Amityville: The Awakening (2017)

I really wanted to like this movie - I went into with an open mind not really knowing what to expect from it as I had not read any of the reviews.

For me it lacked atmosphere, reminiscent of a made-for-TV or direct to DVD movie.

The idea of a family moving into the actual Defeo house 40 years on was an intriguing premise, but what I could not get past was the fact that the eldest daughter had no idea about the house and it's history until her new-found friends informed her, along with it's grisly back- story. Had she been living under a rock? At first I thought - OK, the movies don't exist in this universe but then they actually mention the movies, sequels and remake and even venture to watch the 1979 original.

Still, it was watchable and although there were the usual clichéd horror tropes it did hold my interest until the end.

Fmovies: I'm giving this movie a ten out of ten because for some reason it got a lot of bad reviews. I watch a lot of horror movies and this one definitely deserves a better score than a 4.7. If you like jump scares and are a horror movie fan in general, it's worth a try. I loved it. If you enjoy a creepy story with good acting, which is hard to say for a lot of horror movies these days, watch it.

Infamous for its long history of delays, re-ratings and re-namings, "Amityville: The Awakening" has finally been released internationally, and it's a little gem that still haven't got the final form it deserved. Firstly the atmosphere and the look of this franchise installment are a big treat. By no means this is a trashy production. Cinematographer Steven Poster, famous for The "Donnie Darko", created some soft silky photography akin to childlike innocence, which of course dramatically contrasts the harsh events of the story. With its dream-like atmosphere and surreal logic (partly probably a result of the production leapfroging) new "Amityville" steps on the ground of some morbid nightmares, disarms the viewer and easily brings in all the spooks. Someone in the audience, while we all watched the movie, at some point even screamed in terror: "I don't understand what's happening!". It could be plainly because of the story-telling issues, but this movie also has plenty of dark and bold psychological twistedness pouring over the screen. New "Amityville" still has some gore, even with the PG- 13 rating (R-rated goreness might make this movie way too depressing), but the good ol' suspense is at the center here with the haunted-house, haunted-youth themes. Bella Thorne is just beautiful (period) and also perfect for the deer in the headlights role, with a lovely Gothic teen angst style. Veteran actress Jennifer Jason Leigh gives a creepy performance of an overly fixated mother going through a faith and parental crisis. Leigh's as usually great in being very sweet and somehow lovecraftian at the same time. Her and Thorne's mother/daughter liaison is one of the best thrilling elements of the story. I haven't seen any other "Amityville" films, so it would be interesting for the fans of the original and the franchise itself to see what this new installment brings in (prepare yourself for a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of the "Amityville" universe, which I found rather sweet). It has some cult-potential with all the R-rated version and Director's cut and alternate endings hopefully coming ahead (even the trailer shows a lot of scenes that didn't get in theatrical cut). Yet, the production havoc is especially obvious in the abrupt ending of the movie. You know something went wrong when in the end you get a voice-over basically explaining the story you just saw. Probably, french director Franck Khalfoun (good with artful gore, see "Maniac" (2012)) was heading towards more ambiguity, but instead we get a rather anticlimactic ending and Thorne's incomplete character. Still a nice journey into the dark for all the fans of morbid spooks and especially for teenagers, who are going to be shocked. A lot of jokes will be made in terms of how "awakened" this movie really is. Actually "Amityville: The Awakening" resides perfectly on edge of still seeing a surreal bad dream with just a second away from opening your eyes into reality.

Amityville: The Awakening fmovies. 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")

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

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.