[3]

James Brolin and Margot Kidder star as the parents of three children who move their family into a house with an evil past. The previous family was murdered in the house, and now evil spirits are determined for history to repeat itself. Brolin’s character slowly begins losing himself, becoming possessed by spirits who want him to take an axe to his wife and kids. Meanwhile, Kidder keeps trying to get a preacher (Rod Steiger) over to the house to perform a blessing, but every time Steiger tries to visit or call them, the evil spirits intervene, causing him to puke, grow burns and boils, or even go blind. The family ultimately decides no house is worth this level of trouble and try to make their escape, but is it too late?

Despite it’s popularity and apparent place in horror film history, The Amityville Horror is a very long, dull, tedious affair for me. It’s almost infuriating at times. It falls into a cloying (mild) tension and release cycle that prevents the film from building any lasting suspense. Whenever anything remotely interesting almost happens, the film loses no opportunity to deflate our engagement and resort to insipidity again. It takes 90 long minutes for this family to even think about leaving the house, building absolutely no mystery in the process. There just isn’t enough of an escalation of events to warrant the film’s full, two-hour run time. It could easily have been at least thirty minutes shorter. The stakes and the pace pick up in the last fifteen minutes, but the climax is over and done with in a very unsatisfying flash. Then the film tries to give us a surprise double-ending when Brolin goes back inside the house to save the family dog, only to fall into a puddle of goo. He simply climbs out, grabs the dog and leaves again — and this is the film’s big finale?

I like the concept of the movie — a family is torn apart by a haunted house trying to kill them. But The Amityville Horror is terribly written, poorly paced, and executed without much style in a mostly flat, TV-movie quality. I love Margot Kidder (Superman: the Movie), but she doesn’t have enough to do besides scream, cry, and hang all over Brolin. At least Brolin gets to wrestle with insanity, and Steiger gets a few emotional moments as well. Murray Hamilton (Jaws) pops up in a good scene with Steiger. Lalo Schifrin’s music is easily the best part of the whole affair.

Directed by Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke).

Oscar Nomination: Best Original Score (Lalo Schifrin)