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Initial Thought: I feel like a franchise. So I decided on the Amityville series since they have a new one coming up soon. I hear most of them are awful besides this and the remake. The new one looks like it should be good too. Anyways let's see what this is all about.
Characters/Acting: I adore Margot Kidder. She was such a prominent actress in the 70s. I swear Josh Brolin looks just like his father James Brolin. It's crazy how they look like they could be twins. There was a bit of overacting which is kind of expected from these films. I did find James Brolin to be great though. He was honestly the best thing about this film aside from the dog of course.
Story: A haunting in Amityville causes strange occurrences within a new family's new home. Houses were murders took place never make for anything other than horror films. This feels somewhat like a mixture of The Omen, The Exorcist, and Poltergeist. The jump scares here made me laugh. There were moments when the person shouldn't even have been scared. The music is pretty good here as is usual for the classics. It kind of seems that some parts of the plot were just left behind. The ending was kind of bland and left a few questions unanswered.
Directing/Writing: This is my first run in with Stuart Rosenberg who seems to be known as a slightly above average director. Jay Anson wrote the book this is based from. The book was also used for the remake. Sandor Stern wrote the screenplay here and has credit under the remake as well. It looks like he was also involved in part four of the series. This story is based upon Kathy and George Lutz whom the remake uses the material of as well.
Final Thought: It was an okay movie. I think for it's time it might have been scary. As of now it didn't really do much for me. I mean the atmosphere was creepy sure, but it just didn't have the scare factor I would have hoped for. I was much more entertained by the remake. I can see why it's a classic though. It's nice for a one time watch for the nostalgia.
