Amityville II: The Possession poster & wallpaper

James Olson, Burt Young, Moses Gunn

Prequel to the first Amityville set years before the Lutz family moved into the infamous haunted house, has the Montelli family moving into the ominous Long Island house where their eldest son becomes...( read more  read more... ) possessed by the evil lurking within.

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50% liked it

12,826 ratings

R, 104 min.

Directed by: Damiano Damiani

Release Date: September 24, 1982

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DVD Release Date: April 5, 2005

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Stats: 396 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (396)

  • FangsFirst
    December 2, 2008
    FangsFirst
    I've only just seen the first film, and have seen no others--but read a book or two related. I got this in a set with the preceding and following films. It is loosely based on the DeFeo murders that "caused" the Amityville Horror, and started out in a fashion that very much pleas...( read more)ed me--the sequel that remembers the original but does not attempt to copy it.

    The Montelli family has just bought, oh yes, that damn house in Amityville, New York. Anthony Montelli (Burt Young) is father to the family, abusive for unknown reasons and demanding of a "Yes, sir," in response to anything he says, while his wife Dolores (Rutanya Alda) kowtows to his demands and tries (poorly) to protect their four children: Sonny (Jack Magner), Patricia (Diane Franklin) and the youngest, Jan (Erika Katz) and Mark (Brent Katz). Dysfunction abounds as they attempt to settle into their new home, as do peculiar events, most of which happen to Dolores; when Dolores enters the house, she turns on the faucet and out pours blood, which eventually clears to normal water. While setting up the basement, one of the movers comes in and discovers a false wall, and offers to go inside. In it is mud, sewage, cobwebs and flies, and "a whole lot of everything," as he puts it, leaving. Sonny, meanwhile, is first born and begins to try and find independence from his father, often snapping back when his father threatens him, and eventually threatening his father when his father takes to violence. This violence comes about from self-animated paintbrushes that paint the walls of the youngest children. After this peculiar night (which also involves knocking with no source for the knocks), Dolores calls Father Adamsky (James Olson) in to bless the house after Mass (I assume it's Mass, anyway--I suppose they might be Episcopalian or something), to which he agrees. When he comes in, Jan and Mark are very interested in the items he brings to bless the house, and Anthony is annoyed, taking a belt to the children when the priest's actions begin to cause anger in the evil spirits of the house--leaving a mess in the room only the children otherwise occupy. Adamsky leaves, angry at the abuse and refuses to bless the house, while Sonny becomes further enraged, and eventually possessed. Now Patricia is the only one who sees this and hopes to gain the help of Adamsky before it's too late for Sonny--and perhaps the rest of them.

    I said this started out in a fashion that very much pleased me, but as soon as Rutanya opened her mouth, it turned into an enormous pile of crap. I can, of course, only guess at who was responsible for this travesty of a horror film, but my best estimate is that director Damiano Damiani is the culprit, with ample dues to writer Tommy Lee Wallace (though he did well with Halloween III: Season of the Witch, so I'm suspicious of that). The script is hideously awful and stilted, the mover who explores the false wall (nevermind the insanity of why he chooses to do this in the first place) with his incessant address of Dolores as "Lady," for more lines than any human would reasonably consider addressing anyone actually looks good next to Rutanya though, who seems to be the inspiration for the actors that were put together for Troll 2. Yet, I've seen other films with Rutanya and never found her so grating--like Rocky, The Deer Hunter, The Stuff and The Ref. Burt Young, who also appeared in Rocky (as Paulie, no less) is a perfect example of furthering this. Young, Olson, Magner and Franklin are the only ones who stand on even shaky ground (as opposed to none) when performing. They all seem to be aimless and unsure of what to do, but have enough talent ingrown that they can pass enough for the scene to continue. Alda, though, I found painful to watch--that is, I'd never understood what people meant, but I wanted to cover my eyes every time she opened her mouth or appeared onscreen. The four I mentioned as mildly successful at least knew how to move.

