Amityville - The Cursed Collection
Director– Sandor Stern, Tony Randel, John Murlowski, Steve White
Starring – Various
Country of Origin- U.S.
Distributor - Vinegar Syndrome
Number of Discs - 4
Reviewed by - Scott MacDonald
Date- 11/17/2019
The Amityville Horror is considered in many circles to be an absolute horror classic, and one of the finest haunted house films of the 1970's. I do not agree with that, and have never been a fan. That did not stop me from watching every film in the series when I was much younger, and to my surprise enjoying many of the sequels more than the original itself. The series high point for me would be Damiano Damiani's Amityville II - the Possession. This film is basically an Italian trash horror film, produced by a major studio as a sequel to one of their recent lucrative hits.
I haven't seen Amityville 3-D in years, but remember that while it was a stepdown from Amityville 2, it still continued on the weirdness aesthetic set by the original. Of course, (SPOILERS!) at the end of Amityville 3, the house is destroyed. This problem is solved when Executive Producer Steve White scooped up the Amityville rights, and started making sequels with 1989's the Evil Escapes. In the case of the 4 films included in the box, we have items from the house (or resembling the house in the case of Dollhouse) which have some haunted element to them causing supernatural activities to take place in the items new location (mostly California).
Vinegar Syndrome have put the 4 Steve White Amityville films into a single collection in their October 2019 release slate. The series begins here with Amityville 4 - The Evil Escapes. This film involves a lamp from the Amityville house, finding it's way to a family in Southern California. The lamp once set up causes the family to begin acting weird and strange things to happen. After a while it's placed in the attic, and once there one of the children of the family keeps picturing her deceased Father in the lamp (this is a theme that appears multiple times in these films).
The Evil Escapes co-stars Patty Duke, who does solid work with the material here. The rest of the cast is fitting to the material, but that is not saying much as this feels very much like the TV movie that it is. The film tries to imitate certain elements of the original film, but just feels more like a cheap knock off than a legitimate sequel. It does manage to be entertaining, and that's about the best I can say.
The sequel Amityville 1992 - It's About Time might be the best of the 4 films in the collection. This one is directed by Hellraiser 2's Tony Randel, who seems to have a knack for upping the ante for sequels he directs. This film uses a haunted clock from the Amityville house as the item that brings the haunting to this family. In the case here, it seems to outright affect the behavior of the family. This creates for an interesting oppressive atmosphere, and a dark sexual undercurrent. There are some decent set pieces and scares in this one, and seeing Megan Ward in anything is always a plus.
Amityville - The New Generation steps away from the familial vibe of all the prior films, and follows a photographer named Keyes who lives with a group of other artist. He is gifted a mirror by a homeless individual, which proves to have the power to see the future from a dark perspective, and horrible things begin to happen to the group.
This film doesn't do anything seemingly different than most mirror-related horror fiction (Which there is more of than one would expect), but it is a fun entry in the series, made more so by the cast of the film which features a cast of cult cinema luminaries ranging from Terry O'Quinn to Richard Roundtree.
The 4th and final film in the set is Amityville - Dollhouse. This one involves a family moving into a new house the stepfather built. The house has an old shed out back, that contains a dollhouse that resembles the Amityville house. Once brought inside it proves to have inter-dimensional properties, and also brings haunting behavior to the house including the youngest son of the family seeing his deceased Father.
Dollhouse is not particular good (so it's pretty much on par with the rest), but it is entertaining, and has some solid visuals, and decent makeup FX for the ghostly/zombie creatures that inhabit the house. This one is directed by producer Steve White himself, and is his lone director's credit. Everything looks solid here, but mostly workmanlike, and you can see both the cast and filmmaker have little enthusiasm for the material.
Vinegar Syndrome do their usual fantastic work with the Amityville - Cursed Collection all flms are presented 1080p in AVC encoded transfers. Colors are nicely reproduced, detail is excellent, and everything looks film like and natural. Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track across all 4 discs that sounds quite solid without any obvious issues. All 4 discs have video interview with members of the cast and crew. The New Generation has a commentary with the director moderated by Elijah Drenner.
