
I am a huge fan of both Margot Kidder and James Brolin so I certainly feel right in my comfort zone when seeing a film with the two of them together. Rod Steiger is no slouch either and throw in Don Stroud and the previously mentioned Mr. Hamilton and it's a solid mix of 70s character for my particular wheelhouse. Another thing that affected my viewing this time was the fact that I have recently seen the MY AMITYVILLE documentary and I must say it creeped me out in a big way. While it of course draws attention to the Hollywood-ization of the true events, it nonetheless made this much more impactful than your standard 'based on a true story' message flashed briefly at the beginning of so many movies. There's plenty of over-the-top stuff in the movie itself so it becomes hard for me too take in all that seriously, which further clouds my take on the real events. It's a fascinating situation and it engages me with the films a bit more than I would be drawn into your standard demonic house/possession flicks. One thing I think people forget is just how much of a phenomenon this movie was at the time. Costing only about $4.7 million, it grossed, more than $86 million at the time. That's still pretty impressive.
This disc includes some fun extra features:
-'For God's Sake, Get Out!' A look at the film with James Brolin and Margot Kidder. Here both actors talk about their early days of acting, how they cane to be involved in the movie and how they came at the scenes as actors.
-'Haunted Melodies with Lalo Schifrin'- wherein the composer discusses the music in the film.
-An Audio Commentary by Dr. Hans Holzer, Ph.D in Parapsychology(author of 'Murder In Amityville' and 'The Amityville Curse').
AMITYVILLE II: THE POSESSION(1982; Damiano Damiani)
AMITYVILLE II: THE POSESSION(1982; Damiano Damiani)

The cast is a unique melange as well. Burt Young feels like he was just instructed to carry his ROCKY character right into this role as a married father of four. It's a bit odd to say the least, but he's an interesting patriarchal choice to square off against the supernatural.
Diane Franklin (in the same year that LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN) came out is lovely of course and given some outlandish stuff to do(see above incest mention). Jack Manger is off his rocker but enjoyable enough as the possessed son in the family. Interestingly, he only did one other film role that I can find mention of which is curious. I think it can often make a performance(especially of this type) more memorable when the actor in playing the role has no other baggage you can attach to them from other movies as far as parts they've played. This disc also features a nice little group of supplements:
-'The Posession of Damiani' - an interview with director Damiano Damiani.
-'The Posession of Damiani' - an interview with director Damiano Damiani.
-'Adapting AMITYVILLE' - a new interview with Tommy Lee Wallace wherein he discuses his approach creatively to the script and how he used the real-life AMITYVILLE murders as a jumping off point for the story. This pretty straightforward interview was one of my favorite extras on the set.
-'A Mother's Burden' - interview with Rutanya Alda.
-'Family Matters' - interview with Diane Franklin.
-'Father Tom's Memories' - Interview with Andrew Prine.
-'Continuing The Hunt'- Interview with Alexandra Holzer(daughter of Hans Holzer).
AMITYVILLE 3-D(1983; Richard Fleischer)

In this round of the evil house story, Tony Roberts plays the Dana Andrews-as-skeptic-like-in-CURSE-OF-THE-DEMON role here and he fills the shoes well enough. His character is an exposé journalist who decides to scoop up the very cheap AMITYVILLE house and live there himself. As we can all imagine, thus goes quite poorly. The actors I mentioned above along with the 3D-ness of this movie make it a good time for me.
This disc features only one extra feature:
-'A Chilly Reception' - an interview with Candy Clark.
All of the movies in this set all look quite wonderful on Blu-ray and it's quite pleasing to see AMITYVILLE 3-D get the Blu-ray 3D treatment.
All of the movies in this set all look quite wonderful on Blu-ray and it's quite pleasing to see AMITYVILLE 3-D get the Blu-ray 3D treatment.
1 comment:
If you had any doubt about AMITYVILLE HORROR's influence on POLTERGEIST, the similarity of Jerry Goldsmith's score to Lalo Schifrin's should remove all doubts. The one thing I could never get past in AMITYVILLE HORROR is how blindingly obvious it was that Steiger wasn't available for shooting on the same days as any of the other principal actors, and the ludicrous lengths the scriptwriters had to go to in order to prevent the characters from running into each other.
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