Amityville: The Awakening (2017) User Reviews

Amityville in title only.

[jeremy-david-kuehnau · 4/10 · 8 October 2017]

Amityville the Awakening is finally here after many, many push-backs and delays. Was it worth the wait? Well like many films that use the Amityville name, not really.

The cinematography is fine, the actors are okay. One of the biggest issues with the film itself is the audio, there are plenty of scenes where dialog is drowned out by background sound.

The film starts off on a good step, using what looks like old police footage to explain about the Defeo murders, unfortunately from there the movie makes a steady decline into worthlessness.

Instead of making the movie about the house, murders and haunting, they choose to focus on a bratty girl and her vegetable of a brother. The haunting takes a back seat to the family drama, which makes the movie even worse. Poor pacing, poor writing, the movie is less than thrilling.

Let's put it this way, there's a reason why they opted for a limited theatrical release and putting it up for free on Google play in October through December. It's a film even the producers and directors can't stand behind.

The reality is, the original Amityville was popular because it was portrayed as a true story, so the family drama was more humanized. With these other films, it's about the horror and this film completely ignores that.

Enjoyable!!

[Misss25 · 6/10 · 27 January 2022]

This is my first movie of this entire series. I don't know, there is any connection with other movies or not but I really get the whole story without watching the previous ones. All I can say, it's a decent movie which can be enjoyed with your whole family. If I talked about story, all horror movies stories are same xD. All horror movies either start with moving into a haunted house which they didn't know :) but eventually get to know or someone has possessed someone.

Personally, I kind of love this. It was average type of movie. It has what I usually look for ''Jump scares''.

predictable and full of clichés

[trashgang · 5/10 · 10 October 2017]

The original Amityville horror (1979) spawned a hardcore following and had the mystery of being based on true events. Being an instant hit it created a franchise sadly going downhill after part two. A remake (2005) did bring the story to the new kiddies in town and it had to happen, 2017 brought the story back again.

Bright thinking of the production to bring back the original story and some parts of the original flick is shown. So far so good but let me say that this was the best part.

There's nothing scary at all in this flick. Of course they tried to add some jump scene's but they are so predictable that it doesn't work. On the other hand all the killings are done off-camera that it becomes so low on horror that it is really bad.

And so cliché, the sister being the outcast, a Goth chick, really? Nope, this wasn't really worth watching for me. Just watch the 1979 version and forget the awakening.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 1,5/5 Comedy 0/5

Not a complete disaster, but far from being decent

[ABCloverLane · 3/10 · 28 July 2017]

Although a date has yet to be determined for the US release of the movie, Amityville: The Awakening has finally come out internationally.

After several delays that began 2 and a half years ago, this movie has sort of become a joke in the Hollywood movie industry and everyone has started to wonder how bad this new iteration in the Amityville franchise could actually be.

I managed to see the movie today and while there aren't too many good things to be said about it, it is far from being the worst horror movie that has been put out in theaters. Actually, that's this movie's main problem: a theatrical release. It would've been better off as a straight-to-DVD movie, given its poor technical aspects which bugged me the most.

First off, the movie is a jump-scare fest, which wouldn't have been that much of a problem if the majority of them wouldn't have been fake scares. They were all extremely cheap and failed to land because there was no build-up to any of them. I couldn't even hear ONE scream from the audience I watched the movie with because, though arriving at unexpected moments, the scares turned out as laughable and nonsensical. Now that I think of it, I am having a hard time remembering at least one memorable scare or moment of suspense.

The direction of the movie was completely flat and some truly atrocious editing choices certainly didn't help it. Not only did they take me out of the moment, but they also made certain scenes incomprehensible. What also took me out of some scenes during the big showdown at the end of the movie was the terrible VFX.

Another criticism I have for this movie is its extensive use of dream sequences and visions, which didn't help the plot at all and were completely unnecessary, besides for setting up another random jump- scare.

