Amityville: The Awakening

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Do you know how I knew this was going to be a “quality” movie? It was originally supposed to come out in 2015. Then it got pushed back to 2016. Then it got pushed back to this year. Earlier this year, it was taken off the release schedule, before getting a very limited release this year. The funny thing is: I was ready to hate this movie when I started watching it. I ended up enjoying aspects of it. The movie centers around a family moving into the famed Amityville house. Teenager Belle Walker (played by Bella Thorne) is the first member of the family to really start investigating the house, and is the first person to really start getting suspicious when weird things start happening. I have very mixed feelings about an Amityville Horror movie following the teenage girl as the main protagonist of the movie. On one hand, the teenage girl is the staple protagonist of most horror movies. On the other hand, this is a staple that the Amityville Horor franchise has never really touched upon. The writing in this movie is not good. Most of the dialogue feels forced, and just isn’t very memorable. The acting is okay. I was a little bit worried about Bella Thorne in the lead role when the movie started. I do like her fine as an actress. When the movie started, she felt a little rough, but I do think she got better as the movie went on. Cameron Monaghan plays James, Belle’s catatonic brother, and he’s wasted here. The same goes for Kurtwood Smith as James’s doctor, who only appears in about two scenes. The scares in the movie are a bit of a mixed bag. Some of them actually feel fairly subtle and creepy (as all scares in a horror movie should be). There’s one thing about this movie that bugged me more than anything. Why do the previous Amityville Horror movies exist in this movie’s universe? And yes, that includes the remake. It’s especially weird because this movie takes place in the franchise. Overall, this movie certainly isn’t good. It offers glimmers of a better movie, but doesn’t quite reach those levels.

5 / 10