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 | The Amityville Horror Director: Andrew Douglas Rated: MA Now Showing  All too often someone in Hollywood takes it upon themselves to remake a classic film. The problem with this is that they are considered classic for a reason, in that they're superior enough to survive analysis and constant re-watching over many years. With 'The Amityville Horror' (now with the tagline, 'Based on a true story' as opposed to, 'A true story'), I remember as a teen not being able to sleep for a week after seeing 'the true story' version, it was that skin-tinglingly scary. Of course time has a way of tempering these things, and together with the revelation that the events portrayed were all a sham, we can rest assured that it was only a movie. However, the actual Defeo family murders did occur in a house in the sleepy suburban hamlet of Amityville. Now to the 2005 take: why? One might forgive the makers if they'd only stuck to the facts (for want of a better word). For example, although totally unnecessary, at least the 1998 remake of Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) did it, as did last year's copy of yet another farcical biopic, 1974's 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (incidentally; screenwriter for 2004's 'Chainsaw', Scott Kosar, also co-wrote the new 'Amityville' - go figure?). I guess this is one way of introducing the younger generation, those who can't live without CGI intervention, to the marvellous world of immortal motion pictures. And that's my advice kids, go beyond the new release shelves at the local video outlet and be prepared to quietly whimper into your pillow far into the night. The mere fact that the real Mister and Missus Lutz have publicly denounced their own story should be reason enough to let sleeping demons lie, but by taking their fictitious adaptation and fudging it even further so as to sate the modern filmgoer's needs is totally unforgivable. I'm talking special effects and lots of them, not to mention plenty of twists on the many alleged occurrences (e.g. Harry the dog doesn't meet such a grisly demise in real life). The strength of what was shown in 1979 is that, other than a couple of red glowing eyes you never really got to see the source of their troubles, but by jingo you certainly felt its presence. The ever building tension between James Brolin and Margot Kidder, aka: George and Kathy v.1, alone was enough to send an empathic shiver down your spine. As for Ryan Reynolds and Aussie soap starlet Melissa George, I doubt whether they cared who they played opposite. In fact, I was hoping that director Andrew Douglas took liberties by simply killing them off in the end. As for the three Lutz kids: all the character names have been changed while Jodie Defeo (the little girl who was murdered and who becomes Amy/Chelsea's special little friend) remains, and all the child actors have been given much greater roles to play, though given such weak direction throughout you can guess the results. Just imagine if they decided to remake 'The Blair Witch Project', only this time using computers instead of Handicams? There you have it.  | |
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