Given everything that happened in the first three films, you have to question the wisdom of buying anything from a yard sale at the infamous Amityville house, but that's exactly where Helen Royce (Peggy McCay) goes to get a present for her sister Alice (Jane Wyatt). An ugly light stand powered by three centuries of evil, the unlikely gift turns up at Alice's home in California just as her recently widowed daughter Nancy (Patty Duke) and grandchildren Amanda (Zoe Trilling), Brian (Aron Eisenberg) and Jessica (Brandy Gold) arrive to stay.
Very few horror series reach a fourth instalment with much dignity intact, and it seems that the Amityville movies are no exception: The Evil Escape is totally dumb and devoid of logic. Thankfully, it is also so daft at times that it becomes one of those 'so bad it's actually quite entertaining' experiences that can be passable fun just so long as one watches it accompanied by several beers and a few mates with equally questionable taste in movies.
Much of the film's unintentional hilarity can be attributed to podgy faced actor Eisenberg, whose awkward mannerisms and unconvincing facial expressions are almost as terrible to behold as his nasty 90s hairstyle (Eisenberg's 'best' scene: Brian wrestling with a possessed chainsaw in the cellar), but the film also gets chuckles courtesy of its laughable central prop (the supposedly malevolent lamp that looks like a balloon-headed tree-person with glowing hands), a couple of silly death scenes (plumber drowned in goop, strangulation by lamp cord), and one hell of a crazy climax that sees the evil defeated by elderly Alice, who simply throws the lamp out of the window!
Sadly, being a made-for-TV movie, Amityville 4 suffers from minimal gore (the only bloody scene being when a guy gets his hand caught in the garbage disposal) and nudity is non existent despite Zoe Trilling looking more than qualified for a gratuitous shower scene.
Very few horror series reach a fourth instalment with much dignity intact, and it seems that the Amityville movies are no exception: The Evil Escape is totally dumb and devoid of logic. Thankfully, it is also so daft at times that it becomes one of those 'so bad it's actually quite entertaining' experiences that can be passable fun just so long as one watches it accompanied by several beers and a few mates with equally questionable taste in movies.
Much of the film's unintentional hilarity can be attributed to podgy faced actor Eisenberg, whose awkward mannerisms and unconvincing facial expressions are almost as terrible to behold as his nasty 90s hairstyle (Eisenberg's 'best' scene: Brian wrestling with a possessed chainsaw in the cellar), but the film also gets chuckles courtesy of its laughable central prop (the supposedly malevolent lamp that looks like a balloon-headed tree-person with glowing hands), a couple of silly death scenes (plumber drowned in goop, strangulation by lamp cord), and one hell of a crazy climax that sees the evil defeated by elderly Alice, who simply throws the lamp out of the window!
Sadly, being a made-for-TV movie, Amityville 4 suffers from minimal gore (the only bloody scene being when a guy gets his hand caught in the garbage disposal) and nudity is non existent despite Zoe Trilling looking more than qualified for a gratuitous shower scene.