The score of the movie was supposed to help building tension, but it rather comes out as annoying and somehow manipulative.

The ending of the movie felt abrupt and unsatisfying. Certain scenes that were included in the international trailer a month ago were nowhere to be found in this cut of the movie.

On the other hand, the performances of the actors didn't bother me at all. Bella Thorne's acting is, surprisingly, not wooden at all and she actually gets to show some of her acting skills in a few emotional moments. Most of these are opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh, and the two actresses make the mother-daughter scenes work. A highlight of the movie is Thomas Mann who gets to shine in a few comedic moments as the movie geek friend, although he doesn't get a lot of time in the spotlight.

The movie is at its best when it doesn't try to scare the audience, but perhaps make us weep. My favorite scenes were the ones in which the characters begin to form emotional bonds. Talking about characters, the most complex arcs belong to Belle and her mother, Joan, who have dramatic backstories and real motivations. However, the two friends that Belle makes at her new school are left hanging in the air after a certain a point and are underutilized. Also, Belle's little sister completely disappears from the movie for a good portion of the running time, which leaves me thinking that the screenwriter-director didn't know what to do with her while the main characters were in peril.

Another positive aspect of the movie was its self-awareness of being yet another movie in the Amityville franchise. Some of the characters even agree on the fact that the 2005 remake of the original movie is not worth a watch. However, the movie gets bogged down in the mythology of the past installments in the series, as it so often goes back and tries to recreate certain plot points of the other movies.

Overall, I think this movie is, simply put, bland, utterly forgettable and a poor excuse to bring back the Amityville long-running franchise to a new generation, paling in comparison to this new wave of critically and commercially acclaimed horror movies of the past few years.

Remarkably Poor

[TdSmth5 · 2/10 · 23 October 2017]

A mother and her two kids move into the Amityville house. There's the teen daughter, Belle, the younger daughter Juliet, the dog. The mom's got a sister too. No men allowed pretty much. Oh, well, there's James, but he's in a coma and kept home. It's Belle's senior year of course and while everyone knows she lives at the Amityville house, she doesn't now anything about it. Until a classmate tries to befriend her and tells her all about the place but because he's male he's the butt of jokes and treated like crap by Belle and some other girl he introduces her to.

Back at the house, the dog barks at stuff, there are shadows, there are pesky flies and Belle starts having vivid nightmares about James. We learn that James is in a coma because of a fight he got into defending Belle, so she is bizarrely held responsible by the mother. There's some type of magic circle still around some area of the front lawn somehow.

Even though the doctor and most of the family think that James is in a coma for good, the mom, who gave up religion because of this situation, is convinced James will recover. And sure enough he does, at a rather amazing pace. The kids suspect James might be possessed and they are right. So somehow Belle will have to save the family before as the fully recovered James goes homicidal.

Even for a PG-13 horror movie, Amityville: The Awakening, is remarkably dull, lame, uninteresting. It's hard to connect with the arrogant Belle. Much of the characters' behavior is nonsensical. Worst of all, there is zero sense of dread, nothing is really at stake here. It's 10 minutes before the movie ends that finally things become deadly. By then of course it's way too late to get some excitement going. Not to mention that this movie doesn't even look good. It's the kind of movie where it's pitch black most of the time and none of the characters think about turning a friggin' light on. Darkness alone doesn't make a horror movie, let alone a good one. The only frightening thing about this movie is how bad it is.

Home Sweet Amityville

[Coventry · 5/10 · 11 October 2022]

As someone who's always been underwhelmed by the "Amityville" franchise, and deliberately skipped a few sequels due to the 'can't-be-bothered' syndrome, I must admit I'm pleasantly surprised by this 2017-attempt to revive the series. What this format needed was a skillful and devoted writer/director, and that's exactly what Franck Khalfoun is. He already proved he can mount and maintain tension, with both "P2" and "Maniac", and he does just that here as well. "Amityville: The Awakening" is continuously atmospheric and often even downright unsettling, and this in spite of a mundane and derivative story.

