a mafia faction for which John DeFeo Sr. is a soldier, have just presented the twins with cars.
After a despicable remark to the two by dad, they invite three of their friends up to the Red Room to play a game involving contacting the spirits that Dawn believes live in the house. The movie goes on from there with John Sr. getting delivered a bag of cash, Dawn wanting to run away from home and John Jr. getting psychologically upset. When the spirits start to show themselves, things begin to come apart at the seams for John Jr.
Direction of the film by Daniel Farrands, who also wrote the film for the screen, seems to follow the premise of the first Amityville movie. He focuses this one more on the kids and how they are psychologically driven insane from the evil residents. Where it goes wrong however, centers on the hapless attitudes of the younger children and their mother. Not the best acting job nor character development, the family just exists waiting for the bad things to happen. Dawn and especially Butch’s character push the envelope, so to speak, making it their story of abuse by their father and overly protected by their mother.
Farrands uses the Mafia ploy to justify John Sr. attitude and revolting actions in the film making it the reason why John Jr. goes mad. The ghosts walking in and out of the movie become the breakdown that John Jr. is experiencing and Farrands uses the spirits to visualize it. There are no swarms of flies, it’s not the dead of winter, there are pennies rising in the air, and well I don’t want to give too much away just in case you haven’t seen the original movie.
While the acting is unemotional for most of the characters, the two main protagonists are completely off the chain. Both Robinson and Ricketts are not convincing enough to make their characters work and John’s way too old looking to be just turning 18. I really don’t think Ricketts had a chance to complete her arc to be conclusive enough to end up face down on the bed. I like both actors, but this film is just not their best venue.
The Amityville Murders have not been rated by the MPAA, but contain extreme violence, very brutal scenes of a teen being beaten, drugs, sex, and language throughout. Be cautious when deciding to allow immature children to see the film as it does have many graphic scenes that are inappropriate for youngsters.
FINAL ANALSIS: Only if you want to compare it to the first Amityville, (1.5 out of 5 Stars)
Additional Film Information:
Cast: John Robinson, Chelsea Ricketts, Diane Franklin, and Paul Ben-Victor
Directed and written by: Daniel Farrands
Genre: Horror
MPAA Rating: Not Rated, extreme violence, drugs, sex, language
Running Time: 1 hr. 37 min.
Opening Date: February 8, 2019
Distributed by: Skyline Entertainment
Released in: Standard
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
