Australia’s Via Vision Entertainment recently released The Amityville Horror Collection. The set, which is entirely region free, includes the first three films in the Amityville Horror series as well as the 2012 documentary My Amityville Horror and a slew of bonus content and special features. Having only seen the original film in the series I decided to break this set in by watching everything. These our my thoughts.

The Amityville Horror – 1979 – Dir. Stuart Rosenberg

The Amityville Horror is the “true” story of the Lutz family and the ordeal they suffered after moving into a large house where a mass murder occurred. We all knows the basic story, right? No need to really dive into specifics here, but I’m certainly going to give my thoughts on the film as a whole.

Going into this little marathon the 1979 version of The Amityville Horror was the only film in the series I had seen, but it had been years since my last viewing. Having seen it for the first time in about 10 years I have to say it’s not very good. It’s effective and I do like it, but if I’m being honest it’s not really a good movie. There’s plenty of good pieces here but when they come together it doesn’t really deliver the way I’d like.

The performances are great, especially the main three – James Brolin, Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger. Brolin is truly frightening at times as George Lutz, particularly because he seems so real. At the start he seems like a typical step-father trying to win his wife’s kids over. There seems to be a genuine love there. And then it all changes before our eyes. The house drives him mad and he begins to take it out on his family. Kidder provides the perfect balance to Brolin. As he begins to lose it and become meaner she maintains a tenderness, and yet it’s a tenderness that feels just a bit off. Something doesn’t feel quite right with her either. And then there’s Steiger’s Father Bolen. He delivers the best individual scene of the film as he tries to convince the other leaders of the church that an exorcism must be performed on the house.

Speaking of these church leaders, one is played by Murray Hamilton. Hamilton famously played Vaughn, the Mayor of Amity in Jaws, and was largely responsible for the chaos that ensued due to his refusal to close down the beach. In The Amityville Horror he plays Father Ryan, but he’s basically the same exact character. He scoffs at the idea of there being an danger and claims you can’t go around performing exorcisms because it’s bad for church business. Sounds a lot like Mayor Vaughn.

And of course you can’t talk about The Amityville Horror without discussing Lalo Schifrin and his Oscar-nominated score. The theme, which seems to get brushed over at times when discussing great horror themes, is quite iconic. It’s one of those that as soon as you hear it you instantly recognize it and chills shoot down your spine. It has an eerie vibe that sets the mood for the entire film.

Ultimately this first entry manages to be effective but just not that good. Which I know sounds weird, but the film succeeds in creating scares and getting in your head, but when it’s all said and done nothing ever really happens. It just sort of toys with you the entire time, which makes it a fun watch late night with the lights turned out, but nothing more.

Amityville II: The Possession – 1982 – Dir. Damiano Damiani

The sequel (which is actually a prequel, though I’m not sure they do a good job getting that point across) Amityville II: The Possession is the movie in the Amityville series to really get excited about it. In this film a family of six – father Anthony (Burt Young), mother Dolores (Rutanya Alda), teenagers Sonny (Jack Magner) and Patricia (Diane Franklin), and younger children Jan and Mark – move into the Ocean Avenue home. For the most part everything seems fine at first. The family certainly isn’t perfect and has their issues. Anthony seems to have some anger problems and Dolores doesn’t always feel loved, but for the most part this is a pretty typical American family.

Despite this normality there are some signs early on that the house may not be all that it seems. When one of the movers is moving things down into the basement he notices what appears to be an extra room. Dolores asks him to check it out, and for some reason he does. What he finds is a dark, damp room that seems to be suffering from some type of plumbing issue. He brings this to the attention of Dolores and she says she’ll look into it, but it never seems to come up. Like they never call a plumber or anything. Anthony doesn’t even take a look. Personally I would have had somebody look into it.

As the audience we know the problems with the house come from that room, but the family is oblivious because they failed to take the necessary steps to assess the problem and find a solution. And as everyone knows failure to take care of a plumbing problem early on leads to possession. This is basic knowledge every home owner must know!

Once the possession begins the house starts to mess with the family. The typical happenings of a possession occur – things are slammed around, weird noises are heard, etc. For the most this is all pretty standard. Things really begin to pick up once the possession focuses in on Sonny. As Sonny tries to relax and listen to his headphones a voice begins talking to him. Before he knows what’s happening that voice convinces him to murder his whole family, which he does in a pretty dark scene. But what happens before we get to that point is truly insane.

