Tommy Snöberg Söderberg 
After exposing a parapsychological hoax in the house, reporter John Baxter buys it cheaply and moves in. He doesn’t think much of the house’s evil reputation, however, and refuses to believe the slightest bit of it. It doesn’t take long, though, before mysterious events begin to occur, and there is no longer any doubt that something supernatural is happening in the house. The only question is whether he has any chance of getting out alive with his family.
I’ve never enjoyed 3-D
I don’t know if there’s something wrong with my eyesight or whatever, but I’ve actually never enjoyed 3D movies! I think the picture becomes hopelessly blurry, and the few effects designed to work with 3D are far too few to outweigh the discomfort of the glasses. So I’m hardly thrilled that the trend now seems to be moving toward more and more movies being made in 3D. Nowadays there are even special TVs and Blu-ray players for the purpose. When the technology allows for a perfect picture without any glasses, I’ll start craving it—not before!
The technology has been popular before, as I said, but it didn’t take off that time. Movies such as Creature from the Black Lagoon, Jaws 3, Friday the 13th 3, House of Wax, and this one—Amityville 3-D: The Demon—were all made using this technology. They’re all films with a few years behind them, so the phenomenon is certainly nothing new. For this review, I had intended to actually watch the 3D version since the release allows for it, but after a few minutes I realized that I wouldn’t get anything out of the movie at all if I continued. So I switched over to the “normal” 2D version instead. A successful choice, I’d say.
Unnecessarily dated
I actually don’t think I’ve seen this movie before. I’m not even sure I’ve seen the second installment in the series, which of course precedes this one. I don’t really think it’s necessary, though, since this third installment seems to stand entirely on its own. It feels unnecessarily dated to the period in which it was filmed and a little too stereotypical to work fully as a scary movie in today’s demanding cinematic climate. It’s obviously of interest to retro movie fans and those who feel the need to see the complete film series, but it’s not particularly good. The script is pretty lousy, and it feels a little like an emergency solution for squeezing a bit more money out of the series.
But regardless of how the script is put together, they try to make the best of it. The actors are decent, and in the major roles we find Tony Roberts and Tess Harper, both of whom are excellent! For the nostalgic viewers, Meg Ryan appears in her second feature-film role, but there’s not much to say about that. She doesn’t make much of an impression and, of course, doesn’t have much of a role to work with either.
No, this really wasn’t anything special, despite the interesting premise, and it doesn’t make me particularly eager to get acquainted with the other installments in the series. Still, I feel that I probably should, so who knows, perhaps there will be reviews of more of these movies in the future!
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