Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Film

Also opening: Amityville revisited

By STEVE PERSALL
Published April 14, 2005

The 1979 version of The Amityville Horror was the last gasp of a post-Exorcist wave of demonic possession thrillers, being replaced by the slasher mentality of the Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. Not exactly an elevation of creative standards, but far more graphically violent than the devil's scare tactics.

The bogyman genre still makes money, so reviving a brand name in terror and adding grislier special effects is a smart business move. At least it worked for Dawn for the Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and they didn't have the theological angle that made moviegoers squirm a generation ago. Or, in the case of The Amityville Horror, the notion that all this creepy stuff might be true.

The new, R-rated version (trimed from its original NC-17) stars Ryan Reynolds (National Lampoon's Van Wilder) and Melissa George (TV's Alias) as newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz, whose claims of living in a genuinely haunted or possessed house in Long Island couldn't be 100 percent debunked 30 years ago. The original starred James Brolin and Margot Kidder, with Rod Steiger hamming it up in the exorcist role taken over now by Philip Baker Hall (Magnolia).

According to the Lutzes, their house was always freezing and occasionally filled with flies and weird noises, and a red-eyed pig's head peeked in the windows. That was fairly frightening in 1979, although that version's R rating would easily be a PG-13 today. The new, possibly improved remake is expected to be drenched in gore, with stronger profanity, brief sexuality and drug abuse.

The Amityville Horror wasn't screened in time for Weekend. A review will be published 4/15/05 on Page 2B.

- STEVE PERSALL, Times film critic

[Last modified April 13, 2005, 10:29:10]