Amityville II: The Possession

Funny that image above defined exactly what I felt while enduring this movie.

A very generous **

I was writing a review for Amityville 2 and it was coming hot and heavy. Pure emotion; this reaction that the film sort of set off. Then I stopped myself, looked at the review, and said to myself, “Good grief, man, you preaching from the pulpit or what?!?!” I took a deep breath, gathered my wits, and said, “This is just a movie.” Sure, to me, the film troubled me a bit. It hadn’t really before, so it bothering me was kind of a surprise. I guess it is the idea of seeing a family massacred. Look, I’m a father of two so this sort of thing kind of troubles me. What can I say? It kind of stunk in my nostrils a bit, too. As exploitation, this film remains quite a cult favorite. I decided to keep the piece I wrote intact just so you can kind of see how the film sort of provoked a response. Out of the cast, I kind of cringed for poor Rutanya Alda. She has to react wide-eyed, screaming because “something touched her” and freaked out when her priest, Father Adamsky (James Olson), is blessing the house and his holy water turns into blood (it is all a hallucination brought on by the demon possessing Jack Magner’s Sonny). It is the kind of blood-curdling terror that could be considered a wee bit of overacting. Then you have Burt Young. Young is probably just as evil and malicious as the demon possessing his oldest, Sonny. Young portrays Anthony Montelli, the abusive father of the family with a short-fuse temper that takes very little to send him into a nasty rage. He likes to slap Alda’s Dolores especially. Diane Franklin (Patricia Montelli) and Magner trade flirtatious jabs and remain “close” even before Sonny was taken over by the demon. If you dig some incest in your movies, here’s a fine example. There’s that scene where Franklin goes to Adamsky after willingly going to bed with Sonny (she poses naked for him with little resistance; all he had to do was ask), admitting in confession that she sinned, understanding, even, that he’s just toying with her. Later, as a birthday party for Sonny is nearing its end (and he’s up in his bedroom), she comes to him, saying he “called her”. Sonny, though, is going through a type of “The Beast Within” grisly manifestation where his body is suffering physiological changes, and he “dismisses” her with protest. This girl liked it, and even though she’s guilt-stricken and shamed about it, Pat seems content with continuing the lovin’. I think all of this--Young acting like an asshole scumbag, the brother-sister incest, the Exorcist shenanigans, the physical transformations, and the sickening family massacre--is perfectly Italian, and it makes sense that someone from that country (Damiano Damiani) would direct a film of such excess and unoriginality. Of course, it is all in your face and unpleasant, so there’s a degree of praise for hitting you across the face with the frying pan. Tommy Lee Wallace, a John Carpenter vet, put together the screenplay which mishmashes demonic possession and haunted house clichés. Escaping relatively unscathed, I thought, was Olson who brings conviction and (thankfully) a subtlety to his acting that is needed considering most of the other cast members. I think there was even a scene where the little girl puts a plastic bag over her little brother’s head, smothering him, for kicks! Windows open and close on their own, a veil is lifted and tossed over a wall crucifix to hide its sight from the disgusted demon “spiriting” around the house, mirrors fall off walls, a written parental blasphemy in the kids’ room enrages Young (like he needed much), excessive knocking at the front door with no one around (irritating a shot-gun toting Young ready to shoot somebody at the drop of the hat), and a family altercation that results with Sonny holding a rifle at Anthony’s face after he starts on whipping the kids with a belt and slapping around mama. There’s a funny scene where Anthony (definitely not the church-going believer) is rude to Father Adamsky, who came by the Amity house invited by Dolores. Adamsky tries just to get his gear out to bless the house, with Anthony grumbling and seething underneath because he doesn’t like all of this Catholic “mumbo jumbo” under his roof. Look, it doesn’t matter what it is…Anthony is a prick, a whining pussbag, and a crude sonofabitch with an itch to scratch with anybody. Almost the entire time he is on screen, he’s an antagonist, a lech, a gruff bully in need of a lesson in manners. I think he’s a device to jab at our nerves. The same thoughts come across the mind, “Why on earth would Dolores choose such a cretin as her husband and the father of her children? Was he ever civil?” one might ask about all abused wives, tolerating their men’s bullshit. Every time you see him, you just wonder when he’ll smack somebody in the face. If Sonny had only just shot him, it would have been met with applause. 

