AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING (2017)

I'm not the best person to discuss the various Amityville Horror films as I have never thought much of the series at all. I've only watched the original film once and it did not impress me enough to bother with a revisit. I caught the remake at a drive-in when it premiered and found it to be a pointless wet fart of a movie. The one filmed in 3-D in 1983 wasn't bad but it suffers the same fate as most cinema of that sad 80's fad - it's gimmick smothers it's effectiveness. In fact, outside of enjoying the first half of the rather trashy, Euro-Cult-y AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982) I don't care much for any of the Amityville movies.

Until now.

AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING (2017) did not strike me as much more than a pretty effective little chiller as it was playing on the screen before me. I considered it well cast and effectively directed but the whole Amityville thing has always bothered me in a way that has nothing to the films' actual quality. Since I know the claims on which the original tale is based are BS I've had a resistance to the movies. Knowing that the book and film were carefully calculated lies built to hoodwink the public into thinking that demon possession is a reality pisses me off. It's an obvious con made to sucker the rubes into coughing up their money to be told how not to get the Debbil on their backs (or in their bodies). But this new movie.......

Somehow it has stuck with me in a way that few decades-after-the-fact sequels can. I'm still thinking about it days later. As I've stated, I don't like the previous movies and only watched this one out of sick curiosity. I had to know what filmmakers in 2017 would bring to this silly old tale. Well, as it turns out they brought a pretty effective bag of tricks. And it worked on me! I really enjoyed this even as I felt my Amityville resistance well up the film's quick pace, logical structure and good dialog kept battling it back. It was a well made ninety minutes of horror entertainment with a couple of very well played twists that amped up the tension and terror. I think that the odd choice to make the past films exist as movies in this film's narrative enhances the story and may have been what got me on board. Plus, the cast is really strong with very good performances from the central female actors.

If I had done my homework I might have gone into this with higher expectations as the director was also responsible for the impressive 2012 remake of MANIAC and the tight little thriller P2 (2007). He's someone to pay attention to as his career continues.