‘Amityville’ a gruesome, spine-chilling thrill ride

In a follow-up to the remake of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” Michael Bay and his team of producers comprised of Andrew Form and Brad Fuller took on another horror classic, 1979’s “The Amityville Horror.”

The movie, based on a true story, opens with the murders committed by Ronald DeFeo, Jr., who lived in the house with his family. DeFeo shot his parents and all four of his siblings with a rifle while they slept. He claimed “voices” in the house told him to commit the gruesome crime. And the opening scene of the movie is shockingly gruesome.

The story picks up when the Lutz family moves into the house. Soon thereafter, George Lutz (Ryan Reynolds) begins to lose his mind after hearing the same “voices” DeFeo purportedly heard.

So begins a string of strange occurrences in the Lutz home.

Much of the storyline focuses on the relationship between Jodie DeFeo (Rachel Nichols), a ghost living in the home, and the Lutz daughter, Chelsea (Chloe Moretz).

Although the tactic of allowing Chelsea to see Jodie, but no one else in the film can, is overused, it works in this film because of the creepiness of Jodie’s character.

Of course the biggest star of this film is the house itself. Bay and his production team breathe life into the hellhole it is. It’s eerie both inside and out.

The movie really gets rolling when George begins to lose it. He begins to believe that the children are demons. This leads to abuse, forcing the eldest son to hold wood while he chops it and, one of PETA’s favorite activities, chopping the family dog up with an axe.

The movie shines when Reynolds interacts with the children (as brutal as he is) and when the house is brought to life. In fact, Reynolds deliberately distanced himself from the child actors in the film to maintain a certain disconnected element.

What didn’t work for me was the actual cause of the house’s animosity. In the original, an unknown entity is behind all the evil ongoings. In Bay’s version, the entity is given a face and that didn’t really work for me.

Overall though, the film is scary, mainly because of the actual history behind the event, but a few required horror let’s-see-if-we-can-get-them-to-jump-out-of-their-seats moments.

On a side note, during the 51-day shoot, actress Melissa George, who plays Kathy Lutz, found a few things a bit strange.

In the second week of filming, the real Kathy Lutz passed away at 59. George also found it eerie that a dead body floated to the top of the lake in Illinois where the film was being shot. George still maintains that she’s skeptical of the supernatural unless she can “actually see something or feel it.”

“The Amityville Horror” opens today nationwide. The film is rated “R” and has a running time of 89 minutes.