The Amityville House Had Plenty of Sequels

 

I was surprised to realize early in the 2000s on the IMDb Horror Board that the sequel to "The Amityville Horror" 1979), with a written screenplay by none other than Tommy Lee Wallace (graduate of the Carpenter/Hill Halloween group), was a cult favorite of several who frequented there. I remember renting it on VHS probably twice and catching it on cable a few times in the late 90s. Damn, Burt Young is a fucking asshole. Families, yes, had a father like this. I get that. But, good grief, the film doesn't hesitate to establish Young was a real piece of shit. His older son, played by Jack Magner, just arrives in his new car, a flashy, small convertible in good spirits, and Young is quick to emasculate him. Rutanya Alda has that great face that gives off the "Oh, shit, oh, shit!" look of shock with eyes wide I love in horror films about evil demonic spirits running roughshod on deteriorating families. This sort of provides a demonic possession angle to the DeFeo family killings. Alda's mother tries to keep the family under some semblance of normalcy but Young's husband/father won't allow for any of that. What a mean sonofabitch. You just want to see that guy get a good wallop across the chops. Just a despicable cretin. The incest between Franklin and Magner, brother and sister, feels very much not a Wallace idea. It was no surprise to me that Damiani wanted it included. I was always rather unsettled and unnerved by this. It does seem to be what many consider a potent part of the sequel. All the exploitative elements of the sequel seem to be why Amityville II: The Possession (1982) remains on the lips of the series' fans to this day. You don't really see a lot of Amityville horror fans, though, anymore, despite so many different sequels, off-shoots, and additional spin-offs and splintering ties to the house. I don't really see a lot of podcast talk on the films, while I do remember on the IMDb Horror Board there was often a post here and there about this or that Amityville film. Maybe that's for the best.

I think because the sequel has such shocking scenes where Young pulls off his belt to whip kids, smack his wife, get a gun pulled on him by Magner, has his neck scratched by Alda in defiance of slapping her, and is eventually gunned down by Magner in the DeFeo climax that are quite expectedly provoking, horror fans kept "Amityville II: The Possession" in the conversation. I do know many Amityville fans consider the sequel (which is actually a prequel to the first film, although it does feel like a sequel in some respects) superior to the very popular (though many consider overrated) 1979 original. I think as exploitation, "Amityville II" is successful.

Way back in 2013, I wrote a lengthy essay on what I definitely didn't like about the film. In fact, then I despised it, it seems, even though I gave it 2/5 at that point. It is still quite repulsive, especially in how it details Magner gunning down his family as poor frightened Franklin tries to get away and can't. Prior to that she tried to get her priest (James Olson) to help, but he seemed to avoid her house after some bad experiences there. When the DeFeo chapter of the film is mercifully over (even as it is more than a bit disturbing), it turns into an Exorcist story of Olson trying to cleanse Magner and the Amityville House of his and its evil. The makeup, with how it alters Magner's face into a warped and misshapen vile visage, is appropriate considering what has possessed him. The POV of the evil itself pursuing Magner, I think, has been one of the film's most recognized setpieces, along with the family drama, murder spree, incest, demonic misbehavior, and ultimately Olson's attempts to exorcise Magner once he's able, even though the Catholic Church will not okay the exorcism (the Amityville early films sure show that the Catholic Church just won't allow much conversation on the matter).

I always return to two things that stand even when the films fail: Lalo Schifrin's score (which I think is just as good if not better in the sequel than the first film) and the house itself when shot by the camera in just the right angle. While I might not be the right person to talk to in regards to "The Possession", I can recognize that the use of Franklin, even after her death in the film, can be quite well done because Olson is left with guilt and deeply shaken by not helping her. Prine, as Olson's colleague, tries to be receptive and remain a rock for him, but the exorcism angle is a bit hard for him (or the Church) to grasp.