The Amityville Horror (1979)

"I checked into the murders. And I checked into the twenty year old boy who killed his parents, and his four brothers and sisters. And when he was at trial, he testified that he heard voices in the house. He heard voices in the house and the voices told him to do it! Now, I was in the house and I heard the voices, too!" -Fr. Delaney.

First off, I know it's been a while since I've posted. I've taken a hiatus for personal reasons, but plan to get back to writing more for this blog and resume work on my next book in the coming months. Having said that, as it is Halloween, here's another review I was hoping to write for Agonybooth.com As anyone who's familiar with this film knows, it was based on a real case in which the Lutz family simply fled their home in Amityville, Long Island in 1975, merely a month after purchasing it. They claimed it was because the house was haunted, although some said it was due to the pater familias George falling behind on payments he had to make. But was is true is that, the previous owners were murdered by their son a year earlier in that house. The murderer, Ronald DeFeo, also murdered his siblings and was subsequently institutionalized. George and his wife Kathy explained their sensational story to journalist Jay Anson, who would chronicle it in the best selling book The Amityville Horror. The story itself became a media sensation, even becoming a subject on In Search Of.... Naturally, this success prompted Hollywood to make a movie about it. The film begins with George (James Brolin) and Kathy (Margot Kidder) purchasing the house shortly after their marriage. Despite the fate of the previous owners, they decide to settle in quickly with Kathy's three children. Shortly afterward, Kathy's pastor Ft. Delaney (Rod Steiger) comes by to bless the house. However, his attempts to do so are thwarted by a barrage of house flies, mysteriously thriving in winter, and a disembodied voice saying "GET OUT!!!" This leads to Delaney quickly leaving the place.

Later, after finding mysterious blisters on his hands, Delaney informs his colleagues Fr. Ryan (Murray Hamilton) and Fr. Nuncio (John Larch) about what happened, but they don't offer any support. Delaney and Kathy attempt to contact each other via telephone several times but all they hear on the line is static. Meanwhile, the Lutzes are becoming unhinged by strange occurrances involving their home, including a toilet flushing black ooze, an incident where a babysitter in inexplicably stuck in a closet for hours, and George constantly stoking a fire to keep warm. The latter causes him to neglect his job and his appearance, which, naturally, makes the family take a financial hit. Once Delaney inexplicably becomes blind, Kathy looks up the house's history at the local library. She discovers that it was built on the site of a Shinnecock burial ground and how George is actually starting to resemble DeFeo, which leads her to return to the house on a stormy night.

She gets assaulted by George as he attempts to kill the children. Fortunately, he snaps out of it so he, Kathy and the kids can escape. He even gets back into their good graces by going back into the house to rescue their dog, Harry. The film was a huge success of American International Pictures, despite some initial critical pans. Personally, I thought the performances were fine and the house spooky, but not overly so (unlike the house in the crappy 2005 Amityville Horror, which overdid everything here with bad acting to boot). What I've always loved about the movie, though, was Lalo Schifrin's haunting musical score. While The Amityville Horror isn't as fun to watch as House on Haunted Hill (1958), it isn't as masterful as The Shining (1980), and it isn't as exciting as Poltergeist (1982), it has a nice, creepy atmosphere so it's understandable why it was successful. I'd take it over its shitty sequels and remake any day.

Superman II vs. Superman II

A while back, one of my colleagues at AgonyBooth.com wrote up a comparison between the theatrical and re-issued versions of Superman II. Here's my take on both versions.

As most Superman fans know, the original plan was to have the original 1978 film and it's first sequel always be a two-part epic. That is basically how it ended up, but one key event took place. Superman director Richard Donner was fired by producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind for basically taking too much time on the original film. This is why the film ends with Superman turning back time, which was supposed to occur at the end of Superman II. However, much of Superman II was already shot, so the Salkinds enlisted Richard Lester to replace Donner, as they had worked with Lester on The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. However, Donner's firing led to both Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman walking away from Superman II (Hackman's scenes were already shot by this time, which is why he is still seen in the movie). While Superman II was a success, fans were still understandbly upset that the man who helped make the original so great was treated so poorly by the producers. In the years since, there was basically a demand for an original cut of Superman II with Donner getting directing credit. In 2006, the same year Superman Returns was released, that original cut was released and soon made available on home video. Here are the good points of the Donner cut: 1. Seeing Brando as Jor-El, which gies nice continuity with the original film. 2. Having Zod, Ursa, and Non released with the nuke Superman kept from destroying New Jersey, which is a nice bit of irony and better than the generic terrorists threatening Paris. Despite this, however, I actually prefer the Lester cut. The following reasons for this are:

1. The opening scene with Lois trying to prove Clark is Superman is out of place, especially with the flow of the rest of the film.

