Opening with faux stock footage intended to introduce newcomers to the strange and horrific incident that inspired the original Amityville Horror and every Amityville film that has followed since, The Awakening rather plainly explains everything most films would normally work into scenes of expositional dialogue. The fact it was due to receive a theatrical bow only further reveals Hollywood’s twisted focus on a product’s potential to make money rather than the quality of said product. ![]() This is not a film so terrible that it somehow become good, but rather an almost total failure that even those who claim to love bad movies will struggle to appreciate. PS: Watched out for the scene when Belle and her friends mocked Ryan Reynolds’ The Amityville Horror (2005).After years stuck in release limbo, Amityville: The Awakening has finally arrived with the kind of deafening thud that can only be produced by a film void of entertainment value. But, with the overall ambience and heart-thumping feeling, I must say this movie comes as a sweet surprise! The Awakening has its flaws, however, with a rushed ending and unexplained theory of the horror origins. Kudos also given to Steven Poster who created a dream-like cinematography with some fantastic close shots. Those scenes worked in my opinion because we are familiar and want them always in our horror movies. But, Franck cranked it up by providing nightmarish and random terror scenes, like Belle peeling over the room’s wallpaper or when Belle and her school friends watched the 70s The Amityville Horror at 3am-the light shuts down forcing them to go to the basement. The cliché part? Door alarm sound off in the middle of the night as well as doors creak for no reason. Let’s begin with the claustrophobic setting: old house in the middle of no where with floor-to-ceiling windows, narrow stairs and dormer window. Was it real? Its equally disturbing for sure.įrench Franck Khalfoun, who directed my favourite thriller P2, seems to go with the cliché horror scenes that actually works. There was a scene when Belle goes down the stairs and saw her mother’s naked back sitting next to comatose James. ![]() Is Joan hiding something from her daughter? Joan is played by actress Jennifer Jason Leigh who is amazing as the cryptic mother. The hate-tension between Belle and Joan also adds a sinister prelude to the main event. While Belle’s character screams basic teenager in a horror movie, actress Bella Thorne actually excels in portraying the distress, black-sheep in the family. His big, blue eyes will stare directly into the camera, signaling something evil is in him while his freckles just glared brightly, perhaps signaling the contrast with the red room in the basement. Coincidence? Cameron’s portrayal as the comatose James is creepy to say the least. After being in a coma for some time, James slowly regained his consciousness when the family moved into the Amityville house. Actor Cameron Monaghan, who played Belle’s comatose brother James, is also responsible for making me squirmed on my seat. However, the horror effect in The Awakening is not only limited to evil spirits’ silhouette or shocking events. The jump-scare started out in trivial manners: house windows closed shut to dark figure seen in the mirror, but continue to get more frequent at the same time Belle starts having her nightmare, precisely at 3:15pm. The Awakening jump scare starts quite early, which makes sense since we know what this family (and the audience) is in for. Sometimes a horror movie needs a build-up scare and sometimes they don’t. Belle, the eldest daughter, was the first to learn about her new house’s history and begin to experience frequent nightmares before eventually figured out how to stop the menacing evil spirit. Moving away with her three children, Joan, a single mother moves into the Amityville haunted house to save money for her comatose son’s healthcare. The event is an old subject that has been adapted into 19 movies (six feature films and others went to direct-to-videos) and will make anyone think twice before watching the new film titled Amityville: The Awakening.ĭistributed by Dimension Films, division of The Weinstein Company, the new Amityville film takes place 40 years after November, 1974. Let’s take the well-known Amityville tragedy for example. Perhaps it’s the looming after effect that makes me think “oh, this has happened before” and it could happen again. I don’t know what about these real-life horror stories turned into movies that makes it scarier. ![]() ![]() Sometimes the things mentioned above work, but other times real-life events also served the purpose. What makes a good scary movie? Is it the scary ghost, monsters under bed or the storyline? Do you need gory images and jumpy sounds to generate the effects? For me, a good scary movie varies from time to time.
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