Single mother Leigh moves with her three children, one of which is in a permanently comatose state, into the infamous Long Island residence with the ominous windows. While the teenage daughter is the subject of mockery at school, apparently because she's the only person in the world who didn't know about the house's sinister history, the mother keeps hoping for an improvement in her son's condition. And - surprise - James does start showing signs of life again! But is it really a medical miracle, or just part of the Amityville House's diabolical plan?

"Amityville: The Awakening" isn't a great horror film, or even that memorable, but it contains a handful of tense moments, likeable performances, and a creepy ending that perfectly links back to the original film. What I personally didn't like, but sadly it's very trendy and popular nowadays, are the "meta-horror" aspects. At one point during the film, the daughter and her friends watch the actual original 1979-original, directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring James Brolin.

Considerable talent in a sinking ship

[drownsoda90 · 6/10 · 16 October 2017]

"Amityville: The Awakening" is the tenth installment in the "Amityville" series (but honestly, who's counting anymore?), and it follows Belle, a teenager girl who move into the famed 112 Ocean Avenue with her mother, little sister, and brain-dead twin brother on life support. Bad things happen, including her brother become a vessel for demonic energy.

It's been a long road for "Amityville: The Awakening": I remember seeing trailers at the movie theater for it at least two years ago, but it had numerous delays in typical Weinstein Company fashion—it also, if my suspicious are correct, was chopped to pieces by the Weinstein Company's subsidiary Dimension Films, who distributed (or were supposed to distribute) the film.

I have a soft spot for the "Amityville" movies, and have found even the worst of the installments at least amusing—what can I say? I love a haunted house flick. "The Awakening" starts out rather nicely with atmospheric, mundane goings-on as the family settles in, punctuated by genuinely chilling moments: On their second day in the home, the little sister says to Belle that their brother, James, has been cursing at her. The punchline? James is brain-dead and in a vegetative state. These sorts of moments in "The Awakening" genuinely work, and Franck Khalfoun's script gets meta when Bella and her outcast friends have an "Amityville Horror" movie marathon at the Amityville House. As they're watching the infamous "red room" scene from the 1979 original, the power goes out; it's 3:15am. While this move is risky in that it relegates all the other "Amityville" films to fiction, it's clever.

Unfortunately, as the film progresses, things get sloppier and sloppier; uneven editing and pacing matches uneven development of plot lines that are fairly one-note to begin with. About three- quarters of the way through, one begins to realize that there really is not much happening; the subtleties of the first act lead to payoffs that are frankly not that interesting. As I mentioned before, it's difficult to say who is at fault for the film's shortcomings, as the Weinsteins are notorious for cutting films to pieces (see "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers," or "Cursed" for reference), and a lot of the issues come from what seems to be bad editing. Franck Khalfoun proved himself a talent in my eyes with 2007's "P2," and with people like Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurtwood Smith, and Jennifer Morrison on board, there is considerable talent here. The young cast is even quite good, with Bella Thorne playing a sympathetic lead.

In the end, "Amityville: The Awakening" is actually one of the better sequels in the series, if we can call it that, and while it does offer some subtle and clever moments, it spins its wheels in the last act and errs into a rote, albeit shoddily-pieced-together conclusion. For series diehards, it's a must-see for the reasons I've stated above, but in general, it's a fairly unremarkable effort. 6/10.

A Bigger Let-Down than an Express Elevator

[mozmugo · 5 October 2017]

This movie is trash. They tried turning it into a possession type horror story which completely ruins what we got from the previous Amityville story.

I felt no connection to any of the actors/ actresses. The story is predictable and boring to the point of stupidity.

After all the build up and suspense James only kills two people. There is no horror here. You don't even get to see one of the deaths!

Should you watch it? No.

