The Amityville Horror - 1979
In a film aimed at shocking the audiences of its time with a tale of familial disquiet inside a home besieged by any number of dark forces, the true revelation is the biggest stunner of them all - The Amityville Horror is an aggressively mediocre film.
I am, of course, aware of the setting and context of the film's release. Amityville seems to be aiming for a slow burning menace, where each scene is full of unrest and increasingly threatening moments. It is a picture of its time, and some of this works quite well. Several images linger long after the credits - the swarming bees, illuminated eyes outside a dark window, overwhelming fits of nausea when any religious figures approach the property. The same could be said for a few critical sequences - the "watch your fingers" window slam and occurrences of "the voice" are a few examples in this vein.
Far too often though, this film simply suffers from sluggardly pacing. The film's denouement is unsurprisingly its highlight. But to have a picture with 15 minutes of real, white-knuckled thrills without all that much preceding it strikes me as less than ideal. To put it most succinctly, I would just say I found the pacing to be odd, and discontinuous (read: start and stop).
Other times the writing and actual plot minutiae let us down. There is a side plot involving Margot Kidder's brother, a wedding, and some lost money which seems like an odd vestigial organ. Again, Father Delaney sits down for a showdown with the priestly brass over the strange happenings in the Lutz' home. While I welcome every chance to see F. Murray Hamilton I get since Jaws, this simply ends up being another loose strand. The dialogue offers the same head-scratching moments from time to time.
Yet, to my mind, the most glaringly problematic aspect of the whole picture lies in moments where, say, actors get a little TOO dialed up. Apparently Rod Steiger was still feeling himself over a decade after his controversially winning turn in In the Heat of the Night here. Though, this time around, it's uncertain whether he's aiming for an Oscar or a Razzy. What is crystal clear, however, is that, in Father Delaney, Steiger makes a rock solid case for the overacting Hall of Fame. His volume and intensity scales oscillate wildly from 1 to 10 and back again. A subtle performance this is not.
Still, there are certainly some things to recommend this one. James Brolin is not only suitably, ruggedly handsome for the paternal role, he also perms up nice alongside his ghastly hues once the haunting begins. Margot Kidder too is really going for it here, and she balances well a lovely wife who wants to embrace the adventure of a new home and place alongside a growing sense of dread. A couple other local townspeople and priests come in and out of Amityville giving the film color and depth.
Regardless of what's gone before, the real selling piece for The Amityville Horror remains its thrilling conclusion. If you end up walking past this one anywhere in the final 20 minutes (though who would do that in the streaming world of today, I'm not sure), you'll be there to stay. After hinting at terrors lying beneath, the house fully "awakens" in the third act. Those old Shinnecock graves and Salem witch descendants bring all the malevolence to a head. Soon the floorboards quake and the walls begin to seep blood in an indoor chaos mirroring the wild tumultuous storm outside. The question of the family's survival becomes paramount as the film hurtles towards its conclusion.
There is no question that The Amityville Horror has been much cited and often imitated in the many decades since its release. Perhaps then it is most accurate to call it an imperfect juggernaut, full of its slow or awkward moments and lines of dialogue, but most significantly marked by the terrifying house at its center.
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