The dynamic between Sonny and Patricia seems odd from the jump. The two seem very close, but in a way two siblings should not be. They’re very flirtatious with one another. Once Sonny becomes possessed he kicks things up a notch, eventually asking Patricia to take her clothes off so he can look at her. She readily agrees. Sonny then climbs on top off her and the two begin to kiss. She resists at first but quickly lets go and then two proceed to have sex.

At this point I thought Sonny and Patricia were step-siblings. I figured I’d missed something up front and this explains why they have so much sexual tension. They were related, but only by marriage. Nope, I was very much wrong. Sonny and Patricia are brother and sister with the same biological parents making this already hugely creepy and uncomfortable scene all the more disgusting. From Sonny’s perspective though I get it, he’s possessed, but Patricia isn’t, so why does she go along with it? We never find out why but later in the film she does say she has no regrets for sleeping with Sonny.

So yeah, the incest stuff is totally weird and creeps me out. I could do without all that. Outside of that, however, I think this film is a lot more fun than the first one.

Amityville II is great because it goes for it. My biggest issue with the first film is that it feels tame, it never goes all out. It presents good ideas but doesn’t do anything with them. That’s not the case on this go around. Sonny not only gets possessed but he actually changes into a demon. Like his face morphs and it’s awesome. Basically this is the amped up version of the first film with some killer practical effects.

One last note – I’m not sure if this is based on the actual killings that took place at the house before the Lutz family moved in, but I have to guess it is to at least some degree. And in that regard I think that makes this prequel all the more interesting.

Amityville 3-D – 1983 – Dir. Richard Fleischer

Amityville 3-D is a direct sequel to the first film. It opens up with a reporter (Tony Roberts) trying to prove that the house isn’t really haunted. He seems successful at first and he is able to help prove some ghost hunters are frauds. This eventually leads to the reporter opting to buy the house because he can get it for a smoking deal. Apparently he learned nothing from the Lutz family.

This movie, man, ugh. I went into this one so excited. Following up the second movie and including a 3-D element I expected the film to go for broke. Instead we get a film that completely pulls back. The first hour is incredibly boring. Almost nothing happens. They talk about the history of the house a bit and we see a few forced 3-D shots but that’s about it. Eventually after a game of Ouija board things pick up a little bit. We actually get a sign that the house is possessed and we find an open portal to hell in the basement of the home.

Amityville 3-D is sort of like if John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness was in 3-D and had all the good parts removed. It sort of has that same vibe – a huge team comes into a building setting up various gadgets to test for paranormal activity, eventually locating a portal. But it’s all just so uninteresting. This feels like a movie in which they expected the 3-D to be enough to carry it and perhaps that was the case in theaters back in 1983 but it certainly doesn’t work today.

The most interesting aspect of this movie is you get to see early performances from Lori Loughlin and Meg Ryan, but that’s where the interest stops. This is Richard Fleischer’s Jaws: The Revenge.

My Amityville Horror – 2012 – Dir. Eric Walter

Whether or not there is any truth behind The Amityville Horror has always been a great topic of discussion. While I love watching the movies and generally speaking find them all to be entertaining, I don’t really buy the story. And it’s not that I feel the Lutz family made the story up, but I feel like there’s something else there that we’re not quite getting. It’s cool to think of it as true, but I highly doubt it. Even if the stories from the Lutz family were 100% fabricated that wouldn’t change my opinion on the movies. I judge the movies based on what they are, the source material doesn’t really matter.

The last film on this set is My Amityville Horror and it is basically the source material in documentary form. Daniel Lutz, who was a small boy when his mother and step-father purchased the house on 112 Ocean Avenue, has spent the majority of the last 30 years or so trying not to really talk about it. That’s impossible of course but he has done his best to keep it all in the past. With My Amityville Horror Daniel opens up for the first time to tell his story on camera.

In what might be a bit of shock, Daniel appears to be a pretty normal dude. He’s clearly undergone something extremely traumatic but all things considered he’s doing quite well. He sees a therapist on a regular basis and has done so for the majority of his life which prevents him from keeping things bottled up. He has a steady job that he’s had for a number of years and lives in a small town where he has plenty of friends. Despite all of this you can tell Daniel comes from a place of darkness.