I didn't even know this movie existed and now I know why

[jenniferlynn-49555 · 1/10 · 4 October 2018]

Very lame. Wasnt scary at all. Mainly jump scares and those weren't even scary, just loud. The mother knowingly moves her family into a possessed house, so it can help bring back her son who is in a coma. Who cares about your other two kids right? I find it hard to believe that Belle had never heard about this house either. I mean it even had all the dvds and books about it, in the movie. She wears a leather jacket so she's probably too cool to care anyhow. I'm glad the mother got it because she deserves it. I loved her shocked expression when the son comes walking in her room, not because he's walking after spending the movie in a crippled ball but because he has a shotgun. I gave this movie a one because that little girl is adorable. Everything else, garbage!

Completely agree with the positive reviews

[militantcactus · 7/10 · 29 June 2021]

Is this the greatest horror ever made? No.

Is it the worst? Absolutely not.

So it's not the most groundbreaking film, but it's a pretty good sequel to the original film. Let's look at some of the previous efforts in comparison: one will a doll's house, another with an old clock, not to mention the asylum one... all absolutely terrible, with tenuous links to the original story. With this film, it's set in the house (and a pretty good replica it is too) the floor plan is based on the actual house rather than the film version, which perhaps has confused viewers of the original version as the interior was very different, it uses apparent news footage of the Defeo murders, and heavily refers to the book and films made about the supernatural history. This is an absolutely deserved sequel.

The story isn't bad. Some will say that there wasn't enough horror and scares, and that it focused too much on the family, but but for me that made it more successful. The comments about the possession happening too quickly I think is a bit of a misunderstanding. My view is that the events of the film took place over a longer period than immediately evident.

The only real criticism I have is about Jennifer Jason Leigh. Having watched her in a few films over the last few years, she has an air of boredom about each role, with not a huge range of emotion displayed on her face.

I would be interested in seeing what the film was supposed to have looked like before it was cut, but while I think some of the criticism has been about the visual effects (seriously, watch the scene with the bats in 'The Doll' of you want terrible effects!),y feeling is that the cut elementay have included more of these which may have been a detriment to the end result.

Watch with an open mind. It's not half bad.

Terrible Story and Poorly Written Screenplay

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 19 October 2017]

The seventeen year-old Belle Walker (Bella Thorne) moves to Long Island with her mother Joan (Jennifer Jason Leigh), her little sister Juliet (Mckenna Grace), her comatose twin brother James (Cameron Monaghan) and her aunt Candice (Jennifer Morrison). James suffered an accident and depends on the life support equipment to survive. His neurologist Dr. Milton (Kurtwood Smith) knows that the braindead James will not recover but Joan does not accept the truth and has high-hopes that her beloved son will recover. When Belle goes to school, she learns that her address is the notorious Amityville house where a father killed his family forty years ago. Belle discovers blood stains under the wallpaper of her room and soon mysterious things happen in the house. When James recovers after a flat line, Belle believes an evil thing has possessed he brother.

"Amityville: The Awakening" is another Amityville horror film with terrible story and poorly written screenplay. The characters are not well developed and the conclusion is deceptive. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Amityville: O Despertar" ("Amityville: The Awakening")

Great movie!

[torch1313-446-877890 · 9/10 · 29 December 2018]

I thought this movie was great! It kept a creepy feel throughout and definitely had a few jump out of your seat moments. I don't get all of the low scores. My only assumption is that people are sitting there playing on their phones and not even paying attention to what is going on.

The pun is in the title(?)

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 7 September 2022]

Considering how one of the main characters is going through most of the movie, I reckon the title is poiting at that. It could also have been Re- Awakening I reckon - pointing to this being the x-version of the Amityville ... franchise/myth - not sure what you would like to call it.

