REVIEW – Amityville II: The Possession

Published on: 29th November, 2009

REVIEW - Amityville II: The Possession  | read this item

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Whilst The Amityville Horror was a huge success upon its initial release, sparking the usual ‘cursed production’ rumours and catering towards the crowd that had previously flocked to see The Exorcist and The Omen. Another year, another haunted house movie, bur its popularity at the box office almost guaranteed a second film. Yet instead of going the usual sequel route that had become so commonplace during the 1980s (even the aforementioned movies had produced unnecessary follow-ups), the makers of Amityville II: The Possession decided instead to make a prequel. Taking place before the events that torn the Lutz family apart, the second film briefly dabbled with the usual haunted clichés before taking the film in an unexpected and much darker direction. Whilst failing to make the same kind of profit as the original, it was arguably a far superior film.

The Montelli move into their new home at 112 Ocean Avenue. The strict and aggressive father, Anthony (Burt Young), constantly comes to blows with his rebellious teenager son, Sonny (Jack Magner), whilst his sweet-natured sister, Patricia (Diane Franklin), has a close bond with her mother, Dolores (Rutanya Alda). The family is rounded off by two younger children, Jan (Erika Katz) and Mark (Brent Katz). But soon after their arrival, Sonny begins to act stranger, becoming even more distant from his family, except for Patricia, whom he has begun to lust after. Eventually, as the curse of the house begins to take over him, he takes his father’s shotgun and massacres his entire family. Desperate to dispel the evil for good, Father Adamsky (James Olson) visits Sonny in jail and tries to face the demons inside him.

What is immediately apparent about The Possession is how darker and more stylish it is to its predecessor. Whilst The Amityville Horror was a very American production, the sequel has a European feel to it thanks to Italian director Damiano Damiani, who had previously been responsible for the above-average drama Il sorriso del grande tentatore (The Devil Is a Woman). One of his greatest assets during the production was Franco Di Giacomo, who had previously lensed Dario Argento’s underrated giallo 4 mosche di velluto grigio (Four Flies on Grey Velvet) a decade earlier. There is something eerie and sinister by the mood of the film and the house has a sense of foreboding, particularly with Damiani drenching the evening scenes in shadows, with the possibility of all types of evil lurking within.

Taking its inspiration from Murder in Amityville by Hans Holzer, who supposedly obtained photographic evidence of ghosts in the house, the task of writing the screenplay fell to John Carpenter veteran Tommy Lee Wallace, who would also make his directorial debut the same year with Halloween III: Season of the Witch. By far his most layered and well developed script, The Possession changed took the basic premise of Holzer’s book and changed the names of the characters (Sonny was inspired by Ronald Defeo Jr. who, in 1974, had murdered his entire family). Whilst the film starts off at a rather slow and predictable pace, Wallace manages to focus on Sonny’s increasingly deteriorating mental state, resulting in him eventually succumbing to the possession and slaughtering his family.

For such a low budget production, the quality of acting on display is rather impressive. Young (who played Paulie in the Rocky franchise) is suitably nasty as the unsympathetic and stern father who is in part to blame for his son’s eventual downfall. Franklin displays a sweet and almost childlike innocence as Patricia, whilst at the same time being unintentionally seductive. By far the best performance, however, comes from Magner who, for one reason or another, chose not to pursue a career in acting, aside from a small role in Firestarter two years later. His transformation from average-if-slightly-moody teen to disturbed and frightening monster is an impressive turn and he portrays the character with a subtle intensity that avoids reducing Sonny’s demonic state to a simply pantomime villain.

Amityville II: The Possession is certainly not without its flaws. Both Alda and Olson lack any real interest, as does Moses Gunn as the detective investigating the case. The pace of the movie is a little uneven, beginning in a rather bland and uninspired manner before suddenly turning dark and sinister halfway through. Wallace’s script is a little uneven at times and occasionally relies on the usual clichés one would find in a haunted house movie. The filmmakers are also bound by certain obligations to both the original movie and its literary source, although they do take many liberties with their adaptation. These issues do not ruin the overall flow of the film and Amityville II: The Possession succeeds at being the most effective and intense of what is arguably an overrated and disappointing franchise.

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