Review #47: The Amityville Horror (1979)


This review was originally written in October 2017.

Horror Movie October day 20: The Amityville Horror

First things first: This movie is relatively long, and has a fairly slow pace. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it's just the kind of movie you have to be in the right mindset for.

That being said, I think it does what it's trying to do really effectively. It's not gory, nor are there really any jump scares (even for so old of a film)- the horror instead comes from the atmosphere and the tension the movie puts forth. You, the viewer, are scared because the characters are scared. The film does a fairly good job of showing rather than telling- we don't necessarily see anything scary actually happening, but we see the effects of the scary things on the characters. The main character, for example, spends the majority of the movie in a downward spiral towards insanity, and every scene it's more apparent than the one before (not only in his behavior, but also in the lines on his face and his disheveled appearance).

This movie also hit home (no pun intended) because I'm a new homeowner myself, so the fact that most of the problems that befall this family are realistic ones that could befall any homeowner makes it just that extra little bit scarier.

Final Rating: 7/10 Scenes Parodied in Scary Movie 2

Worst Act Committed by the Evil House: Stealing $1500 from a groom on his wedding day

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