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The Amityville Horror (2005)
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Reviews Counted:155
Fresh:37
Rotten:118
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: A so-so remake of a so-so original.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violence and terror, sexuality, language and brief drug use.
Runtime: 89 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Apr 15, 2005 Wide
Box Office: $64,255,243
Synopsis: This frightening remake of the 1979 horror classic from producer Michael Bay (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) delves deeper into the supposedly true story of supernatural events that occurred in a... This frightening remake of the 1979 horror classic from producer Michael Bay (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) delves deeper into the supposedly true story of supernatural events that occurred in a Long Island, New York home in the '70s. When George and Kathy Lutz (Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George) come across a beautiful river-front colonial home being sold for a steal, they suspect a catch. Once informed that the home was the site of a grisly mass murder, they decide to buy the house anyway and eagerly move in, bringing with them Kathy's three children from a previous marriage. While no one can deny that the house is rife with spooky sounds, the family members try to put their fears at bay. But over time, strange occurrences start happening, becoming more and more frequent, and these events start to have a transformative effect on several family members. Kathy's daughter starts to act bizarrely, ending up in a variety of life-threatening situations, led by her new, not-so-imaginary friend Jody (one of the children slaughtered in the house years before by her older brother). Likewise, something strange seems to be happening to George. His usually sweet demeanor is replaced with a hostile one, and he starts cruelly taking out his aggression on Kathy's children. Kathy's original assumption that a house cannot be evil is challenged as she watches her husband transform into the sort of man that just might be capable of murdering his family. Faster-paced than the original, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR keeps viewers on the edge of their seats with quick editing, suspenseful music, and moderately graphic violence. The two leads give quality performances, and seem to inhabit the decade in which the story is set despite the film's slick, contemporary production. [More]
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jimmy Bennett, Jesse James
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jimmy Bennett, Jesse James, Chloe Grace Moretz, Philip Baker Hall
Director: Michael Bay
Director: Michael Bay
Screenwriter: Sandor Stern, Scott Kosar
Producer: Andrew Form, Michael Bay, Brad Fuller
Studio: MGM/UA
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Reviews for The Amityville Horror
appears to have forsaken the source material in lieu of more in-your-face frights.
has everything you want from a scary movie, and Reynolds is a star waiting to break out
Unless this is your very first horror movie, you are much more likely to be bored to death than scared to death.
When we hear mom uttering 'he tortured Indians on my land' like an Irish Frontierswoman from the 1800s, its time to wrap things up as quickly as possible
Its more potent quality is as a portrait -- well, crayon drawing, actually -- of the tendency of the traumatized male psyche toward violence.
Outfitting Reynolds with creepy, blood-red contact lenses for every scene in which George is possessed turns out to be a faulty creative decision.
...the magnetic letters on the refrigerator door start spelling out ominous messages ('Kiss your $8.50 goodbye!' is not among them, but it might as well be).
The new “The Amityville Horror” makes its predecessor feel like high art.
a series of disjointed shock scenes that are strung together for a laborious 90 minutes
From the team that decided it was a good idea to remake "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" comes this unpleasant, exploitative and stupid film.
So full of false beats, heavy-handed staging and unnecessarily overblown effects -- and so lacking in suspense and character involvement -- that it's about as scary as a Toyota commercial.
In this Amityville, the performances are bad, the special effects ho-hum, and it's not even particularly scary.
This remake stays close to the eponymous 1979 horror movie it's based on, except for being precisely 10,000 times scarier.
The film is a terrific scare show, fast and furious, made with a lot of style and energy, packing plenty of jolts yet never lingering morbidly over horrific images.
Begins slavishly faithful to its low-key 1970s predecessor then sledgehammers auds with a numbing succession of shock edits and over-the-top horror effects.
Lots of 'jump' scares accompanied by loud bursts of soundtrack music, creepy dead girls wandering the halls, and almost no actual suspense or horror.
If star Ryan Reynolds wants to scare us, why not just lock us in a room and make us watch Van Wilder over and over? Or have girlfriend Alanis Morissette talk about her past relationships?
Low-key creepy rather than outright scary, the new Amityville marks a modest improvement over the original.
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