The acting talent in front of the camera surprised me. But I reckon the title had some recognition. On the other hand, we also get a director who really knows his stuff (check his other output) - why he did this? I imagine he is a fan of the original and wanted to do his own take on it. Plus he got paid I assume - money is always a nice motivator to do stuff. No pun intended here either.

The movie is predictable, though I did not see the nod (almost fourth wall breaking) to the original. Literally on your/their screen - not to be missed. A fun, but also creepy moment. Something that can also be said about the ending. I thought it did a decent job there too.

Mediocre.

[philneil · 5/10 · 17 October 2017]

I really wanted to like this movie - I went into with an open mind not really knowing what to expect from it as I had not read any of the reviews.

For me it lacked atmosphere, reminiscent of a made-for-TV or direct to DVD movie.

The idea of a family moving into the actual Defeo house 40 years on was an intriguing premise, but what I could not get past was the fact that the eldest daughter had no idea about the house and it's history until her new-found friends informed her, along with it's grisly back- story. Had she been living under a rock? At first I thought - OK, the movies don't exist in this universe but then they actually mention the movies, sequels and remake and even venture to watch the 1979 original.

Still, it was watchable and although there were the usual clichéd horror tropes it did hold my interest until the end.

Patrick meets Amityville

[vacantskies00 · 5/10 · 15 November 2017]

This film has had a long, strange road behind it. Starting with a Daniel Farrands (Halloween 6) and Casey La Scala (Grind) found footage style script in play, over time it was scrapped. Leading to this film. Written and directed by Franck Khalfoun (P2, Maniac).

Straight away, Khalfoun has a solid list of directed films under his belt. Being said, ones written prominently by other writers turned out a much better product. With this film, cliché and limitations are at play. Early on, this film sought a theatrical release and I can see what changed it all. It is lacking a cinematic punch. Lighting and atmosphere gave way to what was ultimately a tightly wound production schedule. Followed by even more delays. Even so, the film the film is directed well. Some effective scares and setups set a decent tone at times. Again, those missing atmospheric ingredients keep us in the dark with knowing who is at the helm.

I did find this film an interesting blend of the catatonic, ESP driven thriller Patrick with Amityvilles sense of possession an interesting take on the property. It provides a decent backstory and drama to the plot to keep the terrors grounded in reality. Solid writing there.

The rating is a problem here too. Originally an R, it was recut to suit a PG-13. Why? The Ryan Reynolds remake was a hard R and found solid success. This merely added less scares and a plethora of cutaways. Missed opportunities and a waste of filmmakers time and money that could've gone elsewhere.

The actors are actually quite solid, ranging from new stars and seasoned ones. They manage to convey conviction to each of their roles, even when moments seem over done.

The issue here is that this film is an okay film mostly because of its delay, but also because of its redundancy. How many Amityville films do we have at this point? Including redbox DTV's, it's off the charts. Hence why Farrands and La Scalas earlier premise may have been a better pay off.

Instead of replaying the Amityville saga again and again, maybe a modern deconstruction of the age old tale is just what that old haunted house needs to set those demon eyed Windows ablaze again.

not great

[jaynestrange · 4/10 · 5 November 2020]

There's just not a lot here to review, honestly. Stuff happens, some of it is creepy, then it's over. The only really good thing I can say about it is Cameron Monaghan delivers quite an unsettling performance, despite the fact his character is immobile for most of the movie.

Classic possession movie with a twist

[andrew-harvey0 · 4/10 · 26 September 2020]

If Cameron Monaghan wasn't in this film it would of gotten a 3/10. Even though he barley speaks throughout the film, just his body motions alone provide that extra unease during a "scary" scene.

This was a classic haunting movie, family moves in, house is haunted and someone gets possessed. What separates this movie from the rest is the family knew what they were getting into, well specifically the mother. I found that interesting as you never find a film where the family wants to get possessed.

Again, the plot was a classic with a little twist. Acting was sub par, Monaghan carrying most of that. If you have already seen the original and remake of Amityville, and want more definitely give this a watch. But I wouldn't go out of your way to watch this.

