Amityville II: The Possession (Damiano Damiani, 1982)

Three years after The Amityville Horror Dino De Laurentiis bought the rights to make a sequel and hired intelligent Italian director Damiano Damiani to make one quick and dirty, Amityville 2: The Possession. Well, I don't know about the last thing, but De Laurentiis was a businessman and he often new what he was doing. It's actually a prequel, telling the story about the DeFeo family who ended up dead when the oldest son took one of his father's guns and shot the whole bunch of 'em. 

Like the first movie it's a lot of wild speculation here and after around one hour it totally leaves any of the few facts left in the story and becomes a typical, 80's horror film complext with rubber effects and lovely visuals. It has a quick pacing, which not only means it's well-edited by also well-written (by Tommy Lee Wallace!). Here, in a much higher degree than the first film, it's a disturbing sight seeing the family - especially the father becoming a raging madman. What's extra effective is of course that the dad (Burt Young) probably behaved the exact same way before he entered the house, but the demon this time found a reason for the slaughter by possessing the son. 

So it's more, like the title says, a possession flick - with more than a few images loaned from The Exorcist. It's pretty spectacular towards the end with a very creepy make-up effect, some slimy gore and graphic violence - but maybe most of all, a very impressive Jack Magner as the son. Everything - including Magner - reminds me of A Nightmare On Elm Street 2, two years later.

Both of the films are about teenage sons trying to find some identity, the both have very strict and conservative fathers, they're both getting possessed by a demon and during the end both of them have their bodies ripped apart when the demon wants out! Like Mark Patton in Elm Street Jack Magner more or less disappeared after his big breakthrough (who also happen to be a sequel to a hightly successful Hollywood movie). I wonder if Jack, like Mark, also ended up as a happy gay man owning a designer store in Mexico? Who knows, who knows...

The dark themes, the incest, the very edgy performances from the male leads (as usual the women ends up like mindless screamers) makes Amityville II a very superior sequel to a movie that's held in higher regard - which is weird, I can't really explain why. It's not bad, but it's very generic, non-graphic, flat characters and flat direction. Is it the dreaded nostalgia that's playing games with us again? Sure, there's a few clumsy, very Italian, problems with the script and the visuals has often more to say than the written words, but it's still an extremely successful sequel from the viewpoint of scares to just being able to tell a good ghost story. 

From now I'll go so far that I consider this one of the best haunted house films from the 80's. It's that good and original. 

Comments

[Megatron]

"Well, I don't know about the last thing, but De Laurentiis was a businessman and he often new what he was doing."

Yeah...he produced a lot of cool stuff.

"by also well-written (by Tommy Lee Wallace!)."

I must admit...I only seen "It" (1990– ), the TV series was appearently co written by him and he directed as well.

"I wonder if Jack, like Mark, also ended up as a happy gay man owning a designer store in Mexico? Who knows, who knows..."

Could be, could be....

"It's not bad, but it's very generic, non-graphic, flat characters and flat direction. Is it the dreaded nostalgia that's playing games with us again? Sure, there's a few clumsy, very Italian, problems with the script and the visuals has often more to say than the written words, but it's still an extremely successful sequel from the viewpoint of scares to just being able to tell a good ghost story."

I have only seen the remake.....so I don´t know, but nostalgia can be hard to overlook.

Good review and thanks.