AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION

Prequel to the 1979 film opts for giggle-inducing overkill

The original movie had the confidence to take its time to build suspense and develop several characters with the eventual horrific happenings being subtle and effective. There’s a reason it was a hit at the box office. This one eschews all that for blunt happenings right out of the gate, like paint brushes hovering in the air to paint an illustration & message on the wall.

The Montelli family is a stand-in for the real-life DeFeo family in which the eldest son, Ronald Jr., shot to death his parents and four siblings while they were in bed on Nov 13, 1974. The creators obviously conjured the fictional version of the family because of the several changes from historical events, which I won’t list.

In any case, the family is the opposite of the Lutz family in the 1979 film. Instead of a sense of warmth, the father is abusive (Burt Young) and so the family is somewhat dysfunctional. There’s a spirit of ugliness, which is augmented by the second half of the film borrowing from “The Exorcist,” albeit in a nigh laughable way.

That said, winsome Diane Franklin is a highlight. She was 20 years-old during filming playing the 16-17 years-old daughter.

Some respectable viewers prefer the overtness of this one to the original, not to mention the grotesqueness, but not me. I lean towards it being a tactless travesty.

It runs 1h 44m and was shot in Mar-May 1982 with exteriors done at Toms River in east-central New Jersey (the house) while the church is located 20-minutes’ drive north of there at Point Pleasant Beach. Interiors were shot in the studio in (of all places) Mexico City with the house explosion scene done southwest of the city in Parque nacional Cumbres del Ajusco.

GRADE: D