Get. Out.

The Movie: The Amityville Horror, directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Recommendation: Me!
Reason: The original blood-dripping-from-the-walls, Satan-in-the-basement, haunted house movie.

Once upon a time, Ronald DeFeo murdered his entire family and sparked off a moderately famous controversy over whether or not the devil made him do it. A year later, a couple and their kids moved in, and in just over a month, fled screaming in the middle of the night, never to return. Or at least that's how the story supposedly goes. Neither Defeo's claim that the devil encouraged him to kill his family, or most of the Lutz's claims of demonic intervention in their daily lives have ever really been proven. I recently saw an interview with DeFeo, and he just seemed like he was insane.

But...we were discussing the movie, not the real life events that have been woven into the story. There have been sequels. There has been a remake. I want to touch on that for a moment. The differences between the remake and the original are quite marked (but aren't they always?). The two movies share strong similarities, but it's those little differences that come to mind. I miss the 'organic' feel of older horror movies, the natural camerawork and the difference in focus. The remake of Amityville seemed sterile compared to the original, despite including some really excellent scenes (Put your hand on the chopping block). The original had some really nicely assembled shots, but suffered for lack of real tension in some places. I think if you put the two in a blender and mixed them up (keeping Ryan Reynolds as George Lutz), you might just come out with a really good movie.

I got a really strong 'The Shining' vibe from this movie, despite The Shining's release coming a year after Amityville. I think it may have been the axe. Viewed as a classic horror movie, Amityville is a good show. It doesn't quite hold up well nowadays-maybe it's the lack of stingers.

-91/365 down, 274/365 to go