When Daniel talks about his experiences in the house you can tell he believes it all. There’s no question in his mind that the house was and is still possessed. But once Daniel begins to talk about the relationship with his parents, particularly that which he had with his step-father George, you begin to see that there may be something else at play. The relationship between Daniel and George seemed to be turbulent at best. It doesn’t sound like things got too physical all that often but Daniel definitely suffered a lot of mental abuse over the years.

The way I see it a small boy got caught up in his parents’ paranoia. Unfortunately it had a pretty significant impact on Daniel.

In my opinion My Amityville Horror is actually the scariest movie in the Amityville franchise. Again not so much because I believe the house is possessed, but seeing the impact the events had on the life of Daniel Lutz is in many ways terrifying.

Both The Amityville Horror and Amityville II: The Possession look very good on this release in terms of picture quality. In fact I would go as far as to say Amityville II looks great. Amityville 3-D on the other hand suffers a bit. I don’t know if it’s because of the 3-D or what but the picture looks very soft. I don’t have the Scream Factory trilogy release from a couple years back, but reading up about it online and it sounds like the transfers used in this release from Via Vision are the same. Looking at the special features (listed below) for the three Blu-ray discs and you’ll find the same exact special features from the Scream release providing further evidence that the transfers are likely the same.

The Amityville Horror (Blu-ray)
*”For God’s Sake, Get Out!” – A look at Amityville Horror with James Brolin and Margot Kidder
*Haunted Melodies with Lalo Schifrin – A journey inside the music that makes horror come alive
*Original Theatrical Trailer & TV Spot
*Original Amityville Horror radio spots
*Still Gallery
*Audio Commetnary by Dr. Hans Holzer, Ph.D. in Parapsychology

Amityville Horror II: The Possession (Blu-ray)
*The Possession of Damiani – Interview with Director Damiano Damiani
*Adapting Amityville – Interview with Tommy Lee Wallace
*A Mother’s Burdern – Interview with Rutanya Alda
*Family Matters – Interview with Diane Franklin
*Father Tomn’s Memories – Interview with Andrew Pine
*Continuing the Hunt – Interview with Alexandra Holzer
*Trailers
*Still Gallery
*Audio Commentary with Alexandra Holzer

Amityville Horror 3-D (Blu-ray)
*2D or 3D
*A Chilly Reception – An Interview with Actress Candy Clark
*Photo Gallery
*Trailer

Amityville Confidential Bonus DVD
*My Amityville Horror
*On Location: The Amityville Horror (2005)
*Amityville: Horror or Hoax?
*Amityville: The Haunted

The special features as you can see are absolutely loaded. A number of commentaries and a ton of interviews. The “For God’s Sake, Get Out!” documentary is really great with some good stuff from Brolin and Kidder. As I’ve mentioned in a number of past reviews I really dig old TV and radio spots so I’m happy to say this box set offers up a number of those for your enjoyment (or my enjoyment at least).

What sets this Via Vision release apart from the Scream Factory release is that bonus DVD containing My Amityville Horror along with a few other special features. The on location of the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror is an interesting but weird addition. Given that the remake is not included on this set it’s sort of bizarre to have that special feature, but it is a fun little watch. The really awesome special features here (aside from the documentary) are two episodes of “History’s Mysteries” that center on The Amityville Horror – Amityville: Horror or Hoax? and Amityville: The Haunted. For those that don’t remember “History’s Mysteries” was a documentary television show that aired on the History Channel for about 16 years starting in 1998. It was a great show that tackled a number of world-famous mysteries and broke them down in full detail in roughly 45 minutes. Twice the show took on the Amityville story and both episodes are included and turned out to be my two favorite bonus features on the whole set.

My one issue with this box set is that it only contains the first three films from the series plus My Amityville Horror. This a long horror franchise containing some 17 films. The likelihood of getting all 17 films on one set is a stretch to say the least. Rights are a tricky thing and I understand that, but man I would have loved a few more films included on this set, namely the fourth entry – Amitvyille 4: The Evil Escapes. This is a made-for-TV film about a haunted lamp. The addition of The Evil Escapes would have pushed this set over the top. Anyway, that’s a minor complaint at best and one that really isn’t Via Vision’s fault.

The Amityville Horror Collection is an awesome set from a great company. If you a fan of the series, this is the set you want.

The Amityville Horror Collection is now available from Via Vision Entertainment.