Amityville Exorcism | |
---|---|
Directed by | Mark Polonia |
Screenplay by | Billy D'Amato |
Produced by | Mark Polonia |
Starring | Marie DeLorenzo Jeff Kirkendall James Carolus |
Cinematography | Lukas K. Reynolds |
Edited by | Mark Polonia |
Music by | John Rayl Greg Stanina |
Production company | Polonia Brothers Entertainment |
Distributed by | Wild Eye Releasing |
Release date |
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Running time | 77 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Amityville Exorcism is a 2017 American horror film directed by Mark Polonia [1] [2] and written by Billy D'Amato. [3] It was released direct-to-video, and is the eighteenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. [3] The film stars Jeff Kirkendall as Father Benna, a Catholic priest who, with the help of a troubled father played by James Carolus, performs exorcism on the man's daughter (Marie DeLorenzo) after the girl is possessed by a demon that originates from 112 Ocean Avenue, a haunted house in Amityville, New York. [4] It was followed by two sequels, Amityville Island in 2020 and Amityville in Space in 2022.
A general contractor named Charles Humes is sentenced to death after killing his wife and two daughters with a hammer in Amityville, New York. The day before his execution, Charles meets with Father Benna. Charles confides in Benna that he committed the familicide due to being possessed by demons that he claims reside within lumber that he took from 112 Ocean Avenue, a local house that was haunted until an exorcism was performed on it by Benna's brother, Father Jonas. Jonas died during the exorcism, and his death still haunts Benna. Charles added the tainted wood to his own home, as well as various other properties, which he gives a list of to Benna. One of the houses that Charles worked on is inhabited by Amy Dukane and her abusive alcoholic father, Jeremy. Jeremy is widowed due to his wife, Bonnie, dying in a drunk driving crash that was caused by Jeremy.
Amy and Benna both start being terrorized by a demon, which disembowels a burglar before infusing Amy with an amalgamation of lesser demons called Legion. While Amy is out for a walk in the woods, where she and the demon kill a photographer, Jeremy is visited by Benna. Jeremy is skeptical of Benna's claim that his house is haunted, until Amy torments him from afar with visions of Bonnie. Amy murders her boyfriend, Robby, while the house is being blessed by Benna. When Amy returns, she is weakened by the blessing, and tied to her bed by Benna and Jeremy. Amy assumes a hideous visage, plays mind games with Jeremy, and animates dolls that she uses to attack Benna. Benna fends off the toys, and begins performing an exorcism on Amy. Amy breaks free of her restraints, forces Jeremy out of the room, and summons the demon that had implanted her with Legion. The demon taunts Benna, who responds by drawing a cross on it with blood from a wound that he had been given by Amy. The bloody cross banishes the demon and Legion back to Hell, freeing Amy.
Amy and Jeremy reconcile, while Benna heads out to deal with all of the other properties that had 112 Ocean Avenue's cursed wood added to them by Charles.
Tex Hula ranked Amityville Exorcism as the worst of the twenty-one Amityville films that he reviewed for Ain't It Cool News, and derisively stated, "Everything about this movie is incompetent. It's not even bad on a level you can laugh at it. It looks like it was made for a public access channel. The only good thing I can say about it, the story is pretty consistent with the rest of the Amityville line. But it's the worst movie I've ever sat through willingly." [5] Horror News found that the film consisted almost entirely of "fairly standard exorcism story beats" that it failed to use "in a new or interesting way" before concluding, "There was not a lot of good to Amityville Exorcism. It's mostly a poorly made movie that only used the Amityville name to get the few viewers it had. I would say it's a watchable movie, but I see so much on the lower end of quality that I find a lot of things watchable. This was not a good movie. If you're a fan of Mark Polonia's work, since he has a lot of work, you might appreciate it. For anyone else, pass on this one for something, almost anything else." [6]
The Exorcist is a 1971 horror novel written by American writer William Peter Blatty and published by Harper & Row. The book details the demonic possession of eleven-year-old Regan MacNeil, the daughter of a famous actress, and the two priests who attempt to exorcise the demon. The novel was the basis of a highly successful film adaptation released two years later, whose screenplay was also written and produced by Blatty. More movies and books were eventually added to The Exorcist franchise.
The Amityville Horror is a book by American author Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is based on the claims of paranormal experiences by the Lutz family, but has led to controversy and lawsuits over its truthfulness.
The Amityville Horror is a 2005 American supernatural horror film directed by Andrew Douglas, and starring Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, and Philip Baker Hall. It also featured the debut of actress Chloë Grace Moretz. Written by Scott Kosar, it is based on the novel The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, which was previously adapted into the 1979 film of the same name, while also serving as the ninth film in the Amityville Horror film series, and was also served as inspiration for The Conjuring, which documents the experiences of the Lutz family after they move into a house at 112 Ocean Avenue, Long Island. In 1974, real-life mass murderer Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six members of his family at the same house in Amityville, New York.
Amityville II: The Possession is a 1982 supernatural horror film directed by Damiano Damiani and starring James Olson, Burt Young, Rutanya Alda, Jack Magner, and Diane Franklin. It’s an international co-production between Mexico and the United States. The screenplay by Tommy Lee Wallace is based on the novel Murder in Amityville by the parapsychologist Hans Holzer. It is the second film in the Amityville Horror film series and a loose prequel to The Amityville Horror (1979), set at 112 Ocean Avenue and featuring the fictional Montelli family, loosely based on the DeFeo family. It follows the Montelli family's decline under apparent demonic forces present in their home.
