'The Amityville Horror' (2005) Film Review

The Amityville Horror (2005) was the remake of the popular 1979 film of the same name, supposedly based on the true events of a house in Amityville, Long Island, New York. The remake was directed by Andrew Douglas, a british director who has recently directed the dark thriller uwantme2killhim?

A family move into a house where a horrible murder happened a year previously. For the 28 days that they’re in the house, terror ensues…

I think that The Amityville Horror is a good all round horror film, it’s rated a 15 by the BBFC which means that it’s not too extreme, but it’s enough to have the desired effect. For example, when Michael wakes up in the middle of the night needing the bathroom, the slow editing really builds the tension and then the zombie looking monster that appears next to him really emphasises the tension and cultural dominant ideology of being afraid to get out of bed in the middle of the night, because of what could be in the dark. This is the first horror film I ever watched when I was 11 and I think that this is why the film is so memorable to me. I remember being so terrified by the film that I was too scared to go to the bathroom by myself and could barely sleep for weeks, even now I avoid getting out of bed in the dark if I can help it. Now looking back on it, the terror is a result of the suspense that the film builds up with the slow editing throughout.
 

In my own trailer, I'd like to use the idea of people acting differently to how you expect them to. For example, George is such a family man and yet he also tries to murder the rest of the characters. Although this is due to his possession, I think that the confliction that Kathy faces with needing to protect herself and her children from him but still loving him and staying loyal to him is an interesting concept to explore within a horror film. 

I think that the conventional family setting in the film is something I will use in my own trailer because my audience will relate to the terror of your family being under threat. However, I would avoid using the supernatural and possession in my own trailer because I want it to be that the villain of the film is fully in control of himself and knows what he’s doing. I think that this will be effective because it will really establish who the audience are rooting for in the film and avoid any conflicting views of characters.  

Propp’s archetypal character functions establish Kathy as the final girl in the film, she manages to get both of her children away from George in his possessed state. Due to Kathy's mental fortitude nobody actually dies in the film. She is strong and smart and this challenges stereotypes of blonde women which makes her a progressive character.

Low key lighting is used throughout the film which is a convention of horror films because of the previously mentioned common fear of the dark. Certain scenes such as in the basement would not have had the same effect without the shadows and darkness that the mise-en-scene shows which is why it's such a popular horror technique.

Gore is one of the most common horror techniques that is repeatedly used because of the reactions it gets. In this film, there are a number of scenes which involve blood although I wouldn't say that this is a particularly gory film especially. One of the notable gory scenes is when George hears the dog snarling in the boat shed but his paranoia causes him to think that it's something more sinister, so he attacks the dog with an axe and kills him. We see the blood splatter and hear squishing sounds before seeing the bloody dog laying on the floor.

Another horror convention in the film is the use of the creepy location. The house is stereotypical for a horror film with it being so large and overpowering in its location. In The Amityville Horror, it is the house that seems to possess both Ronnie and George, and therefore it is essential that the house has a suitable look and style and this particular house is similar to those in other horror films such as Paranormal Activity (2007), Insidious (2010) and The Grudge (2004). The house makes Ronnie and George both want to kill their family's at 3:15am which is a subject that will make the audience uncomfortable. I also think that the repetitive references to the time 3:15am is effective because it makes that time of night seem daunting and will stick in the audiences brains.

The extreme close ups in the film are another example of horror conventions used within The Amityville Horror. They are effective within a film because it can be unsettling to see something so close. One example of an extreme close up within the film is in this clip when the nail is seen being hammered into the wall, which could perhaps symbolise the violence that is to come.

My favourite scene in the film is when the babysitter arrives at the house and is terrorised by Jodie. The reason this scene is so effective is because the slow montage throughout the majority of the scene builds up the tension which emphasises the collision cutting when she gets locked in the closet. The babysitter is your stereotypical female victim (even though she doesn't die, she still gets wheeled into an ambulance on a stretcher); she’s blonde and has a provocative code of dress which usually connotes vulnerability in horror films and also portrays Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, established in her essay "Visual Pleasure In Narrative Cinema" (1975).

Another scene that I enjoyed was when Kathy arrives home to find that her daughter, Chelsea is standing on the roof of the house because her 'imaginary friend' told her that if she stepped off the roof, she'd be able to see her daddy again (who is dead). I thought this scene was really effective because I can imagine this would be every parent's worst nightmare, and it does nearly end badly. The fast paced editing in this scene really heightens the panic that the audience feel and the scene provides a disruption to the equilibrium of the film, as per Todorov's Classic Hollywood Narrative.

My least favourite moment in the film is when a sub-plot is introduced with the history of the house and the torture chambers in the basement. The reason I didn't like it is because I think it detracts from the main plot and loses the audiences attention. This encourages me to keep my plot line simple in order to maintain the same level of fear throughout. Also, because I’m only making a trailer and not a whole film it’s important that I make maximum impact and I think complicated plots will only confuse the audience and lose effectiveness.

Overall, I think that The Amityville Horror is a horror film which has enough horror conventions in it to be unsettling and even jumpy at times, but isn't so scary that it's no longer enjoyable.