Amityville: A New Generation

Trailer—Amityville: A New Generation

"Amityville: A New Generation" seems like an episode of "Tales from the Crypt". The story is serious and the thrilling mistery is growing every minute, the horror scenes are good and the special effects are really effective ones. The cast is great, full of famous horror actors faces. A fine direct-to-video movie!

I was so glad to be over with Slasher Month having to binge watch all those stupid horror movies but at least that's finally over. What this? For Direct To Video Month, there's tons more stupid horror movies! Yeah! The Amityville Horror series has to be one of the least satisfying of all time. I lost count of these, but I think this is actually the seventh! This movie features a magic mirror that belonged to the owner of the Amityville house. Looking into it makes people kill themselves or directly kills him, oh I don't care. This film is surprisingly dull. There isn't even that much focus on the evil mirror itself. It's mostly just people talking and strange dreams or hallucinations or something. It's hard to keep track because everything in this movie is so uninteresting. There's just nobody to root for. Okay, I will give it credit for doing one good thing. We get to see Terry O'Quinn in the movie! I guess it helps that "Lost" had so many actors that it's easy for me to recognize them in other movies. He's actually pretty good, but he alone can't save this pointless film. It just feels like a long episode of a bad TV show. *1/2

Most people don't like this movie, but I actually enjoyed it. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't mention the other films, it just shows the infamous Amityville house. !!!SOME SPOILERS!!! A young artist buys an antique mirror from a bum on the street. As soon as he puts it in his apartment, evil things start happening to his friends. He also discovers who is Father was and his past. Good story, acting, and o.k. effects. ***1/2 out of *****.

This is an okay movie, but it doesn't generate much excitement or suspense because there's not much done with the mirror and the characters are not especially interesting. This picture is less about the mirror than it is about this kid's history concerning his deceased, murderous father. The only truly interesting characters are the detective, played by The Stepfather's Terry O'Quinn, and Llanie. And just like in the previous film, "It's About Time", there's no Amityville house either (except in flashbacks). If this really is a new generation, then I would have preferred the old one. **1/2 out of ****

Oh dear. This sequel has a mirror, this time, which houses the evil spirit of a psychopath which murdered an entire family with a shotgun in the Amityville home. The mirror captured the entire ugly incident of the horrified family who had no time to prepare for their uninvited guest. The mirror is given to a photographer, Keyes(Ross Partridge)by a bum(..who just so happens to be his lunatic father, and the man responsible for killing the family)and it's evil soon terrorizes those in a loft(..such as Keyes' painter pal Suki, portrayed by Julia Nickson-Soul)where he lives when they look into it. Soon Keyes is having nightmares, looking through the eyes of his father as he guns down the family in cold blood, worried that he might follow in his footsteps. Soon he sees other occurrences through his father's eyes like that terrible day pops bashed his mother's head against the floor of an institution or experiencing a moment inside the cell as doctor's administered a drug to immobilize him. Pretty solid supporting cast who deserve better than being stuck in junk like this, such as David Naughton(American Werewolf in London)as the proprietor of the loft with which Keyes lives, Richard Roundtree as an eccentric sculptor/artist, Terry O'Quinn as a psychologist-detective, and especially Lin Shaye as a hilarious ditsy, rather strange secretary-nurse in the asylum(..the one which held Keyes' father) soon to be closed down. Rounding out the film, the sexy, leggy Lala Sloatman as Keyes' supportive girlfriend, Barbara Howard(Friday the 13th:The Final Chapter)as Naughton's betrayed wife(..he was on the verge of starting an affair with Nickman-Soul), Jack Orend as the sadistic fiend who attempts to provoke his son into killing innocent people as he did, and Robert Rusler(A Nightmare on Elm Street 2:Freddy's Revenge)as a rejected lover(..of Nickson-Soul)who meets an unfortunate demise while ripping apart paintings as a revenge for his dismissal. This film is a poor special effects movie merely using the Amityville title as a cash-in. The franchise has never been that great to begin with, but as each sequel was green-lit, it grew worse and worse. After the third film, furniture from the infamous house become "possessed" items tormenting folks. The cast try hard, though, but the material(..a mirror causing chaos and murder through supernatural means)is lacking in quality..and the rather mediocre special effects don't help matters. O'Quinn, as little as he has to work with, shows why he's such a great actor, he can even shine in excrement such as this. All's not lost, you get to see Sloatman always wearing super short skirts(..or her man's shirt in panties), showing off her legs throughout..hey, you have to find a silver lining somewhere. Believe it or not, AMITYVILLE:A NEW GENERATION was the seventh film in the franchise! Coolest part of the film were the portraits of demons painted by Nickson-Soul's artist, perhaps inspired by the evil mirror after looking into it.

