DVD Movie Review #205 Amityville: A New Generation

What is it about the Amityville series that makes me come back for more? I mean I must be an addict as I have been seeking out movie after movie in this series. One of the hardest parts as an Amityville collector is that many of these films are out of print, including this beauty. So in a bit of Christmas madness I ended up doing a bit of Amityville buying and got hold of a few more movies in the series so this time I give you the movie "Amityville: A New Generation".

We start out or movie with our protagonist, a starving artist with a secret past. Everything changes one day when he runs into a strange street person with an old antique mirror. After getting hold of the mirror many of the people around him seemed to keep dying as the curse of the mirror infects them all. In the end his strange and dangerous past comes back to haunt him in this strange and paranoia inspiring film.

These films are interesting as they really run the gammit. They range from really good to mediocre to just plain bad. There is one common theme here though and that is the theme of paranoia and agitation. Throughout the entire film I felt my anxiety rising as the film kept creeping towards its climax. I felt the main character's paranoia grow and after learning his dark secret it only made the feeling worse. I have to give this to the film as it got the feelings right overall. I also like the art motif in this movie with one art piece in particular having to do with a TV and a Shotgun. The creepy art and cast of strange characters lent itself to the atmosphere the film generated to its advantage. The effects were nothing special but then there were not a lot of needed effects to make this special and it had just enough to make this work. This film accomplished most of what it was going for and as an Amityville Spinoff that is a good thing.

The Acting was one of three drawbacks from this film. This was the main one as it almost ruined the mood of the movie at times such as with the scene above which nearly made me laugh instead of give me the feeling that I had earlier on watching this. Many of the characters were wooden in their presentation and a few even overacted leaving a pretty mixed presentation. The second drawback was the music. I usually try hard to not dwell on dated material being used in a film as it was good at the time and they couldn't know that it would be that bad. This movie had an obviously cheesy soundtrack that reflected the time of its making and it didn't translate well to the current time. Instead of filling us with the feeling the directors had intended this instead left us feeling cheesed out a bit. Finally I have to say that the ending was not as good as it could have been. I feel like many of these movies are overly predictable and this was still the case. The plot moved slowly and then because of it you could see the ending coming from way back at the half-way point of the movie.

This movie had a number of drawbacks yet it was still enjoyable and the director got across what he was trying to convey with all of these problems in play. I feel that this movie is one of the better movies in the Amityville series and definitely worth a watch if you can. In this case the positives far out weigh the negatives.


Rating:  7/10