For God's Sake Get Out!

The "hook" of the 1979 release of The Amityville Horror was authenticity. The remake emphasizes this as well, but the glossy fashion feels forced. Less organic, really. In fact, it's the overdone feel that hampers the 2005 effort from being as, for lack of a better word, scary.

I Keep Gettin' Older. They Stay The Same Age.

Now if I we're talking about cheerleaders or co-eds this title would be followed by a resounding, "Giggidy!" Sadly I'm not. Nothing is more terrifying than children when properly used. An eerie elementary presence seeps into every facet of the original film. Children singing (pre-A Nightmare on Elm Street, mind you), giggling, and playing sounds like fun, but not if they're the tortured souls of your home's deceased occupants. While the '05 Horror visually rams the scary kid factor down your throat, the original has far more impact. The old Hitchcockian theory is true; mystery encourages fear. Thus the limited view and enhanced mood in usage of dead children (you don't hear that phrase uttered often) make the '79 picture incredibly more frightening.

I escaped a house of horrors. But I couldn't manage to escape marital vows with Barbara.

Damned Kids These Days
As was the case with the REELapse examination of Friday the 13th, the producers tend to give less credit to modern audiences. In the original, James Brolin's character's turn to darkness takes much longer. The remake is a half an hour shorter. That's 1/4 cut from the runtime. That time is crucial when your trying to suspend the audience disbelief that a house with a bad past could turn a benevolent family man into a psychotic slasher. So due to the lack of faith in modern attention spans, producers are creating more shallow films than their predecessors when it should be the other way around. Shouldn't the depth of our films increase as we learn more about the art form? Unless that depth is attributed to the studio's pockets, Hollywood doesn't think so.

One, Two, Freddy's Coming for You...

Heading to Elm Street next week for a frightful feast of flesh for hometown favorite. So get your favorite bladed glove, fedora, and tacky striped sweater ready! Those posts will be a real dream.