Ok, I admit, I have not seen the original yet; but in all this movie isn't all that bad. The idea of objects (like a clock in Amityville 6 (1992 it's about time) or a mirror in this tale (Amityville 7) carrying the original horrors are a bit hokey, but then again it makes sense. I liked this movie better than its time traveling predecessor and this one gives an interesting history if an Amityville family through the deranged father/psyco-killer handing the mirror and its inner demons to his son (who unknowingly accepts the gift and the re-opening of buried images/memories). Maybe it was because I was in New York and Amityville is in Long Island, but this film is at least average (hence a 5 or 6).

Here we go again, another mediocre entry to the Amityville franchise that seems to get less interesting the further along it goes. I don't know, but I do miss the ominous house itself which featured prominently in the first three films. Sure it has connections and even the image of it appears in the haunted antique mirror which came from infamous Long Island house, but it's just not the same. The straight-to-video fare "A New Generation" is the seventh film, where the terror scraps suburbia for an urban apartment building filled with budding artists who one-by- one fall to the evil entity. An antique mirror is given to a photographer by a homeless man. Soon after accepting the gift, the man starts having haunting visions of a killing spree which might just have some relevance to him. But he's not the only one who's been affected by the demonic force within the mirror, but those living in his studio building begin to find themselves possessed/or infatuated by these dark forces. The plot tries to tie in a little more to the history of the Long House island, especially with the main character's (an affable Ross Partridge) connection to what's actually happening. So most of the time is spent with Partridge's character trying to uncover the truth and dealing with flashbacks. Didn't make it any more interesting though. Predictable and interchangeable. The imitating special effects do have its moments, but there's a real lack of atmosphere and thrills. Sure it's slickly directed, but feels vapid and flat. There's a good supporting cast featuring Terry O'Quinn, Richard Roundtree. Julia Nickson-Soul and a very twitchy David Naughton that do enliven things. Hardly terrible, but rather uninspired.

In this seventh outing to Amityville a haunted mirror brings bad fortune, possession and death to an artist and his friends. What sets this apart from the others is the cast, it has the excellent Julia Nickson as well as industry veterans Terry O'Quinn, Lin Shaye & Richard Roundtree. Thanks to this the movie wasn't an complete bust, but still mostly. With a baffling story, very little actual horror and being another film that just screams "Milking the franchise" There isn't much to the films credit and I'd say one for fans only. The Good: Outstanding cast especially Julia Nickson The Bad: Nonsensical plot Rather dull Things I Learnt From This Movie: This Amityville binge is going to cost me some brain cells

After a very good sixth sequel released a year before this, the series takes a slight step back in the 7th film - Amityville: A New Generation. We continue the theme of possessed items from the original house being evil and having the power to kill people. This one is an evil mirror which has the power to show a person how they'll die - and then makes it happen! The film begins with a young photographer named Keyes who is given a seemingly innocent antique mirror by a homeless man. We quickly learn that the mirror is cursed and was an item in the infamous house on Long Island. Once Keyes puts the mirror up in his loft, many of his roommates and friends start dying off in pretty creative ways by staring into the mirror. There is also a bit of a backstory with Keyes as we learn that he once lived in the Amityville house as a child and that his family murdered by his possessed father, connecting this sequel to the first two very nicely. I really liked that they took us back to the original story and tried to integrate Keyes into that plot of the possessed man killing his family. The movie itself though isn't all that scary. The mirror's power to kill people was creative, but not all that terrifying. That is the core problem with the series at this point with the theme of possessed items. No one is scared of lamps or mirrors or dollhouses. In the acting department, Amityville 7 gives us horror heavy hitters David Naughton and Terry O'Quinn. Both of which are known for 'An American Werewolf in London' and 'The Stepfather' respectively. In addition, Ross Partridge does well as the lead male character. Everyone else is pretty much background to the overall story. Amityville: A New Generation, like its predecessor, manages to at least be an entertaining watch. It isn't a terrifying film, and the second half falls apart, but if you are a fan of the series it does tie in to the original story of the DeFeo's and their deaths at the infamous Amityville house. It isn't nearly as fun as Amityville 1992, and drags on way too much, but manages to be a competent entry. I'd check it out at least once. 5/10