Continuing with my pursuit of the Amityvlle films we have the second installment, Amityville 2.Amityvlle II takes place after the first film with yet another family moving in only to discover the house is filled with an evil atmosphere that takes over the family. The husband immediately becomes abusive and the son begins to eyeball his sister. The mother becomes hysterical and the kids experience poltergeist activity. How will this family survive?
In a word, they don't. See this films director, writer, and cinematographer are all Italian. It being essentially an Italian film made in the early 80's of course its bound to push boundaries. The overt and prevalent spousal abuse, the incest, and the brutal killing of the entire family all point to the Italian influence. Of course it would be useless to tread the same ground as the original so the film makers decided to up the ante. The houses influence begins as soon as the family steps inside and leaves no time for any suspense or tension to be built. Bang! The wife gets slapped by the husband and so it begins. The exorcist movies were doing well at this time so half the film mimics an extreme version of the first amityville and the last half mimics the exorcist films. See the son is possessed by the house and speaks with a different voice and acts to destroy the family. Sounds familiar right? The films acting is pretty good, though no where near the original film. The direction is competent but lacks the tension filled pacing of the original.
At the end of the day Amityville II: The Possession is a film that is poorly paced and suffers from a lack of suspense because of it. It tries to make up for it with being more extreme and adding in a bit of the Exorcist for good measure but ends up feeling rushed and uneven. A fun film but lacks the seriousness and grace of its predecessor.
Gore-mild
Nudity-mild
Overall - 6/10
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