Amityville II: The Possession, which claims to be a prequel to the original Amityville Horror (1979), once again takes us to the infamous haunted Long Island house. The film opens with a shot of the house with a 'for sale' sign in the foreground as the camera pans around the outside while the credits play. Amityville II: The Possession then cuts to another shot of the house, this time the sign says 'sold'. An Italian American family have brought the house & are moving in, husband & wife Anthony (Burt Young) & Dolores Montelli (Rutanya Alda) with their four children, Sonny (Jack Magner), Patricia (Diane Franklin), Jan (Erika Katz) & Mark (Brent Katz). At first glance the large house seems perfect & is beautiful, but almost immediately things start to go wrong for the family. Dolores senses a presence in the basement which she claims touched her, when they sit down for their first meal that night & try to say a prayer the mirror on the wall suddenly falls off & begins to crack. Also that night the family are disturbed by banging on their front door & obscene images are mysteriously painted on walls. Sonny starts to hear strange demonic voices on his Walkman as well. The incidents don't stop & as a result the family starts to fall apart. However Dolores still senses an evil presence & contacts their local priest, Father Frank Adamsky (James Olson) & asks him to bless their house. Meanwhile Sonny is becoming more & more withdrawn as the evil presence in the house specifically singles him out & starts to possess him, the voices on his Walkman convince Sonny to seduce & have sex with his younger sister Patricia & eventually tries to get Sonny to kill his entire family. After witnessing some of these events & doing some research Father Adamsky starts to realise what's going on & is convinced that Sonny is being possessed by evil spirits, but is it too late to save Sonny & the Montelli family? Directed by Damiano Damiani I thought Amityville II: The Possession was actually a pretty good horror film & I don't usually like the haunted house sub-genre. The script by Tommy Lee Wallace based on the book 'Murder in Amityville' by Hans Holzer is well paced, entertaining, has decent characters & tries to tackle a few unexpected issues like incest, the break down of the family unit & wife/child abuse. Unfortunately some of these issues seem a little out of place & are treated in a slightly exploitative & lightweight way. But at the end of the day Amityville II: The Possession is basically a horror film at heart & exploitation is what we want so I'll forgive it. It uses all the haunted house clichés, doors opening & closing on their own, voices, eerie noises, ghostly wind that blows things all over the place, the kind elderly believing priest & spooky hallucinations but Amityville II: The Possession integrates them into the story as well as any other haunted house film. The first half of the film concentrates on these family elements while the second half is all about the possession & eventual exorcism which basically feels like The Exorcist (1973) condensed into 40 odd minutes complete with green vomit, but it moves along nicely & isn't boring. There is some brief nudity but the incest scenes aren't particularly graphic. There isn't much gore or violence, some expanding flesh, some shotgun wounds & a cool looking sequence where someone messily rips the skin off their face to reveal a monster. The acting is solid throughout by all involved but I did find Burt Young's character, the abusive Anthony very unlikeable. Technically Amityville II: The Possession is a strong film, music, photography, editing, special effects & production design are all above average, very polished & better than usual from a low budget horror. Overall I like Amityville II: The Possession a lot more than I thought I would, it's a good solid horror film that kept me entertained for 100 odd minutes & has a little more depth & style than usual without sacrificing the exploitation elements than us horror fans expect & love! Definitely worth watching.