Delayed Reaction: The Amityville Horror

The Pitch: What if The Exorcist but with a house?

A family moves into the house where some brutal murders were committed and begins to be affected by an evil presence.

Horror is all about eras. Someone has a good idea, and everyone in town milks it until it stops being successful. German expressionism came and went in the 20s. The Universal monster movies dominated the 30s. Sci-Fi B-Movies had their time in the 50s. The 80s had slashers. The 90's went meta. Found footage took hold at points throughout the 2000s. The Amityville Horror serves as a nice reminder that there aren't always neat little dividing lines. The prevailing theme of the 70s was religious, normally Catholic, horror. Rosemary's Baby in 1969 opened the door with the deal-with-the-Devil story. The Exorcist was the game changer, and became one of the 10 highest grossing movies ever (It still is, adjusted for inflation). Movies like The Omen (adopting the Devil's child) kept it going. The Amityville Horror marks a sort of transition point. It's very religiously themed, but it's ultimately a haunted house and paranormal story, fitting in nicely with Poltergeist a few years later.

And, you can feel the demonic horror angle running out in Amityville Horror. It seems like most of the time in the movie is spent keeping religious figures away. And the movie is at its scariest when it's just a house scaring the shit out of people.

Some of the charm of this movie was lost by the fact that I saw the 2005 remake, which didn't try to change a whole hell of a lot, and Poltergeist and The Conjuring really ran with the idea. I'm kind of curious to see the Amityville sequels though, because this strikes me as a series that goes off the rails quickly and spectacularly.

This was OK though.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Stage Fright

The Pitch: I think more people should be afraid of owls.

An escaped psychopath traps the cast and crew of a play in a theater and picks them off, one-by-one.

I guess I'm a fan of Italian horror. This is based on a sample of two movies*. Suspiria quickly became one of my favorite horror movies. Stage Fright is far below Suspiria in my rankings, but I still enjoyed a lot about it. It also has some striking visuals. The killer with the owl mask is silly when I think about it, but while I was watching the movie, it's quite intimidating. I enjoy some of the needless flourishes. Like, I don't know what the point was of the killer setting up everyone he killed on stage, but it sure looked cool.

*OK. Probably more than two. The Suspiria remake probably counts. I'm sure there are several others I've seen that I didn't even realize were Italian.

The premise is labored. It has to somehow get the psychopath into the theater and able to lock everyone in with no ability to contact help. There's no way to set all that up comfortably. Yet, once it gets there, it's thoroughly enjoyable. I appreciated how quickly the killer picked everyone off. By the time it was just the one woman left, I realized there was a lot of movie left. And the nature of the scares changes at that point. It changed from a slasher to more of a chase or escape story.

Stage Fright is imperfect, but it has a couple good gimmicks, has a consistent tone, and keeps the tension up. What more do you need?

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Marrowbone

The Pitch: It'll be a sort of haunted house story, but possibly supernatural. And everyone has a secret. And there's a book. Sort of a horror movie cocktail.

After the death of their mother, four siblings try to live in hiding from the government long enough for the oldest brother to adopt them. Meanwhile, there's something not right in that house.

Marrowbone checks a lot of my horror movie boxes. It has a period setting. It doesn't over-rely on jump scares. Instead, it carries a sense of looming dread throughout; like something bad could happen at any moment, but nothing bad has to happen at any moment. It has a great cast. Horror movies are great at finding young talent, since they are normally looking for actors who audiences don't associate with any other roles or characters yet. Out of Anya Taylor-Joy, Mia Goth, and Charlie Heaton, Goth probably had the biggest profile at the time this was filmed, and that's only if you follow Lars von Trier films closely.

It's not that surprising that J.A. Bayona was a producer on this. Marrowbone reminded me a lot of The Orphanage. Similar period. Both rely on the creaks of an old house for scares. And, the way the stories reveal themselves at the end is similar. I do think this movie will be more appealing to people like me who are able to turn the "find the twist" part of their brains off. I enjoyed letting the third act surprise me, but I know it's hard for some people to stop looking at stories as a puzzle. It may also be a little dull for some. If you came away from The Witch wishing more had actually happened, you should steer clear of this. Personally, The Witch is one of my favorite horror movies of the last few years, so Marrowbone was exactly what I was looking for.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend