Customer Reviews

Amityville, Vol. 4: The Evil Escapes

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

 

 

Unlike the other amityvilles horror movies, this one takes place in a completely different town. The evil from the house is transferred into a lamp, which is given to a family of a deceased father, and the evil begins when the little girl in the family is haunted by her fathers spirit in the lamp. The film has some gory parts, like when some guy puts his hand in a sink garbage disposal, and the switch turns itself on, and blood goes evrywhere. I totally reccommend this film to Amytiville Horror fans.

I can picture the pitch now. After 1 hugely successful film, 1 moderate sequel, and 1 horrendously bad sequel, the series goes on about a 5 year hiatus. Then, someone has an idea for a 4th film that is so inspiring, it borders on genius. He gets a meeting and fires into his sales pitch, nearly blowing the room away. It begins like this... OK, forget that the house blew up at the end of the third film. We begin with a whole mess of priests that come to the infamous Amityville Horror house to once and for all exorcise the entities within. Now, fearing that they may be forced back to Hell, which for obvious reasons, is bad, so they don't want to go. Now, since all life is electrical in nature, it makes sense that in order to survive, the entity becomes pure electricity. Having nowhere to escape, it enters the 1 thing still plugged in. Are you ready for this.....A LAMP!!!!!! Now the room must have been dead silence in awe of this idea. So, the priests have a yard sale. Never mind that they don't actually own the items for sale here, the audience won't care. Someone buys the now haunted lamp and sends it to a relative 3000 miles away. Bad things ensue. That's it, whaddaya think?? They respond, AWESOME!!!, Better than the first, here's a million bucks, go make it. That would actually make a better movie.

Amityville 4 the evil escapes is the best one out of all the movies (even if it was a tv movie). The acting was great, the story was better than the first one, and the lamp is just straight creepy! I remember watching it as a kid when I was 9, and I could'nt remember which Amityville it was that had the lamp in it. About a week ago, I was in a retail store and finally found it for $7.99! I would have to say it's one of my favorite horror movies (even if there was'nt that much gore). If you are curious about Amityville movies, then you should watch Amityville 4 The Evil Escapes, but you should also watch the first one before it just to get the storyline. I highly recommend this movie to late eighties horror fans!

Finally after a move to T.V. and a lower budget, they caught the creepy feel of the book and put a few chills into this one. Without the fx's to fall back on they went for the "thing's unseen" approach and it did the film all the better for it. Now the bad news, this is a one time only film, as all the others would use the fx's approach and laps into silly jokes.

I can probably tell you all you need to know about Amityville 4 in the first few lines of this review and, no, these are not spoilers. One, there was a complete breach in continuity between parts 3 and 4 of this series, and I just HATE when that happens. There really is no way to reconcile the two. Two, about 5% of the movie has to do with the Amityville house in the first place. Most of the movie takes places 3000 miles away from the Amityville house. Three, much of the movie focuses on a possessed lamp taken from the Amityville house, not exactly the stuff great horror movies are made of if you know what I mean and I think you do (to borrow a phrase from the great Joe Bob Briggs)! Patty Duke is a pretty good actress and the rest of the cast is passable, but if you are going to make a movie called Amityville, have it at the damn Amityville house!

Basically, "Amityville 4" is about a possessed lamp that gets sent to an old lady. The old lady's daughter and grandchildren move in about the same time. A lot of strange things begin to happen once the lamp arrives. Eventually, one of the little girls who has never gotten over the death of her father begins to fall under the spell of the lamp. The evil in the Amityville lamp uses her loss to exercise some degree of control over the girl. Family turmoil ensues, and much more.

Finally, "Amityville 4" has that made for TV feel to it, which I believe it most certainly to be a made for TV movie, although I do not know this to be true. Sometimes, made for TV movies are very good and entertaining a la "Salem's Lot" starring David Soul which is one of the greatest horror movies of all-time in my estimation. However, in this case, the atmosphere that was so ever-present and effective in the first three installments of this series, is completely missing and probably lost forever in part 4. Many people have criticized the Amityville horror movies, but I like part 1-3, and I thought the remake was entertaining.

In short, "Amityville 4" has a completely different setting and feel to it than the previous Amityville movies. I wish there had been some effort to reconcile this with part 3. I really hate when a series becomes inconsistent like this. Granted, the ending of "Amityville Part 3" was stupid and cliche in the self destruction of the Amityville house, and certainly problematic if you plan on having any subsequent sequels. That being said, the story behind "Amityville 4" just did not do it for me at all. Overall, "Amityville 4" is a poor horror movie.

After three theatrically released entries into the haunted house franchise, and after a six year hiatous, the series returns but this time debuting on the small screen. Yes, Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes was made for television. I generally am not big on made-for-TV movies, but Amityville 4 isn't too shabby. It definitly lacks the production values that were present in the first three films, but it is still watchable.

The film opens with a rag-tag group of priests storming the alleged Amityville house (Even though the house got destroyed at the end of Amityville 3-D, but somehow I don't think continuity was on the filmmakers minds) in an attempt to drive the evil out. The evil actually retreated into a horrid looking lamp. The lamp is bought by a unknown purchaser and the horror begins.

I think the biggest downfall was that the movie doesn't take place in the popular huanted house. Like the subtitle says....the evil escapes. This idea would also affect all the sequels to come. The Amityville Curse has possessed furniture, Amityville 1992 has a possessed clock, Amitvyille [7]: A New Generation had a possessed mirror, and Amityville [8]: Dollhouse had a possessed...uhh...dollhouse. If you can accept the idea of the Amityville evil being able to escape in various objects then Amityville 4 might be watchable for you.

The DVD itself also isn't anything to get excited about. Full screen with ok picture quality. It was released with two seperate DVD covers, but neither of them are very good.

Even though the DVD or the movie itself are nothing to get too excited about, you can usually find this movie real cheap which makes it worth picking up. This DVD would be perfect purchase to go along with MGM's Box set the includes the first three films in the series. Now only if we could get Amityville 5 on DVD as well...

I had second thoughts of buying this when i picked up the box set, and im glad i did this is a great horror film, a good part 4.

tis is the only good amityville movie after the frist three thats any good. patty duke a very good actress.. the movie would have been better if the whole story was about the house not a lamp. still a good ghost story flim.this seams to be were the amityville movies start to be boring and have nothing to do with the house in amityville...

Bought these for my little brother, he has Down Syndrome and gets impatient. The seller got them to me promptly! Means a lot to me AND him!
They were just as the seller stated. Very pleased.

In 1989, after a six-year hiatus, a fourth Amityville came our way. This fourth installment is entitled, AMITYVILLE 4: THE EVIL ESCAPES. Grant it that this also was not the greatest in the franchise, but it was a whole lot better than that of AMITYVILLE III: THE DEMON (aka AMITYVILLE 3-D). As it would turn out, this was the first of the Amityville films to be a straight-to-video release. From this sequel down to the eighth Amityville installment were all straight-to-video releases.

This film starts off with a whole slew of priests entering the Amityville house (continuity was not an option to the producers, writers, and directors on this film, for the house was originally blown up in the third film), trying to rid the house of its evil spirits. All the evil is then transported into a hideous looking lamp. When all the chaos stops, the priests seem to be satisfied. The next morning a yard sale is held in front of the sinister house. A harmless old lady sees the lamp in the selection and decides to buy it as a gift for her sister, ALICE LEACOCK (played by Jane Wyatt). As she looks at the lamp, she accidentally cuts her finger on it, but goes on ahead with her decision to buy the lamp.

That afternoon, the woman who bought the lamp ships off the lamp to her sister, but her finger is looking terrible. But she dismisses it. Flash from New York to California, a woman named NANCY EVANS (played by Patty Duke), and her three children: AMANDA (played by Zoe Trilling), BRIAN (played by Aron Eisenberg), and JESSICA (played by Brandy Gold) are driving to Nancy's mother's house, where they'll be staying for awhile, since Nancy's husband (the children's father) had sadly passed on. Nancy's mother is...Alice Leacock. Her sister would be Nancy's aunt, and the children's grand-aunt. The arrive at her house at the same time the lamp arrives. But as Alice plugs in the lamp, everything begins going chaotic. For instance, Alice burns her hand on the tea kettle. No one turned up the stove, but an unseen force has. The next morning, Alice's parakeet suddenly dies. And Jessica seems to not be feeling well. Later on, it is found out that Alice's sister, who shipped the lamp over to Alice, had died from that cut on her finger. That's exactly would happen when you cut yourself on something, and not bother getting a tetnis shot.

Over the course of the next few days, everything goes from bad to worse, as the plumbing decides to become a little funky. The plumber comes out to fix it. As he tries to fix it, his hand gets lopped off by the garbage disposal. The toilet and sinks begin oozing something black and gooey. Nancy cannot take this no more. She decides it's time to get help from FATHER KIBBLER (played by Fredric Lehne). He climbs onboard to help the family out. He accompanies Alice and Nancy to their house, where they discover that all the evil from the lamp is controlling Jessic. With the help of Father Kibbler, they put the evil to rest.

This film, as I had stated, was not the greatest in the franchise, but it was better than AMITYVILLE III: THE DEMON (aka AMITYVILLE 3-D). There were quite a few moments that scared me, but the whole film could have been a lot scarier.