Amityville II: The Possession (1982) Review

"Why should I leave?  I like it here."

-Demon

A prequel to the original film, Amityville II: The Possession follows the story of the Montelli family who move in to the Amityville house.  Strange things begin to happen and the family starts to fall apart, which catches the attention of the local priest, Father Adamsky (James Olson), who starts to look into the occurrences.  Sonny Montelli (Jack Magner), the oldest child, is the one acting the strangest.  He has become violent, angry, and has taken to walking around the house carrying a shotgun...

What Works:

The best part of Amityville II is the practical effects.  There is some really great body horror going on this movie when the demon enters and leaves Sonny's body.  The gore is pretty brutal and absolutely fantastic.  There isn't a ton of it, but when it happens, it's memorable.

The sequence where Sonny walks around the house gunning down his entire family is actually more memorable in this movie than the original.  In the first film, the family members were all shot and killed in their sleep during a thunderstorm.  In this version, the storm is still happening, but all of the family members are up and moving around.  It's a well done sequence and the only thing this movie does better than the original.

Finally, the massacre sequence itself is pretty shocking.  We all knew that's where this movie was going.  That's the problem with a prequel like this, we know how it ends.  So I was pretty shocked when Sonny started killing everyone only an hour into the film.  I figured it must be a dream sequence, and the movie did a good job of faking me out.  They make you think it's Father Adamsky's dream, only for him to arrive at the house to find the family dead.  It's crazy timing for this to happen and I was baffled to what the rest of the film was going to be about.

What Sucks:

The biggest problem with this movie is the characters.  Our main protagonist is Father Adamsky, but he's mostly bland.  The Montrelli family simply isn't likable or interesting.  Both parents hit their kids at one point or another and the entire family argues all the time.  The two younger kids are barely characters and Sonny is being possessed and we never get anything to likable out of him before he starts getting demonic.  

The most likable member of the family is Patricia (Diane Franklin), who is fine, just kinda bland, until the movie takes a turn for the uncomfortable and has her and Sonny in an incestuous relationship.  It's a pretty messed up turn of events, but it doesn't make either character more likable.  Their scenes together are just uncomfortable and I really wanted them to stop.

The story itself isn't all that interesting.  The first half of the movie is a haunted house movie, but isn't anything that spectacular.  The second half is more of an excorsicm movie, but still not all that interesting.  That's the overall problem with this movie.  There isn't anything of interest to engage you.

Verdict:

Amityville II is a pretty dull movie that has some decent gore and one well done sequence that takes you by surprise, but the move is boring, the characters suck, and the incest subplot is extremely uncomfortable.  I'm just terrified at how much farther the quality of this series is going to drop...

 3/10: Bad