The Amityville Horror (2005)

Where you going with that shotgun Eugene?

Genre: Mystery Horror Thriller Drama

Starring: Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder; Blade: Trinity), Melissa George (Dark City; Derailed)

Directed By: Andrew Douglas

Overview: A retelling of the original 1979 "based on a true story" of a family recently moved into a haunted house.

Acting: The difficulty in the role here is, "How do I act totally nuts without being totally ridiculous?" Well Ryan did a great job of freaking us out in that The Shining kind of way, though maybe the director took a little too much from that Stephen King classic. It smacked of too much homage.
Rating: 7

Cinematography: The images are haunting and spooky, though I would go so far as to say often cheesy, like the ghosts in the end and the priest scene. I was a little disappointed. The babysitting scene was the best, and I was happy to see her get her due, that twit.
Rating: 6

Script: The writing was decent. The delivery by the cast carried it very well, and the dialogue of madness encroaching was what made this film for me. I think the movie would have done better if they hadn't explained every little detail why they were going nuts. Sometimes not knowing creeps us out more.
Rating: 7

Plot: The plot is the same classic haunted house tale that we've seen literally hundreds of times. But it's a good one, especially when the house is big and each room has it's own resonance of fear. This movie however left me wanting more madness.
Rating: 6

Mood: They did this thing where they had the look of the seventies and added all the modern day slasher T'N'A that the world left out of the best late 70's - early 80's horror: Black Christmas, The Shining, Texas Chainsaw Massacre didn't need this to scare us (sadly the Texas Chainsaw remake added chiseled bodies too). In fact it scared us more to know that the people were real, that you could see this happening, and not Hollywood caricatures on display as eye candy for audiences watching instead of connecting. This could have been better, but Hollywood ruined the mood with it's own brand of fake.
Rating: 4

"Jesus Christ Mom, calm down! You sound like a virgin after looney shooters on frosh week!"

Overall Rating: 60% (Weak Foundation on This Old House)

Aftertaste: The company I was with and her hand in front of her face in a huge and almost empty theater definitely enhanced the aftertaste of this movie for me, but sadly I think that it could have been better. Having seen the original, I wondered why they kept any of the "true story". They mucked up the facts from the original so much, why didn't they just go ultra-dramatic? I knew going in though that it couldn't be worse than the original, and it wasn't.