Customer Reviews

The Amityville Horror - A New Generation

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A struggling artist receives a mirror from one of his subjects.... After reading the title can you guess where it all happened? This haunted mirror thriller has some interesting moments (most revolving around said mirror's effects on the other struggling artists living with, or next door, to the lead character) and does a pretty respectable job building suspense towards the end, which makes it one of the better Amityville films out there. Still that isn't saying much considering their overall quality. Worth a look.

The plot for AMITYVILLE: A NEW GENERATION is probably something a 7-year-old kid could think of on a boring, rainy day. A haunted mirror? No way! It's very silly but sooooo fun! I honestly do not have the slightest idea where the ideas for these AMITYVILLE sequels come from! But, it's fun, gory and very cool. Check it if you liked the first film.

This is not based on a true story. A photographer gives money to a street man, and the street man gives the photographer a possessed mirror. The photographer lives with his girlfriend in an appartment in New york, and the romance turns deadly, because of the mirror.

I've been a fan of the Amityville Legend since I was a wee lad.

But I'm not going to go into the back-story of the Amityville movies and the mythology orbiting them-- not much, at least. All you need to know when you watch this movie is that in 1974 (reset to 1966 in the movie), a young man named Ronald 'Butch' DeFeo (renamed to Franklin Bronner in the movie) took a high powered rifle and murdered his whole family in cold blood, later claiming that the spirit of the Devil told him to. What followed was an endless bread-crumb trail of ghost-stories, trials, books and movies, all surrounding the house in Amityville, which was supposedly haunted. I'm not going to dispute whether or not the house is haunted, that's for you to decide. But, the house is practically irrelevant to the movie itself. I'm going to break this movie down for you...and yes, we're talking spoilers!

The movie is about what if the infamous Amityville killer had a son?
And what if his son inherited something evil from his murderous dad?


The film starts off in what I believe to be early 90s-era New York, in a neighborhood that resembles the Bronx.

A young man living with his girlfriend in a loft above a coffee shop is given a mirror by a crazed old wino.

His girlfriend doesn't like the mirror, so they give it to their neighbor, Suki, a painter, spooky stuff happens.

Someone fairly irrelevant to the plot gets murdered, then Suki hangs herself after gazing to deep into the mirror.

The young man is later called into identify a man's body, it turns out to be the old bum. He pays for a funeral.

It is revealed that the man was the infamous Amityville killer, the young man decides to investigate further.

He goes to the asylum where Bronner was kept, he has an epiphany when he realizes Bronner was his father.

The young man, Keyes, is plagued by nightmares, in which he commits the crime that Bronner committed years before.

Being an artist, he decides to work out his fears in a modern-art piece, which will be on display sometime later.

Keyes becomes completely obsessed with the idea of killing his friends, but does his best to suppress the idea.

In a dream, Bronner grabs Keyes and says "I'm proud of you son. Amityville is in your blood."

Keyes destroys the mirror, evil is punished, the Amityville story comes full circle, and ends.

I don't count 'Amityville Curse,' as one of the Amityville movies, because it was about a house that was not in Amityville and just happened to be haunted with no relation to Amityville whatsoever, and I do my best to ignore 'Amityville Dollhouse.' But every other Amityville movie is fairly good, and always entertaining, even if they're bad and poorly made, the aptly named, 'Amityville: A New Generation,' is the best, surpassing all of its predecessors, in my opinion, not necessarily in film-making, but the story is the best I've heard in all of Amityville mythology. There is some truth to the whole 'Amityville killer having a son' idea, though. Ronald DeFeo, aka Bronner in the movie, may have had a relationship with a woman around the time of the killings, but the exact details of her whereabouts or existence still remain a mystery. This is also the best-acted/directed of the series, and the special effects are limited, but effective nonetheless, especially a particularly disturbing scene where a green shadow dances for a few frames and vanishes. Overall, being a fan of Amityville and the legend surrounding it, the mythology and the books and movies and documents, I believe this is the best one. I'm not saying you're necessarily going to like it, but it's not terrible.

A must-have for any Amityville fan.