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Well, I might as well toss out here on the blog my initial thoughts as they kind of spilled out. Those torches and pitchforks handy? You fans of this may want to rush me, toss me in the windmill, and watch it burn, baby, burn.

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Watching Amityville Horror 2: The Possession (1982) last night, I hadn’t realized just how wrong this movie is. Man, it has incest, demon possession, family abuse, transformation make up effects, POV demon first person perspective, priests arguing with priests, a police detective allowing a priest to take a killer (demon possessed or not) out of the hospital supposedly to his church (the demon possessed killer will have none of that) from custody, and the use of demon possession as a plea for not guilty in a court of law in regards to the heinous murder of an entire family. You have Diane Franklin battling inner passions for her brother (regardless of how indecent it might be, I think it is clear she is attracted to her older brother), and the two (once he’s possessed and completely under the power of the demonic presence that lived inside the “burial ground” hidden in a crawlspace in the basement of the Amity house) eventually kiss and fall into her bed (off screen). Mama soon suspects much to her horror, but because so much happens beyond her control, it seems, such a development could happen without her knowledge over a long period. You have the older brother, with ghoulish make up effects and optical lenses on his eyes, going throughout the house, with his little siblings peering out their bedroom totally scared, rifle in hands, shooting his family in cold blood. Oh, to put even more emphasis on the horror of this scene, the mother is shot in the stomach, falls to the floor holding her gushing wound, reaching out her hand to her daughter who is unable to do a damned thing. Oh, and to add to the horror of the scene, let’s have Diane Franklin trying desperately to escape the house and keep her siblings (she tries to beat on her parents’ door, warning them of what it coming) as safe as she can, unable to do so. Despite all her attempts to get out and seek help, she’s gunned down in cold blood like her family. I can just imagine the repulsion and disgust such a scene as this had left audiences in ’82. It is really a sickening scene. To top that off, we get to see their priest, who just didn’t listen to his gut and Franklin when signs were there that such a situation as this could be possible, give the last rites to all of the dead bodies, with the police unzipping their body bags! That left me with the chills. I had a hard time with this scene, I must admit. I just find it rather reprehensible that a family is gunned down in such a fashion, played up for entertainment purposes in an Exorcist rip-off that is so blatantly exploitative of a true crime case. I realize it has a cult following just because this film is so willing to exploit horrendous past events wrapped within a demon possession plot, complete with exorcism at the end, with the heroic priest, defying his superiors in the church, willing to sacrifice his body so that the young man possessed could be free of the horrors inside him. If this film couldn't model itself closely
The Exorcist enough, there's the priest valiantly expressing to the demon to take his body so the young man could be free, and the "Save me" written by Sonny on his arm while the demon held his captive inside the hospital. There's plenty of scripture, the crucifix, holy water, and the priest giving all he has to "compel", with the power of Christ, the demon away. Andrew Prine, a cult favorite, has little to do except be a much-needed friend to Adamsky (Adamsky has been told by his superiors to stay at home on a sort of suspension due to his acting in behalf of the church for Sonny in court regarding demon possession), which is a small disappointment among other far more major annoyances.

That aside, the make-up effects are really nifty, with a face eventually splitting apart to reveal the demon underneath, with bulging flesh (on the possessed young man’s neck and arm), and there is plenty of the house "acting out" thanks to the demon. That Lalo Schifrin score sets the mood extremely nicely and provides a much needed "boost" (lift?) to the proceedings. And, to me, this film needed all the help it could get.