Amityville II: The Possession (1982) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

This was the second of eight, soon to be nine, films about the "haunted" house at 112 Ocean Avenue. Here are the IMDb scores and links for the films, listed chronologically.

The original film had been a major financial success, so a follow-up was inevitable. The only unanswered question was, "What should it be about?" The first film had been based on the experiences of the Lutz family, who moved into a house that had once been the source of six bloody murders. The Lutzes found that the house was a source of evil manifestations. In real life, the Lutz family escaped uneventfully, and nothing exciting ever happened in the house after the Lutzes moved out, other than tourists trampling the begonias. There was no possibility to continue the story chronologically, so the logical course for the follow-up film was to go back in time to the only dramatic thing that had ever actually happened in that house - the 1974 DeFeo family murders.

(Court TV has an excellent story about the DeFeo family murders, if you want to catch up on the events which inspired Amityville II.)

The film changed the name of the slaughtered family to Mottoli, lost one of the murderer's brothers, and seems to have time-traveled the story forward to 1982 based on the cars we see. Apart from that, the script basically kept the DeFeo family members as central characters in the film, appropriating major aspects of their actual personalities and using events from their lives. Just as in real life, the oldest son in the movie family ended up killing his parents and his siblings. The film deviates from the true story in that it assumes the kid's mental problems were authentic external sources (demons from the house) rather than delusions generated by an abusive upbringing and vast quantities of drugs. The actual trial of Ronald "Butch" DeFeo did involve a debate over the cause of his mental state, but demons had nothing to do with it. His guilt actually hinged on whether he was a deranged psychopath incapable of distinguishing right and wrong, or simply a calculating and cold-blooded killer. Even the insanity defense was not predicated on his belief in demons or the supernatural. That was all fabricated after the fact .

Of course, this script had to introduce the supernatural element to make the story mesh with the mythology already established by The Amityville Horror and, for the first two thirds of the film, it succeeded at least to the extent of presenting marginally watchable rubbish. The last third of the film, however, diverges completely from quality as well as reality. I do not just mean the reality of the DeFeo case, but the greater sense of reality involving the laws which govern the universe. It's just downright silly. A priest gets involved with the murderer, breaks the murderer out of jail, and heads to the house for some serious guy-on-priest exorcism action. All of that was ludicrous, and none of it had any factual basis at all. The real Ronald DeFeo Jr is still incarcerated somewhere, still unexorcised. As for the house, there were no further paranormal phenomena reported after the Lutzes left.

Amityville II is just about as good as you might expect from its 4.0 at IMDb, which is to say not good at all. I believe you will consider it a waste of your time. I suppose you might derive some titillation from the belief that certain parts of it are based on reality, but the only titillation I got was seeing Diane Franklin's breast. Ms. Franklin, you will recall, was the designated 80s "girl next door" cutie in every commercial ever made and such films as Better off Dead, The Last American Virgin, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Second Time Lucky. Miss Franklin is now tentatively returning to the spotlight after fifteen years as a private citizen. She sang the National Anthem at a Dodger game last year. Here is a recent picture, in which she seems not to have aged a minute since her adventure with Bill and Ted in the late 80s. Get more info about her at dianefranklin.com.

Despite Franklin's presence, I can't imagine why you would want to watch this movie. Her breast is given too little screen time to generate any heat, and the second half of the film is sheer crap.

 

DVD INFO

  • Disk One: The Amityville Horror widescreen, plus a full-length commentary by a parapsychologist and a documentary.
  • Disk Two: a widescreen and full screen version of Amityville 2: The Possession
  • Disk Three: a widescreen and full screen version of Amityville 3-D
  • Disk Four: a sneak peek at the remake, plus two documentaries from The History Channel

 

NUDITY REPORT

Diane Franklin is seen "strategically naked" from behind in one camera angle. In another, her right breast is exposed. Although there is no frame with face and breast together, it is most certainly Ms. Franklin's breast.

Unfortunately, the "full screen" version is a pan-n-scan, not the full frame kind, and thus offers no additional exposure.

The Critics Vote ...

The People Vote ...

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this is a D. I can't imagine why you would want to watch it. Diane Franklin's breast is given too little screen time to generate any draw from that alone. The second half of the film is sheer crap.

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