    I don't know if Sam O'Steen, the editor (who performed a noticeably awful cut early on) can be blamed for bad take choices--but the man edited Chinatown (amongst others) so I find that difficult to believe. Once again, I suspect Damiani is behind the complete failure of this film. It seems that his focus (I'd imagine like many Italians, due to their style of filming--though I don't know if he was first gen, and will give him the credit I can without looking up his history and finding out he's not or something) is on image and visual, which is to the severe detriment of anything else. A number of scenes (such as Sonny's lone wandering of the house) are almost successful in their creepiness, but completely batshit crazy lines spill forth in wooden, unrealistic dialects--ones that, no, are not "dream-like" or anything, just BAD--suddenly and the effect is ruined completely. Sonny runs to the stairs and yells, "Is that you?" after complete silence for some time now. "Is that WHO?" I responded involuntarily. Nothing in the dialogue itself quite reached the heights of Adamsky stumbling upon a crime scene at the Montelli home: "It's okay, I was their priest." What?! This is an acceptable way to enter a CRIME SCENE?

    Inexplicably some people refer to this film as having "good acting." I've been known to disagree with many a soul on this front, but I tend to think of it, I think, in different terms than other people, and listen more closely for certain types of nuance than a large group of the public at large does--not a greater skill on my part so much as a greater sensitivity to believable and correct emphasis on lines. Alda fails at this miserably, sounding as if she is a disinterested high school student reading aloud in class instead of acting at all. Others stumble over ridiculous dialogue as noted above and try to do something with it--leading me to believe that either Damiani had an iron grip on the script and avoidance of deviating from it, or no one had the balls to tell someone that the lines coming out of their mouths sounded as if they were extracted from a metered poem unaltered--artificial and unrealistic, but possibly successful in the right context.

    This movie is very interesting visual spots married to abysmal, atrocious, abhorrent crap. Avoid it. It's not worth it.
  • creepfreak
    May 24, 2008
    creepfreak
    A truly chilling creep fest of a movie. This one sends chills down my spine. Way more frightening then the original Amityville! Watch this one alone in the dark.

    Highly Recommended!
  • YosemiteSamFan
    June 9, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    The spookiest and best of the Amityville Horror series. A family of six moves to the Amityville house, and teenaged son "Sonny" slowly becomes possessed by the evil of the house. It has some chilling scenes as "Sonny" slowly gets taken over. "Sonny" is urged to kill his family by...( read more) raspy demonic voices. There are frightening episodes illustrating Sonny's corruption, and evidence that there are other entities present in the recesses of the house. Then, on a stormy night, he goes from room to room and graphically executes his family members with a shotgun. Disturbing stuff. I felt especially for Sonny's beautiful sister Patricia, whose innocence was crushed. But then the movie shifts gears and becomes a legal drama and Exorcist-imitator when the family priest fights for Sonny's soul. Overall, chilling events which I try not to bring to mind at night.
  • flynnparadox
    December 6, 2006
    flynnparadox
    Not a bad sequel to the original.
  • cacutshaw
    October 3, 2007
    cacutshaw
    I remember really liking this as a kid and finding it quite scary and disturbing. I should really rewatch this one.
  • dan9fromouterspace
    October 23, 2009
    dan9fromouterspace
    Way too over the top to be believable which was what made the first one scary.
  • spacecasefukface
    October 19, 2009
    spacecasefukface
    not as effective as the first one but has its moments
    some of the shots seemed borrowed straight from "evil dead"..
  • aswinwilliam
    October 14, 2009
    aswinwilliam
    Wasn't the best remake of Amityville horror. Also it was very fictionalized though it had some disturbing scenes, just looking back at it the scary effects were quite low. A bit funny in parts.
  • SageSlowdive
    October 5, 2009
    SageSlowdive
    Truly spooky, and the best.
  • brokenupsociety08
    September 4, 2009
    brokenupsociety08
    This movie is the best. 2 thumbs up!

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