Tags:
Film: Amityville 3-D
Year: 1983
Director: Richard Fleischer
Writer: Williams Wales
Starring: Tony Roberts, Tess Harper and Robert Joy
Review:
This film begins with a couple coming to the Amityville house for a séance, the couple played by Tony Roberts and Candy Clark. There is an elderly couple that is hosting the event; they are played by John Beal and Leora Dana. While it is going on, we learn that Roberts and Clark are trying to communicate with their dead child named Rikki. It then turns out that they really aren’t a couple and they are there to prove that Beal and Dana are phony. A doctor comes in played by Robert Joy as well as the district attorney. Beal and Dana flee the house. Joy wants to investigate the house, then the power goes out, they decide to come back at a later time to look around.
The next day we meet the man that owns the house, he is played by John Harkins. While in the basement, Harkins falls through the floor to discover a dry well. Roberts informs Harkins that he will be implicated in the story that he and Clark are writing. That is what they do, they write for a magazine that disproves the supernatural. Harkins tries to avoid this and it seems they come to an agreement, Roberts wants to buy the Amityville house.
We also learn that Roberts and his wife, played by Tess Harper, are going through a divorce. They still live together, but Roberts tells her that he has to move on. They have a teenage daughter who is played by Lori Loughlin. We also meet her friend, who is played by a young Meg Ryan.
Harkins gets to the house first to finalize the deal. He goes inside looking for Roberts. He hears something upstairs and thinks its Roberts. As he goes up to check, a mirror in the bathroom ices over. He gets up to the attic and there are flies. They continue to multiply until they engulf him. Roberts finally arrives and goes up the stairs. He hears Harkins choking. When he gets up to the top, he watches him die. Clark asks him if he finds this weird, because she doesn’t like the house. He states that Harkins was unhealthy and that’s why he died. Clark isn’t convinced.
Roberts and Clark decide to work together on their article that night. Roberts tells her that she can go by his house, but he has some running around to do. Clark is reluctant, but agrees. She arrives and goes inside. When she tries to leave, the door won’t open. She calls out to the woman who works for Roberts. She goes into the kitchen and she finds the other woman. She tells her that she is leaving, because her job is done. When she does, all of the doors work again.
Things get really weird though when the power goes out and she goes into the basement to fix it. She gets freaked and then attacked by an arctic wind. When Roberts gets home, he finds her in front of the basement door, covered in snow/ice. Clark freaks and leaves without talking to him.
Roberts goes to speak with her and see what is going on. Clark tries to convince him that the house is haunted, but he is a professional skeptic. Harper also thinks it is haunted and forbids their daughter from going there. Ryan is fascinated by it and has Loughlin show her around.
When Loughlin doesn’t listen to her and dies in a boating accident, Harper sees her in the house when she is supposed outside. She doesn’t think she is dead, while Roberts tries to convince her. Joy comes up with a plan to investigate the house, they can either prove it is haunted as well as show she isn’t crazy or they can show her that the house is not haunted to help her move on. What is this monster that Clark finds in the pictures she took?
I want to lead off that I really like the original Amityville Horror, but this one is not very good. The acting is bad for the most part with part of it being that their reactions to events are off. Ryan, even though her role is small, is probably the best acting in the film. I know she is supposed to be a wild teen, but she doesn’t have a lot of on-screen time to flesh this out. The monster that is used in the film isn’t bad for the 30 seconds it is used.
I think the story is horrible, unbelievable and doesn’t make sense. The scares are weak and I think the monster, even though the look of it is good, I’m not sure what its purpose is in the film. As I have said, it has about 30 seconds of screen time. The reactions I stated above are horrible. I will give Harper reacting the way she did to finding her daughter dead, but Clark dies and no one seems to notice or even say anything about it. There is really nothing to do with ghosts. Roberts should see a red flag about the house he is moving into when Harkins dies and everyone gets freaked, but I do like that he sticks to his guns. When more die, I think I would see some kind of pattern and move on, yet he blindly continues to live there. All of this adds up to a bad film.
I would not recommend seeing this film. Really the only reason to see this film would be if you are into trying to watch all of the Amityville films. The acting is bad, the story is horrible and most everything that happens doesn’t make sense. There really are not any scares and I was bored throughout. I would definitely say to avoid this one.
My Rating: 4 out of 10