Of all the 2000s horror remakes, this eerie film doesn’t deserve its hate

Horror cinema in the 2000s brought the rise of ‘torture porn’, the petering out of the J-Horror era, and more remakes than you could shake a stick at.

Everything from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, My Bloody Valentine, A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Fog, and The Hills Have Eyes were all rebooted for audiences, usually packed full of wild CGI and graphic violence.

These reimaginings came 20 to 30 years after ‘the golden era’ of horror, the 70s and 80s, that many still laud as the decades in which the best of the best were released. And now we’re experiencing the same thing once more, with several 90s and 00s reboots coming our way, from I Know What You Did Last Summer to a sixth Final Destination film.

For studios, they were far less of a risk financially than bold, original stories as these remakes already had beloved legacies to pull from, and an established audience hungry for nostalgia and ‘the glory days’ of a pre-9/11 society, one filled with less paranoia and darkness in the headlines.

Nowadays, many of these remakes have aged incredibly poorly – and one that often meets the ire of critics and film fans alike is the 2005 reboot of The Amityville Horror, starring Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Jimmy Bennett.

It is based on the 1977 novel The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, which was also adapted into a 1979 film of the same name. Both are loosely based on the experiences of the Lutz family, who moved into the DeFeo home in Amityville, New York and claimed it was haunted.

They lived in the property following the real-life crimes of Ronald DeFeo Jr, who killed six members of his family at the same house in 1974.

The 2005 film follows George (Reynolds) and Kathy Lutz (George) who move into a spacious home with their children in Amityville one year after the DeFeo murders.

They are chuffed to have nabbed such an incredible home at a bargain price, but they soon realise why the price tag was so low as paranormal occurrences begin to threaten their lives.

The classic haunted house tale appeared to be an instant smash hit on paper, yet it was widely derided by critics and currently holds just a 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It was dubbed ‘predictable’, ‘mediocre’, and ‘cheesy’, but I honestly don’t think The Amityville Horror deserves half of the hate it receives and is, actually, a pretty great supernatural flick.

Now, a caveat if you will, after opening with a line on the nostalgic elements that fuel remakes as studios know audiences crave that specific hit of dopamine – I must recognise that this is likely what lies behind my deep love for The Amityville Horror.

As a tween finding my feet in the world of spooky cinema, The Amityville Horror was an early film that fuelled my passion for all things that go bump in the night.

I’ve seen thousands of horror films since – from gateway flicks to the more extreme end of the spectrum – but The Amityville Horror, in all its shlocky, ham-fisted glory, will always be beloved to me due to the formative years in which I watched it.

That being said, there are still some scenes that make the hairs on my arms stand to attention, and there’s a small part of me that is still terrified of waking up at 3.15am.

Though the scares are somewhat predictable, they’re still effective in the tense atmosphere cultivated by lead actors Reynolds and George as their paranoia reaches a fever pitch.

Reynolds’ intensity during the chilling wood-chopping scene is every bit as spine-chilling today as it ever was, and it’s hard not to feel your anxiety levels rise as it becomes clear his family are at serious risk.

Much like Jack Nicholson’s iconic performance as Jack Torrance in The Shining, Reynolds perfectly portrayed a husband and stepfather who gradually becomes more abusive toward his loved ones, never flinching from the film’s darker elements.

More and more horror films go there now when it comes to children in horror films – take last year’s Spanish horror comedy The Coffee Table, for example – yet it’s still tense from the get-go whenever kids are in horror because you just know their innocent souls are on the chopping block.

As a parent to two young children myself, it is unfathomable to think of harming a hair on their head. So to see such cruelty levied towards Billy (Jesse James), Michael (Bennett), and Chelsea (Moretz), has become increasingly difficult to watch over the years, adding a fresh level of terror to the film decades on.

The Amityville Horror’s decision to focus on family dynamics more than the mythology of the house is at the centre of why I think it’s a truly great horror film.

Sure, ghosts are scary, but there is nothing more terrifying than what humans can do to each other – just take a glance at our news section, and you’ll see countless examples of that.

Since the 2005 film’s release, we now have at least 61 Amityville-inspired films – yes, you read that correctly – that have become increasingly wild as they’ve gone on. Amityville In Space, to name just one.

But this 00s instalment is a cut above the rest, exploring the complexities of a crumbling familial unit through a classic haunted house horror film that remains suitably spooky 25 years since its release.

The Amityville Horror is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

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