It was Good Decent movie

[aexecutive · 7/10 · 27 November 2017]

This is the first time I am doing a review on a movie. I was bit sceptical after the poor reviews on IMDb regarding this movie but I still gave it a try. It is a decent good movie.It's not WOW movie but its a good decent movie to watch on a Friday night.It is a movie which am sure I can re watch in few years time like I normally do with good movies.

Does evil actually dwell here

[michaelRokeefe · 4/10 · 17 November 2020]

Joan Walker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) moves to 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, forty years after a notorious killing of a family occurred. She is in the hopes that some of the hair-raising rumors are real and there are dark evil powers remaining that can cure her comatose son (Cameron Monaghan). After oldest daughter Belle (Bella Thorne) brings home some friends to watch the movie Amityville Horror in the infamous house...nightmarish activity awakens.

Not so bad as I thought

[redplanet-26155 · 6/10 · 28 April 2018]

No good ranking, but it wasn't that bad. Better as Winchester xD Not boring, but of course also not the best I saw...

Horrifically bad

[fjk1138-731-161881 · 2/10 · 2 December 2017]

What happens when you expect nothing from a movie, but then get even less than that? Well...you get a piece of crap like this.

This is barely an attempt at horror, with barely any scares, and it drips the blood of the series' nostalgia more than anything else. The plot is severely weak, and it's worsened by the fact that it pulls the other movies into the story. No, I don't mean just by referencing the events, I mean they literally reference three of the movies here - one of the characters holds up DVDs of Amityville 1, 2, and the remake and suggests they watch them at 3:15 am. Huh? What?? That is the point where they lost me, and the stupid story took a deep six right down the well to hell right then and there. Speaking of which, that comes into play here yet again (people who have owned the real house have to be just shaking their heads by now) and hey guess what? That's the source of the evil again! Wow, didn't see that coming.

The acting is pretty meh, and all I can assume is the actors all had some bills to pay to even participate here. The house looks too neat, new, and clean to have any menace to it. It's also completely physically positioned incorrectly, made worse by the fact that they show photos at the start of the movie of the actual house where you can clearly see how close the neighbors are. And to think that all the other supposed occupants wouldn't have pitched that stupid "high hopes" sign into the trash is completely pathetic. The musical score, while mot bad for what it is, is no match for the creepy, squeaky strings and children's voices that Lalo Schifrin made work far more effectively almost 40 years ago now.

There is basically no point to this movie. It's nothing you haven't seen before, quite literally, and it's not worth your time. Don't bother, and I hope the studios all don't bother with future installments either.

Highly enjoyable and engaging effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 9/10 · 12 October 2017]

Finding a new house in the suburbs, a single mother and her daughters trying to move past their past tragedies find that their stylish new house is haunted by a series of ghosts from a past killing spree targeting the family for moving in and forces them to battle their way out of the house.

