Director: Richard Fleischer
Writer: David Ambrose
Stars: Tony Roberts, Tess Harper, Robert Joy
Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
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Synopsis
A couple goes into the Amityville house and is greeted by an old couple. They’re going to have a seance. It turns out the young couple is a pair of reporters, and the old people are faking the whole thing.
The next day they go back and investigate, and they find a hole in the basement, a so-called “doorway to Hell.” The reporter ends up buying the house because it’s such a steal. He says people are way too superstitious. The Realtor gets locked in the “fly room” and ends up dying there.
Melanie the photographer took photos of the Realtor the previous day, and in all the photos, his image is defaced. Why? Melanie gets a scare from Delores, the Amityville housekeeper, and John has a bad experience in an elevator. Later that night, Melanie finds out the the house gets cold.
John’s teenage daughter and her friend explore the house and end up in the basement. Nothing happens. John’s photographer partner is burned to death in a traffic accident caused by crazy flies.
The daughter and her fiends grab a Ouija board and start a seance. They steal a boat and go out on the water. The daughter comes into the house soaking wet, but won’t speak to her mother. It turns out she’s actually dead— she fell out of the boat; that must’ve been a ghost inside the house.
Finally, they call in a paranormal investigation team, and things start to really happen. Maybe. The demon in the basement eats the paranormal investigator, but the dead daughter’s spirit escapes, and the entire house explodes spectacularly. So… happy ending? No more Amityville house!
Commentary
It’s pretty slow and not much happens, at least early on. It does include early appearances by both Meg Ryan and Lori Loughlin.
It’s pretty dated and not much really happens. There are many shots of the famous house, but other than that, this could have been literally any other haunted house movie; nothing ties this in to any of the previous films or characters.
A lot of the things that happen are simply there for 3D effects, like the house blowing up, poles, and Frisbees shooting at the camera and things like that. Overall, I don’t recommend this one.