Effective chiller about a strange house located in Long Island that causes creepy goings-on in a family . This is the second version about the infamous Amityville house with lots of screams and weird deeds in which a troubled family falls into supernatural terror . The night of February 5 , 1976 , George and Kathleen Lutz and their three children fled their home in Amityville , New York . Their living nightmare shocked the audiences around the world , but before them , another family lived in this house and were caught by the original evil . They weren't so lucky , this is their story . The flick starts when a family formed by parents (Burt Young , Rutanya Alda) and children (Diane Franklyn , , Jack Magner) moves to Long Island where is purchased a notorious Victorian home , their house of dreams but they find only devilish horror and full of nightmares . A loathsome lout with his family (the Montelli family in this film were fictional characters and loosely based on the real life DeFeo family) and hell breaks loose . The new home, which proves to be evil, resulting in the demonic possession of the teenage son (Jack Magner, mercilessly hamming it up as upsetting possessed young , this is his debut theatrical feature film of actor Jack Magner whose only other screen acting credit after this movie was in Stephen King's Firestarter). The teenager begins experiencing frightening and vivid dreams of horror . And soon the poltergeists make their nasty appearance originating a lot of unusual rattles and creaks before deciding to utilize its powers to possess the son and attack the family . Only the local priest (James Olson) can save him . And now a possessed son is plunged by demonic forces into supernatural attitude driving him to mistreat and beat parents and brothers . Meantime ,the priest is attempting to find out the bottom of events by ways of the cellar . The priest tries praying to vanquish the malignant spirit , staggering from room to room with the doors mysteriously slam . There happens a grisly mass killing based on an allegedly real life occurrence in Amityville that turns out to be a haven for demonic forces .
The film contains restless terror and great loads of blood and usual poltergeists phenomenon caused by the curse and the ordinary ghastly shenanigans result to be the cracking pipelines , basement ooze ,icky stuff , and doors suddenly slam , among others . This is a throughly familiar retread of spirit-in-the-house formula with a father who buys the dreaded as well as haunted Amityville house and his possessed son ; being alternatively loathing and dull . It is produced with medium budget by Dino De Laurentiis and well recreated with high grade special effects that are frightening and horrifying to spectator . Based on Jay Anson's (suppposedly) non-fiction best-seller , though George Lutz wanted this sequel to be based on John G. Jones' book "The Amityville Horror Part II" ; however, producer Dino De Laurentiis, in conjunction with American International Pictures, made this sequel based on Hans Holzer's book 'Murder in Amityville". It's actually halfway decent terror movie that achieved enough success at the box office and it will appeal to ghostly and eerie events fonds . Competence at every level keeps this from being rubbish . Acceptable FX , the explosion scene at the end of the film is real , a highly explosive chemical which produces flames that burn out instantly was used ; during filming the effect reportedly backfired and burned the side of the house . A highly explosive chemical which produces flames that burn out instantly was used. During filming the effect reportedly backfired and burned the side of the house. The movie's setting takes place in the same house as in the original Terror en Amityville movie .
The picture packs a colorful cinematography by Franco Di Giacomo and eerie musical score by Lalo Schifrin who also composed the original that will be used in the innumerable sequels . The motion picture was professionally shot , being American directorial debut of Italian director Damiano Damiani. The original ¨Exorcist¨ film (by Friedkin) spawned a wave of demonic possession movies that continues unabated today as ¨Changeling¨ (by Peter Medak), ¨Amytiville ¨(by Stuart Rosemberg with James Brolin , Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger) are two further examples of this sub-genre . Following a great number of clumsy , stupid sequels directed by Richard Fleischer titled ¨Amityville 3D¨ with Tony Roberts , Tess Harper , Lory Loughlin and Meg Ryan ; another directed by Sandor Stern (screenwriter of Amityville) titled ¨Amityville: The Evil Escapes¨ with Patty Duke and Jane Wyatt , ¨The Amityville Curse¨ or ¨Amityville 5¨ by Tom Berry with Kim Coates ¨Amityville: A New Generation¨ with David Naughton , Julia Nickson , ¨Amityville: Dollhouse¨ with Robin Thomas and other bad followings just go on and on attempting to cash in on the success of the first movie . However , recently is made a good new adaptation by Andrew Douglas with Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George and Philip Baker Hall . Rating : Acceptable and passable .
