Rent The Amityville Terror (2016)

only just ok - The Amityville Terror review by CP Customer

This was just okay to watch probably just the once , just a basic horror film but everything has been done before.

Nothing new to see here - spoilers follow. - The Amityville Terror review by NP

This film gets straight on with the business of introducing us to the new family moving in to 'the spooky house'. Within moments of Hailey (Nicole Tompkins), the sardonic teen daughter ('she's been through a tough time'), exploring a new neighbourhood she clearly feels is beneath her, mum Jessica (Kim Nielsen) and stepdad Todd (Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau) have come close to having sex before it is revealed she is 'never in the mood'. Ah - domestic unease. Todd's sister Shae (Amanda Barton), who is renting the house to them, has a history of alcohol abuse and this sparks an argument. And all this before they've barely even closed the front door behind them!

I've never been hugely into the Amityville series. The first film I felt was lightweight and faintly ridiculous: an evil, sentient building is a great idea, but seemed more concerned with destroying a wholesome American family than generating anything interesting. And yet it was a very successful venture. Quite how subsequent projects have featured the 'Amityville' banner and been so amateur is puzzling. This isn't the worst venture into the franchise, but it isn't very involving and worse, doesn't attempt anything that hasn't been done many times before. The lack of aspiration on display allows you know exactly what you're in for only probably slightly less polished than you may be used to.

The acting is mostly fine, the effects few and far between, whereas the story is little more than a box-ticking exercise: wholesome love interest in the form of Brett (Trevor Stines) who reluctantly warns of the bad things that happened in the house (indicating that this is 'the' Amityville house, despite bearing little resemblance to previous building, despite the original featuring on the DVD cover for this), bad girl bullies, and an ending where (spoiler) everything has been forgotten and inexplicably covered-up as new residents arrive to carry on the franchise (whose fate is revealed at the beginning of this instalment).