This one was quite the enjoyable and underrated effort. One of the better qualities about this one is the rather fun time it has going for the first half building up the idea about the areas' history and the house being possessed. Utilizing a great trick with the series of fly gags that are quite prominent here as well as the dog barking at everything, the way this one generates a rather uneasy feeling from the very beginning about being in the house gives this a really enjoyable baseline to delve further into the story. Going away from this into the rather strong haunting scenes which are full of the usual flash-jump cuts of ghosts standing behind people or threateningly offering to attack them like in the constant hallucinations she experiences of the bloody bed in her room gives this one a rather intriguing air about it which is nicely enhanced even more by the actions involving their troubled son. Not only is the physical handicap given a nice berth here with the way he's woven into the story but it manages to generate some rather enjoyable scenes interwoven into the film from the way he always seems to malfunction around her, the swarm of flies that attack the doctor when no one else is around or the truly heartbreaking revelation sequence that turns into yet another enjoyable jump scare which gives this one plenty to like. The fact that this one gives off the idea of his eventual recovery from the forces inside the house rather than typically going for the typical jump scares so predominant in the style makes for a rather fun time here as it slowly becomes more and more obvious what's happening to him due to the unrealistic recovery that tends to be explored here. By the time it gets to the finale and features the full extent of the transformation, this turns it into a thrilling series of chases around the house that attempts to recreate the actions of the previous occupants which is where the full-on fun of this one comes from as it attempts to move between stalking and brawling while also managing to generate the kind of conceptual finale that's highly enjoyable to see it play out. These here manage to hold this one up over it's few minor and somewhat nondetrimental flaws. The first one is the rather rushed finale that does have the feeling of being run through in a quick state in order to get through the story, both in terms of the on-screen action and the newsreel footage as these go by way too quickly to take them all in. As well, the fact that no one is aware of the history of the house and how it's tying into his recovery makes no sense, as this one makes the connection obvious yet it seems to be completely ignored for no reason in order to create the illusion to come later on. These here are all that really hold this one down as it's rather fun regardless.

Rated PG-13: Violence, Language and children-in-jeopardy.

Good horror movie !

[shohan-mann · 7/10 · 2 May 2020]

The movie has bit of suspense and thriller combination which keeps the viewers on their toes.

Amityville The Awakening: Swing batter batter swing

[Platypuschow · 3/10 · 25 November 2017]

This is the first theatrical Amityville release since 2005, the first legitimately high budget Amityville movie in a longtime so expectations were understandably high.

It tells the story of a family who move into the infamous house including a young comatose son who begins a remarkable yet sinister recovery.

With some familiar faces and money behind it this should have been considerably better yet fails left right and centre.

The whole thing is an unoriginal, predictable shoddily made mess to an extent even I didn't expect.

It surprises me that an actor on the upswing of his career like Gothams Cameron Monaghan would agree to do a film like this especially considering how much difficulty they even had in getting it released.

A swing and a miss.

The Good:

Features the actual Amityville house

The Bad:

Predictable

Poorly made

Cast are phoning in their performances

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Amityville has a biblical connection now....

I expected more, but it is decent enough

[Ricky112101 · 5/10 · 21 December 2017]

After countless years in pre and post production, this movie finally arrived to us in late 2017. I'll admit I kind of forgot about it, and just watched it last night (December 19, 2017). The movie just wasn't interesting to anybody anymore because of the constant release changes. In fact, the movie was only released in ten United States theaters and made about $700. But, enough about the movie statistics. Let's talk about the movie itself.

Amityville: The Awakening stars Bella Thorne, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Cameron Monaghan, and Mckenna Grace. These characters move into the haunted Amityville house located in Amityville, New York. This is the same house that Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family 40 years ago. However, the mother is keeping this a secret from her children. Bella (Bella Thorne) finds this out the hard way when kids at her new school bring it to her attention. The freaky and supernatural begins with James (Cameron Monaghan), who is in a coma, is suddenly awake and able to communicate. Well, this must be supernatural. Turns out it is. James is possessed by a demon. And he wants to murder his entire family in the same vein as Ronald DeFeo Jr. Oh, and it's up to Belle to save herself and her sister, Juliet (Mckenna Grace), because their mom (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is pretty much a supernatural worshiper because she moved to the house with the intention of the supernatural possessing Jason to make him better.

Sounds like a good movie? Yeah, on paper, it sounds like the generic fun summer horror flick. However, it is quite dull in areas, and the scares are pretty low, which is unfortunate, considering this is technically an Amityville movie. However, suspense was actually quite high, and acting was somewhat good. The few times I did jump were during cheesy jump scares like when it's just the girl behind her sister. Overall, I am going to have to give film a 5/10. I watched it and was entertained enough to watch the whole thing (it is only 87 minutes, though). I would only recommend this to some horror fans. Not everybody will be as generous with their rating.