This Amityville choice has us in our seat by the power of a mirror that once resided in the house that fear built. The story might have succeeded were it not for better evil possessed item outings in the Amityville series. The camera work and effects strive to make up for the lack of ingenuity with the storyline, and never do we the audience believe this could be anything other than a B-movie attempt at the greatness approached by some Amityville films. Still, some suspense exists and occasional inventive scare tactics intrude now and again, pushing the viewer slowly along the rails of a slightly better than average haunting tale. Not really Amityville caliber, but worth a single rented watch unless you are a die hard Amityville fan who must posess all the films. 2 and a half stars

God help us all if anyone thinks this movie comes close to the original Amityville Horror. This "New Generation" version is pretty bad. If I'm watching a horror movie and absolutely nothing comes along to make me feel scared, something is seriously wrong with it (keep in mind- I'm easily scared!) To say this movie is flawed isn't enough- it was just a really bad attempt to continue the series and falling flat because of lack of suspense. The storyline was okay, and all the actors were alright, but this is just a really bad low budget film. Avoid it now.

Definitely Low Budget, but with High Production values.
If you have a 5.1 surround that has an emulator mode, you will need it for this, since the audio is not for surround, and looks like a VHS to DVD transfer( of good Quality).The emulation mode will pay back with scares during the spooky scenes.
The story surrounds the mirror, but all is not what it seems. I have memories of watching this when it first came out, and it scared me then, as it does now. Mostly good cast, with a couple of extremely good people, and this makes the angle on the mirror story take flight in the best possible way. Definitely B grade, but at the price it is here, its worth it, and it does scare. The Amityville Curse "Schtick" is just an excuse for the basic story, but it works. If you can't afford a more expensive scarey film, then this is a good , VERY good alternative.

In 1993, a year after AMITYVILLE: IT'S ABOUT TIME, another sequel was released and it was entitled, AMITYVILLE: A NEW GENERATION. Now, this sequel could have been a lot better, and it could have been somewhat scary, but because it lacks hauntings and fright, the film earned a three-star rating from me, meaning I thought that the film was...okay.

KEYES TERRY (played by Ross Partridge), and his girlfriend LLANIE (played by Lala Sloatman) are both struggling artists. Their friends, DICK CUTLER (played by David Naughton, famous for his Dr. Pepper commercials and his role in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON), SUKI (played by Julia Nickson-Soul), JANET CUTLER (played by Barbara Howard), & PAULIE (played by Richard Roundtree), are all artists, as well, with Dick and Janet also being Suki, Keyes, & Llanie's landlords. While at a cafe, Keyes receives a strange mirror from a street-bum. The house is from...112 Ocean Ave. (how did you guess?) That night, while the kids are out, Suki's ex-boyfriend, RAY (played by Robert Rusler, only famous for his supporting role in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE) drops by. He finds the mirror in Suki's appartment, after Llanie and Keyes allow her to borrow it for awhile. The mirror casts off Ray's reflection very differently and then kills him. Suki is the mirror's next victim.

Suddenly, the bum that gave Keyes the mirror is found dead. For some reason, Keyes tells DT. CLARK (played by Terry O'Quinn) to give the bum a proper burial. Keyes decides to find out some information on this guy, after finding out that the man's last name is the same as...Keyes' last name. Seven years ago, the bum was in a mental institution...for murderering his entire family in Amityville, New York...112 Ocean Ave (only changed to this character to keep Ronald DeFeo, Jr. from getting any money for this sequel if his name was used). Keyes is then shown to the bum's room, where he has a whole hallucination with Keyes being the role of the bum and seeing Keyes' mother and himself as a child visiting his derranged father. He snaps out of the hallucination, and tells Llanie about it. She informs him that in order to beat this, he has to face his fears.

That night, the have an art gallery show, where he can stage the entire act of his father killing his family, while they sat, eating dinner (changed from when they were originally murdered as they slept). The art gallery show is going well, but the lights go out. Dick runs to the basement to turn them back on, but Suki appears, and kills Dick, but the lights are brought back on successfully. The show is now set for its final act, but instead of using a water gun as planned, Keyes uses a real gun, he shoots at the food on the table, and the shoots the mirror, which has been causing this whole ordeal. The nightmare is now over...for now.

An okay sequel, but they should have had more of a story with the mirror, as far as having it cause more hauntings and gathering more victims. But an okay sequel.

Slow moving and none-to- creative, but almost every idea has already been tried in this series, so what do you expect?
Actually, limited suspence and some good, creative scenes makes it tolerable and you may want to try to sit and enjoy it.

Above average low budget film about a mirror that carries the `evil'. An old mirror that used to be inside the original Amityville house is given to an artist... by a beggar. Then all these weird accidents and mayhem begin. This story has a plot (somehow) and a twist, better acting than some of the other Amityville entries. First it was the lamp, then a dollhouse, then it's an old clock ... What's next? Can't they think of anything better!