Customer Reviews

The Amityville Horror - It's About Time

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I wonder if Fremantle Media is going for most consistently bad set of DVD Releases.
The basic Story of this film is very loosely associated with the Amityville mythos; it actually dates back to the time of some sadistic "necromancer"( the screenplay got it wrong, what they meant is "Necrophage")... but if you watch the film, you will see. And a Clock that was owned by the Necromancer/Necrophage, moves house from Amityville to a place on the West Coast. The Evil of the Clock then tries to take over.
The first half, or so, of the film is just abysmal, production wise, with the second half getting better, almost as if someone thought half way through shooting, "Oh, maybe we should check the dailies..?".
There are more Boom Sticks visible than EVIL DEAD 3, and More Mikes than Waynes World. The Audio is sort of Stereo/2.1 but not quite. It only uses two channels. Seems like it would have been better to package it on a VCD. Do NOT pay more more than 5 dollars for this DVD. And AVOID Fremantle Media DVD's.
It amazes me that the VHS version is better cropped, and has more visual quality than then the DVD. What on earth was Stephen Macht thinking !!!???!!!

What a suspensful flick this was! The story is interesting and quite complex. I have noticed that a lot of films kind of branch-off into different sub-plots, but this film doesn't, it has a main story. That makes it easy to follow. The characters were beleivable and that really adds to the horror. I must take away one star, simply because this film was a little to gross than it needed to be. For example, what was the disgusting and un-necessary deal with that guy who was "sinking" into the floor?

This is probably the second best AMITYVILLE film. It has a good plot, good acting, good directing and it's creepy. It does have a very good story, I must say. It's definately a story that's too good for a diret-to-video sequel. If you liked the first film, check this one out.

It's about time! After what seems like an unending period of mediocre sequels, the Amityville franchise produces a film on par with the gruesome original. Once again a family comes into contact with an evil clock. If you're looking for originality, this won't be a treat. If you simply want to enjoy another movie based on the formula, you've hit pay dirt. This film isn't perhaps as scary as the original, but it does contain a bathroom scene that gives "Psycho" a run for its money. The actors themselves are unknowns, but turn in decent performances enhanced by the best character development yet in the series. At times the movie seems too bizare with far flung events such as the papa's dog bite which causes him to fester at home until he becomes possessed by evil. Despite this, the film never loses momentum. The pace builds steadily until the fairly exciting climax with the inevitable showdown with the ingenue and the evil clock. While it may not be the best horror film, it is hands down the best Amityville.

Amityville Horror has enjoyed much success as both a true story and a franchise of follow up films that sometimes hit the target and other times missed entirely. Thankfully, Amityville:It's about time hits every target it sets out to. There is a very good storyline to propel the viewer along a-la demonically posessed clock that manages to cause its' owner's family members to turn against each other as well as provide the usual haunted house jitters the original first and second films did so well.
The film also hits on a nerve previously not heavily seen in the Amityville series, and that's out and out gore. The dad's festering dog bite is particularly difficult to watch, so if you are squeamish when it comes to gore, close your eyes each time the disgusting wound is revealed.
All in all, "Amityville:It's about time" is a first rate yet largely unknown thriller that definitely lives on with the best of the Amityville franchise. Tick.....tock.....tick......tock.......

Amityville-It's About Time is a fun movie for horror fans. The Amityville Horror is back again, this time encompassed in an antique clock with a sinister history. I don't know why, but I found this movie unintentionally hilarious, the father of the family gets bit by a dog and slowly goes mad-as the result of his proximity to the "cursed" clock of course! The teen daughter turns seductive-also a victim of the clock's doings. The neighborhood psychic is the only one who seems like she can help...I liked this movie a lot, but I am perplexed by the ending. What exactly happened there? I don't want to give things away so I won't say more, but it is rather confusing.

Money is the only reason that movies like this, with tenuous links to the sub-par horror series anyway, they slap the "Amityville" name to any "Haunted House" story and we,yes even me, buy or rent them and keep this whole string awful films running. Very poor story!

For the sixth installment, the Amityville series is back in California, as in Amityville: The Evil Escapes ("Amityville 4"). This time, Jacob Sterling (Stephen Macht), a single father and an architect, brings the "Amityville Curse" home with him by way of a possessed clock that he picked up on a business trip to Amityville. The fact that the clock is the source of the burgeoning evil our cast of characters encounters is one that they don't really figure out for themselves until near the end of the film, but it's not a spoiler to reveal that to readers, because it's clear from the very first scene that the clock means trouble. So this is one of those films where the audience will be egging characters on to figure out something that the audience already knows, and which it often seems the characters should more easily discern.

Director Tony Randel seems to have chosen the setting of the film to invite associations with the Poltergeist series. The suburban neighborhood of Amityville 1992: It's About Time, or "Amityville 6", looks very similar to the neighborhood in Poltergeist; for all I can remember of Poltergeist at the moment, it may very well be the same location. But it doesn't matter if it isn't, the desire is still there to latch on to same kinds of archetypes, so that evil invades generic U.S. suburbia, with the hope of making the fears more relatable and immediate for the audience. That's not the only film reference that Randel makes. One of the odder and more enjoyable ones, for which I still haven't figured out the symbolism, is a fairly literal quoting of Ed Wood's famous footage of Bela Lugosi in front of Lugosi's home, walking out of the front door with a black cape on (of course), and slowly going over to smell a flower. Wood shot the footage without a specific use in mind. It ended up in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). Randel recreates the scene (minus the flower in a direct way) with Iris Wheeler (Nita Talbot), one of the more interesting, although a bit underused, elements of Amityville 6. The appropriately named Iris is something of a "seer". She has visions of evil invading the Sterling household almost immediately. Later on, she functions as a plot facilitator in a number of useful ways--she provides a link to a more esoteric, supernatural world while simultaneously anchoring, catalyzing and supporting our more grounded/realistic characters' mounting beliefs, she provides important historical information, and she is the first to be dispatched by the evil presence. Her death scene manages to be amusingly ironic, and maybe even a bit absurd, but without bringing the film into a humorous mode; it veers towards but doesn't quite visit campiness, as do many subsequent events.

The twisted relationship dynamics in the film are particularly interesting. Jacob returns from his trip to Amityville to greet his children and Andrea Livingston (Shawn Weatherly), a former live-in lover who was watching the kids. Jacob quickly reinitiates their physical relationship, but Andrea makes no bones about wanting to get back to her boyfriend, Dr. Leonard Stafford (Jonathan Penner). Jacob suggests that Andrea have Leonard stay at the house, and eventually, this does happen. Meanwhile, Jacob is supernaturally devolving into a George Lutz-styled monster, from the same forces that got to George, but Jacob is also physically transforming--or deteriorating more accurately--in a more literal way. There is complex love triangle material between the three throughout much of the film, and Randel executes most of it so it works on two levels--as a straightforward but twisted soap opera and as horror with a strong psychological edge. This is reflected in Leonard's job--he's a psychiatrist, and appropriate to one of the popular stereotypes about psychiatrists, Leonard is the character who falls apart psychologically in response to the Amityville curse.

The Amityville force has often been about unhinging deeply suppressed "dark" feelings and desires in its victims. That works as a catalyst for the twisted relationship dynamics, including between Jacob's kids, Rusty (Damon Martin) and Lisa (Megan Ward). Lisa is the one with more hedonistic suppressed desires, which might seem surprising given the initial character development of the two kids, but on the other hand, Rusty is more outwardly expressive from the beginning, so maybe it's not so surprising after all.

The more purely supernatural aspects of Amityville 6 are both a bit understated and charming in their own way. As suggested by the subtitle, "It's About Time", time and especially time manipulation provides the theme for much of the supernatural material. This enables characters to be placed in alternate realities and it gives Randel and his writers another way to explore elements of characters' subconscious minds, including their fears, of course. Maybe more could have been done to work the time theme into the film in various surrealistic ways, as when that material occurs, it's certainly one of the films' strengths, but the decision to take a subtler track and stay closer to soap-operatic realism wasn't a bad one.

A clock possessed with some of the evil from the cursed house in Amityville wreaks havoc on an unsuspecting family. This low budget thriller manages to mix some surprisingly entertaining moments in with the expected hokem. Recommended to bad b-movie buffs, those wanting a quality ghost yarn should look elsewhere.

The movie is just great. It has great characters. One that played a real big role was Rusty (Damon Martin). Just think of it, an antique clock from Amityville that turns good into PURE EVIL. When the clock hits a certain time at night, strange things happen. From seeing a different room at the flip of a switch, to seeing a dead guy come out of the bathtub faucet. It all comes down when Rusty goes into a friend's house and sees the same clock in a different house from Amityville. Then Rusty is captured by police. The ex-wife sees a model of the neighborhood and it comes all down to a simple point, everybody in the house...must die. I can't tell you anymore cause it would spoil the story.