Edward Warren Miney and Lorraine Rita Warren were American paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent cases of alleged hauntings. Edward was a self-taught and self-professed demonologist, author, and lecturer. Lorraine professed to be clairvoyant and a light trance medium who worked closely with her husband.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a 2005 American supernatural horror legal drama film directed by Scott Derrickson, and starring Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson. The film is loosely based on the book The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel by Felicitas D. Goodman, which tells the story of Anneliese Michel, and follows a self-proclaimed agnostic (Linney) who acts as defense counsel representing a parish priest (Wilkinson) accused of negligent homicide after performing an exorcism.
The Amityville Horror is a 1979 American supernatural horror film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and starring James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and Rod Steiger. The film follows a young couple who purchase a home haunted by combative supernatural forces. It is based on Jay Anson's 1977 book of the same name, which documented the alleged paranormal experiences of the Lutz family who briefly resided in the Amityville, New York home where Ronald DeFeo Jr. committed the mass murder of his family in 1974. It is the first entry in the long-running Amityville Horror film series, and was remade in 2005.
The Amityville Curse is a 1990 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by Tom Berry and starring Kim Coates, Cassandra Gava and Jan Rubeš. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Hans Holzer. It is the fifth film in the Amityville Horror film series.
The Amityville haunting is a modern folk story based on the true crimes of Ronald DeFeo Jr. On November 13, 1974, DeFeo shot and killed six members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, on the south shore of Long Island. He was convicted of second-degree murder in November 1975. In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into the house. After 28 days, the Lutzes left the house, claiming to have been terrorized by paranormal phenomena while living there. The house became the subject of numerous investigations by paranormal researchers, journalists, and skeptics, including Ed and Lorraine Warren. These events served as the historical basis for Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror, which was followed by a number of sequels and was adapted into a film of the same name in 1979. Since then, many films have been produced that draw explicitly, to a greater or lesser extent, from these historical and literary sources. As Amityville is a real town and the stories of DeFeo and the Lutzes are historical, there can be no proprietary relationship to the underlying story elements associated with the Amityville haunting. As a result of this, there has been no restriction on the exploitation of the story by film producers, which is the reason that most of these films share no continuity, were produced by different companies, and tell widely varying stories.
Pazuzu is a fictional character who is the main antagonist in The Exorcist horror novels and film series, created by William Peter Blatty. Blatty derived the character from Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, where the mythic Pazuzu was considered the king of the demons of the wind, and the son of the god Hanbi. In The Exorcist, Pazuzu appears as a demon who possesses Regan MacNeil.
Twin brothers and filmmakers Mark Polonia and John Polonia founded Polonia Bros Entertainment and Cinegraphic Productions. Between them they have written, directed and produced over 40 feature films, often shot-on-video and mostly in the horror and science fiction genres, making them low-budget or even no-budget film cult icons.
The Amityville Asylum is a 2013 British horror film written and directed by Andrew Jones. It is the eleventh film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. Sophia Del Pizzo stars as Lisa Templeton, a young woman who is hired to work as a custodian at High Hopes Psychiatric Hospital, an asylum that was built on the site of a haunted house in Amityville, New York.
The Exorcist is an American horror media franchise that originated with William Peter Blatty's 1971 horror novel of the same name and most prominently featured in a 1973 film adaptation of the novel, and many subsequent prequels and sequels. All of these installments focus on fictional accounts of people possessed by Pazuzu, the main antagonist of the series, and the efforts of religious authorities to counter this possession.
Amityville Death House is a 2015 American horror film directed by Mark Polonia, written by John Oak Dalton, and starring Eric Roberts. It was released direct-to-video, and is the twelfth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror.
Amityville Playhouse is a 2015 horror film written and directed by John R. Walker, and co-written by Steve Hardy. It is the thirteenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. Monèle LeStrat stars as Fawn Harriman, a recently orphaned Dannemora high school student who inherits a mysterious abandoned theatre located in Amityville, New York.
Amityville: Vanishing Point is a 2016 American horror film written and directed by Dylan Greenberg, and co-written by Selena Mars, Jurgen Azazel Munster, and Ezra Pailer. It premiered on video on demand before being released direct-to-video, and is the fourteenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. Selena Mars, Amanda Flowers, and Sara Kaiser star as the residents of an Amityville, New York boarding house that is plagued by paranormal activity after the mysterious death of their friend Margaret East.
The Amityville Legacy is a 2016 American horror film written and directed by Dustin Ferguson and Mike Johnson. It was released direct-to-video, and is the fifteenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. Mark Popejoy stars as Mark Janson, a father who begins murdering members of his own family after being gifted an evil cymbal-banging monkey toy that was taken from 112 Ocean Avenue, a haunted house in Amityville, New York.
The Amityville Terror is a 2016 American horror film directed by Michael Angelo, and written by Amanda Barton. It was released direct-to-video, and is the sixteenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. Nicole Tompkins stars as Hailey Jacobson, the daughter of a dysfunctional family that is terrorized by both evil spirits and malicious townspeople after moving into a haunted house in Amityville, New York.
Sharkenstein is a sharksploitation film from 2016 directed by Mark Polonia and was written by J.K. Farlew.
Amityville: No Escape is a 2016 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Henrique Couto, and co-written by Ira Gansler. It is the seventeenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. A found footage film, it follows two storylines, one set in 1997 and the other in 2016, that both involve 112 Ocean Avenue, a haunted house in Amityville, New York.