Amityville: The Awakening (2017) Reviews

• Not a complete disaster, but far from being decent

  ABCloverLane2017-07-28

  Although a date has yet to be determined for the US release of the movie, Amityville: The Awakening has finally come out internationally. After several delays that began 2 and a half years ago, this movie has sort of become a joke in the Hollywood movie industry and everyone has started to wonder how bad this new iteration in the Amityville franchise could actually be. I managed to see the movie today and while there aren't too many good things to be said about it, it is far from being the worst horror movie that has been put out in theaters. Actually, that's this movie's main problem: a theatrical release. It would've been better off as a straight-to-DVD movie, given its poor technical aspects which bugged me the most. First off, the movie is a jump-scare fest, which wouldn't have been that much of a problem if the majority of them wouldn't have been fake scares. They were all extremely cheap and failed to land because there was no build-up to any of them. I couldn't even hear ONE scream from the audience I watched the movie with because, though arriving at unexpected moments, the scares turned out as laughable and nonsensical. Now that I think of it, I am having a hard time remembering at least one memorable scare or moment of suspense. The direction of the movie was completely flat and some truly atrocious editing choices certainly didn't help it. Not only did they take me out of the moment, but they also made certain scenes incomprehensible. What also took me out of some scenes during the big showdown at the end of the movie was the terrible VFX. Another criticism I have for this movie is its extensive use of dream sequences and visions, which didn't help the plot at all and were completely unnecessary, besides for setting up another random jump- scare. The score of the movie was supposed to help building tension, but it rather comes out as annoying and somehow manipulative. The ending of the movie felt abrupt and unsatisfying. Certain scenes that were included in the international trailer a month ago were nowhere to be found in this cut of the movie. On the other hand, the performances of the actors didn't bother me at all. Bella Thorne's acting is, surprisingly, not wooden at all and she actually gets to show some of her acting skills in a few emotional moments. Most of these are opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh, and the two actresses make the mother-daughter scenes work. A highlight of the movie is Thomas Mann who gets to shine in a few comedic moments as the movie geek friend, although he doesn't get a lot of time in the spotlight. The movie is at its best when it doesn't try to scare the audience, but perhaps make us weep. My favorite scenes were the ones in which the characters begin to form emotional bonds. Talking about characters, the most complex arcs belong to Belle and her mother, Joan, who have dramatic backstories and real motivations. However, the two friends that Belle makes at her new school are left hanging in the air after a certain a point and are underutilized. Also, Belle's little sister completely disappears from the movie for a good portion of the running time, which leaves me thinking that the screenwriter-director didn't know what to do with her while the main characters were in peril. Another positive aspect of the movie was its self-awareness of being yet another movie in the Amityville franchise. Some of the characters even agree on the fact that the 2005 remake of the original movie is not worth a watch. However, the movie gets bogged down in the mythology of the past installments in the series, as it so often goes back and tries to recreate certain plot points of the other movies. Overall, I think this movie is, simply put, bland, utterly forgettable and a poor excuse to bring back the Amityville long-running franchise to a new generation, paling in comparison to this new wave of critically and commercially acclaimed horror movies of the past few years.

• Amityville in title only.

  jeremy-david-kuehnau2017-10-08

  Amityville the Awakening is finally here after many, many push-backs and delays. Was it worth the wait? Well like many films that use the Amityville name, not really. The cinematography is fine, the actors are okay. One of the biggest issues with the film itself is the audio, there are plenty of scenes where dialog is drowned out by background sound. The film starts off on a good step, using what looks like old police footage to explain about the Defeo murders, unfortunately from there the movie makes a steady decline into worthlessness. Instead of making the movie about the house, murders and haunting, they choose to focus on a bratty girl and her vegetable of a brother. The haunting takes a back seat to the family drama, which makes the movie even worse. Poor pacing, poor writing, the movie is less than thrilling. Let's put it this way, there's a reason why they opted for a limited theatrical release and putting it up for free on Google play in October through December. It's a film even the producers and directors can't stand behind. The reality is, the original Amityville was popular because it was portrayed as a true story, so the family drama was more humanized. With these other films, it's about the horror and this film completely ignores that.

• Remarkably Poor

  TdSmth52017-10-23

  A mother and her two kids move into the Amityville house. There's the teen daughter, Belle, the younger daughter Juliet, the dog. The mom's got a sister too. No men allowed pretty much. Oh, well, there's James, but he's in a coma and kept home. It's Belle's senior year of course and while everyone knows she lives at the Amityville house, she doesn't now anything about it. Until a classmate tries to befriend her and tells her all about the place but because he's male he's the butt of jokes and treated like crap by Belle and some other girl he introduces her to. Back at the house, the dog barks at stuff, there are shadows, there are pesky flies and Belle starts having vivid nightmares about James. We learn that James is in a coma because of a fight he got into defending Belle, so she is bizarrely held responsible by the mother. There's some type of magic circle still around some area of the front lawn somehow. Even though the doctor and most of the family think that James is in a coma for good, the mom, who gave up religion because of this situation, is convinced James will recover. And sure enough he does, at a rather amazing pace. The kids suspect James might be possessed and they are right. So somehow Belle will have to save the family before as the fully recovered James goes homicidal. Even for a PG-13 horror movie, Amityville: The Awakening, is remarkably dull, lame, uninteresting. It's hard to connect with the arrogant Belle. Much of the characters' behavior is nonsensical. Worst of all, there is zero sense of dread, nothing is really at stake here. It's 10 minutes before the movie ends that finally things become deadly. By then of course it's way too late to get some excitement going. Not to mention that this movie doesn't even look good. It's the kind of movie where it's pitch black most of the time and none of the characters think about turning a friggin' light on. Darkness alone doesn't make a horror movie, let alone a good one. The only frightening thing about this movie is how bad it is.

• predictable and full of clichés

  trashgang2017-10-10

  The original Amityville horror (1979) spawned a hardcore following and had the mystery of being based on true events. Being an instant hit it created a franchise sadly going downhill after part two. A remake (2005) did bring the story to the new kiddies in town and it had to happen, 2017 brought the story back again. Bright thinking of the production to bring back the original story and some parts of the original flick is shown. So far so good but let me say that this was the best part. There's nothing scary at all in this flick. Of course they tried to add some jump scene's but they are so predictable that it doesn't work. On the other hand all the killings are done off-camera that it becomes so low on horror that it is really bad. And so cliché, the sister being the outcast, a Goth chick, really? Nope, this wasn't really worth watching for me. Just watch the 1979 version and forget the awakening. Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 1,5/5 Comedy 0/5

• Terrible Story and Poorly Written Screenplay

  claudio_carvalho2017-10-19

  The seventeen year-old Belle Walker (Bella Thorne) moves to Long Island with her mother Joan (Jennifer Jason Leigh), her little sister Juliet (Mckenna Grace), her comatose twin brother James (Cameron Monaghan) and her aunt Candice (Jennifer Morrison). James suffered an accident and depends on the life support equipment to survive. His neurologist Dr. Milton (Kurtwood Smith) knows that the braindead James will not recover but Joan does not accept the truth and has high-hopes that her beloved son will recover. When Belle goes to school, she learns that her address is the notorious Amityville house where a father killed his family forty years ago. Belle discovers blood stains under the wallpaper of her room and soon mysterious things happen in the house. When James recovers after a flat line, Belle believes an evil thing has possessed he brother. "Amityville: The Awakening" is another Amityville horror film with terrible story and poorly written screenplay. The characters are not well developed and the conclusion is deceptive. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): "Amityville: O Despertar" ("Amityville: The Awakening")