Thursday, October 24, 2013

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Houses Don't Have Memories


"It just keeps getting worse"

We open on November 13, 1974 in Amityville, Long Island, where 6 people have been murdered, but there is no apparent motive.  Cops arrive at the scene, the main one in charge, Sgt. Gionfriddo, asks what the time of death was and we found out this happened at 3:15am.  We then go one year later where a couple, George and Kathy, are looking for a house and stumble across the Amityville house.  The real estate agent shows them around never mentioning the murder, but we then find out they already know, and they put in a bid and get the house.  A month later they are moving in and we meet their kids, Greg, Matt, Amy who are outside playing with the dog, Harry, after awhile of unboxing they head outside to play with the kids.  We see Father Delaney show up to bless the house, but no one answers, the door suddenly opens on it's own and Father Delaney comes in. 

"80,000? Might as well be 800,000"

He hears children laughing upstairs, which is impossible as everyone is outside, and heads up, he enters one of the rooms and sees everyone outside, and starts setting up to bless the house.  Flies start to appear and the door slams shut, them more flies appear, Father Delaney then starts to feel sick, and leaves.  Later that night Father Delaney calls the house, but there's a bad connection and Kathy can't hear who it is and hangs up.  George comes down from putting the kids to sleep and he has started to feel sick just like Father Delaney.  That night at 3:15am George wakes up suddenly and then has a strange urge to check on the boatshed.  The next day Kathy comes back from grocery shopping to find George chopping wood, she asks him to help her with the grocery's and he snaps at her.  Inside Amy introduces Kathy to her new imaginary friend, Jody, Kathy then calls Father Delaney about the blessing and gets Father Bolen who tells her that Delaney is sick.

"Grab a few beers and go play"

Kathy's Aunt Helena, who is a nun, comes by for a visit, but after a few seconds inside she starts feeling sick and leaves.  While all that was happening George was trying to fix the toilet, which have all started oozing some type of black goo.  That night at 3:15am Kathy wakes up screaming 'she was shot in the head,' well that's a little odd.  The next day, Father Delaney and Bolen are driving to the Amityville house, when their car starts going out of control and they crash, luckily they're fine.  Over at Amityville, everyone is getting ready for Kathy's brothers, Jimmy, wedding, when Jimmy loses the $1500 for catering, even though we just saw him put it in his jacket.  George, who is still sick, tells him they will find it later and that George will right a check for the caterer, they then leave for the wedding.  Amy ends up staying home, because she's sick, the babysitter goes to grab her pajamas out of the closet and the door closes and Amy wont open it.

"I'll take care of him"

Later that night, they get back home to find that the babysitter is still in the closet, they let her out and we find out that there isn't a lock on the door, but she says that it wouldn't open.  George yells at all the children, Amy then remarks that Jody was the one who wouldn't let her open the door and doesn't like George.  Father Nuncio, who seems to be the head priest, comes to talk to Delaney and Bolen, and he pretty much tells Delaney that he is crazy and leaves.  Over at Amityville, George is chopping wood again, he sure likes that axe, doesn't he?  A business partner of  George's, Jeff, and Jeff's wife, Carolyn comes over, but Carolyn stays in the car because the house gives her the creeps.  Jeff approaches George, who is now sharpening his axe, and George gets quite cranky with him and then he throws the axe at a tree and it sticks in the tree.  That would be my cue to get the hell out of there!

"It was locked"

Over at the house Matt and Greg are in Kathy and George's room messing with Amy, when the window closes down on Greg's fingers and they rush him to the hospital.  Luckily none of the bones in Greg's hand were broken, which is quite surprising.  That night at 3:15am George wakes up and heads into the room where Delaney saw the flies and finds a ton of flies too, suddenly the front door flies open and off it's hinges.  They call the police and Sgt. Gionfriddo shows up and we find out that not only did the front door fly off but the basement door did too.  Gionfriddo tells him that the doors blew out not in, so someone from the inside had to have done this, he also tells George that he looks just like a member of the last owners of the house.  The next day, Kathy is talking to Amy and Amy tells her more about Jody, and that Jody tells her about the little boy who used to live there and that he died, Jody also wants her to live there forever. 

George goes off to the library to steal a book and then goes to meet up with Jeff and Carolyn, while Kathy stays home and calls Father Delaney.  Kathy gets a hold of Delaney, but the connection is bad again and she hangs up, someone knocks on the door, and it's a neighbor, the phone rings and no one's on the other line.  Kathy goes back to the door and no one's there, later that night  Kathy hears Amy talking to Jody and when she enters the room Amy tells her that Jody jumped out the window, Kathy goes to look by the window and sees 2 eyes, creepy.  George, Jeff, and Carolyn are at a bar and are going over books trying to figure out what's going on in the house.  Carolyn tells them that the house was built by a witch and it's cursed land.  They head back to the house, Carolyn and Jeff head to the basement because Carolyn is getting vibes from it, Carolyn heads to a wall where Harry is scratching at and starts breaking the wall down. 

"It's the passage to hell"

Carolyn remarks that there are people buried behind the wall, George comes down, and he starts helping her break the wall down.  When the wall breaks down a red wall is revealed and a ghost face of George appears, Carolyn starts freaking out and says it's the passage to hell.  We see that Gionfriddo is sitting outside in his car and appears to have been there all day.  Carolyn and Jeff leave, Kathy and George go to grab the cross, but it is upside down in the sign of the anti-Christ, and start blessing the house.  Something happens when they are blessing the house and Carolyn starts freaking out.  Father Delaney is in an empty church, preaching, when pieces of a statue starts falling apart and Delaney looses it. 

In the middle of the night, George gets up and starts unrolling a carpet, Kathy then wakes up and leaves the room, George then hits her over the head with an axe, Kathy then wakes up and it was just a dream.  The next night George wakes up screaming and Kathy comes running, and she sees bite marks on his legs, he gets pissed at her and hits her.  The next day Kathy goes to find Delaney and finds Bolen who tells her that Delaney has 'gone on vacation', she tells him he needs to talk to him, but he wont budge.  We then see that Gionfriddo is following Kathy, he then follows Bolen who meets up with Delaney, who has become mute and completely out of it.  Kathy goes to look up archives of the news paper when the murder happens and finds a picture of the murderer, who looks exactly like George. 

"Come on Harry"

At the house we see George sharpening his axe and digging up what looks like graves, Kathy is speeding to get home, thinking George is a killer.  When she arrives she finds George with the axe, he almost kills her but he snaps out of it and tells her he would never hurt her or the kids, the walls then start oozing blood.  At this point it has started to storm really badly, and the upstairs windows open and the floor in the basement bursts open too.  They decide it's time to get the hell out and get into the car and drive away, but they forget Harry and George goes back inside to get him.  Harry is in the basement and when George gets to the basement he falls into some type of black ooze, but gets Harry, leaves the house and they all drive away.  The credits then roll telling us that George and Kathy never reclaimed their personal belonging and now live in another state.

The End.
 
This was my first time watching the original, I knew the story of Amityville, but the only version, as there are many versions, that I had seen was the 2005 remake.  The actors were a little over the top, but the movie was still really good.  Tell me what you thought of the movie in the comments, on Twitter (@SilentToHughes) or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SilentToHughes).
 
Hope you all have a great night!

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