2. The moment where Lois discovers Clark is Superman doesn't have the heart that it did in the Lester cut and obviously looks like rehearsal footage.

3. Jor-El just magically appearing to give Clark back his powers, despite his statement that doing so would be impossible. The manner in which Clark becomes powerful again in the Lester cut is better done (the crystal Clark neglects to put back) and more effective than his old man basically saying that he changed his mind.

4. Superman turning back time after the bad guys have been taken care of. I realize this was the original ending for the second film, but the ending of the first had a more powerful reason for Superman to change time (reviving Lois). As a result, repeating it here is just repetitive. It also makes the climax less enjoyable as Clark comes across as just a super-bully when he kicks that bully's ass in the restaurant, whereas we could cheer Clark for doing so in the Lester cut.

While I prefer the original version, I certainly encourage anyone who's a Superman fan to check out the Donner cut as it does have some nice moments.

Black Christmas (1974)

"I don't think you should provoke somebody like that, Barb."
"Oh listen, this guy is minor league. In the city, I get two of those a day."
"Well maybe. But you know that town girl was raped a couple of weeks ago."
"Darling, you can't rape a townie."
-Clare Harrison and Barb Coard.

As this is the holiday season, the Agony Booth recently posted a review of the infamous slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984). This film became instantly notorious upon its release because of its depiction of a Santa Claus-suit-wearing serial killer. The TV spots for the film (which, the review states, were aired during prime time when children are still watching TV) were pulled after just one week, and any cinema showing the film was picketed.
Upon seeing the film for myself years later, I was not surprised to find that it was just as dumb as the many other slasher films that came out during the 1980s. However, I must add that I did not feel that it damaged the image of the holiday season the way many parents said it did. Granted, having the TV spots air at a time when young children are watching TV was not a smart move, but the film itself, when all is said and done, is just dumb fluff and nothing more. If anything positive can be said about the film, it's that it's not as awful as Valentine (2001), which (and I know this is saying a lot) is my choice for the worst slasher film ever, but that's a story for another time.
But the idea of a scary film set during the holiday season can be good, as this gem from 1974 (first released in the U.S. under the title Silent Night, Evil Night) proved. Die hard horror fans know Black Christmas as the film which was the predecessor to Halloween (1978) and, yes, some of the camera angles and the way the film's killer stalks his victims are reminiscent of what we'd later see in that film. One can also see the influence of this film in Wes Craven's Scream (1996), even though the film itself, unlike other slashers, is never mentioned in that picture.
This story focuses on a group of college girls who are terrorized by an unknown stranger in their sorority house during the holidays.
One of them, Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) is pregnant, but wants an abortion, which upsets her boyfriend Peter Smythe (Keir Dullea). But Jess and her sorority sisters must also contend with harassing phone calls. Her friend Barb Coard (Margot Kidder) basically scoffs at the unknown caller, prompting the presumed man to reply:
"I'm going to kill you!"
Soon, the sisters and their house mother Mrs. Mac (Marian Waldman) begin falling victim to the caller until Jess is the last one standing. The film ends with her killing Peter, thinking he's the killer, but the ending ends with a haunting tone with the suggestion that the killer is still on the loose.
Unlike future slashers, the police here, led by Lt. Kenneth Fuller (John Saxon, who would play a similar role in 1984's classic slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street) are actually presented as competent.
The killer's taunts over the phone are quite nerve-wracking, and the killings themselves are jolting without being overdone. The final scene of Jess sedated and resting alone in her darkened bedroom also puts the viewer on edge.
Not surprisingly, the film's following over the years led to a stupid, needlessly gory remake in 2006. Like Silent Night, Deadly Night, that film was picketed (it premiered on Christmas Day), but, like other unsuccessful remakes, it makes one appreciate the original more.
The original's director, Bob Clark (who produced the Christmas remake), would go on to even greater success with the sex comedy Porky's (1982) and the beloved, family-friendly comedy classic A Christmas Story (1983), both of which would become quite influential themselves, before his tragic death in a car crash in 2007.