A
girl named Susan Baxter (Lori Loughlin)
has two parents who have separated.
Her father is John (Tony Roberts) who is
a journalist who buys the abandoned house
in Amityville to do some reasearch with
scientists since the legend of that
family who was killed by a family member.
Susan's mother Nancy (Tess Harper)
forbids her daughter to go to that house
but doesn't listen to her and goes there
with her friends.
They spot a hole in the ground of the
basement leading to the center of the
Earth which was once an Indian burial
ground.
Suddenly, Susan drowns in the lake there
and the parents try to summon up her
spirit in the house with a paranormal
investigator as Nancy saw her deceased
daughter "alive" in the house.
They go to the basement where the hole is
which is now bubbling with water and
deadly events start to happen.
This film was way
too silly to be considered dark and
scary. It really doesn;t explain itself
too well whether or not it takes places
after the departure of the Lutz family
but people mention the family who were
murdered there which were of course the
DeFeo's
It was very corny and unbelievable yet
still fun to watch if you're in the mood
for a trashy film.
It also features your everyday teenagers
wanting to explore the place and living
for danger too not realising what they're
getting themselves into.
The acting is
fairly good for it's time and featured
some upcomers who became household names.
Tony Roberts nicely portrayed his
role as a businessman reporter and father
who decides to buy the house in
Amityville and shows nice appeal to his
character.
Tess Harper was also good in her
role as the cautious mother and does
really well when she almost loses her
sanity too.
Candy Clark has great timing by
playing an annoying photographer as she
really brings out alot to her role.
Lori
Loughlin does well as a curious
teenage girl wondering what is lurking in
the house but doesn't want to get
frightened.
Meg Ryan really stands out well in
one of her film debut's before moving
onto mainstream motion pictures as the
lightheaded teenage friend who behaves
goofy.
There is a woman
burned alive in a car
A side of a girl's head is rotted.
A side of a mans face is burned
The directing by Richard
Fleischer is average and uninspired
but it's not terrible like what you see
in most of these types of low budget
flicks.
We have an impressive opening with the
house at night with the wind breeze
blowing the tree branches.
There's an impressive beginning that
involved two of the main actors Tony
Roberts and Candy Clark being
greeted by an elder woman played by
Leora Dana. All the setting during
this looked cheesy but impressive.
Dana really was good at making out
she was sick when she does a summoning by
her coughing. She also shows a nice
wicked look towards Clark after
she gets busted and spits in her face as
it makes you not want to know this nasty
woman.
There's terrific camera shots looking
outside from a window on the actors as if
something inside the house is watching
them and probably is.
We see a good shot on supporting actor John
Harkins falling from the floor and
later on a good shot on some flies
swarming around in the attic and
attacking him landing on his face.
There's a nice suspenseful shot on Harkins
gagging lying on the top step with his
hand reaching out.
The argumentive dialogue between Roberts
and Tess Harper looked real as
they seemed like a soon to be ex-married
couple.
There's a hilarious moment between Clark
and small actress Josefina Echanove after
scaring one another when Clark
opens a door and they shock one another
as they let out comedic terrifying
screams and talk to each other that way
at first.
There's a great suspenseful happening
when Clark opens a door to the
cellar and a gust of stormy wind blows
her back.
There's nice blocking on Roberts
when he walks up to Clark lying
on the floor and she gets paranoid
freaking out and running out of the house
trying to ward him away from her as the
direction there had true energetic
performances by the two of them.
Clark is a wee bit slow with her
reaction screaming when her car is caught
on fire.
The most memorable direction by Fleischer
is with both Lori Loughlin and
Meg Ryan when they go exploring
the house and Ryan teases her
and acts strangely with her in order to
bug her about what happened there.
There is a perfect shot looking up at the
two of them from the hole in the ground
when Ryan does her speech on
what's down there and then suddenly
someone is walking downstair and they
react very well by getting up and looking
scared.
Another nice setting is with Loughlin
all wet walking in the house showing no
expression and walking up to the attic
and Harper calling after her and
following her which almost looked
believeably haunting.
Roberts reacted emotionally well
after discovering that his daughter
drowned and Harper was superb by
behaving paranoid not accepting it and
running around the house trying to search
for her.
We have some intense direction on Roberts,
Harper and the main supporting
actor Robert Joy when they try
to summon something up from the hole in
the ground as water is gushing out and a
perfect shot on Joy sitting there waiting
for it. Harper was perfect with
her raging reactions while Roberts
is trying to hold her back.
One of the best shots is a cheesy shot on
the house blowing up.
The music was composed by Howard
Blake and is quite good as a
composer. His music is similar to the
music in a Friday the 13th
type film.
Lisa:
I hear you bought yourself a haunted
house.
John Baxter: I just bought the
house, not the ghost.
Elliot
West: A famous writer once said
"Reality is the only word in the
language that should always be used in
quotes."
Melanie:
I don't want another one of your rational
explanations, John. I know what I
experienced, and I'm not crazy.
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