The Amityville Horror on Blu-ray Disc Review
By Brandon A. DuHamel
The Film
1979's
The Amityville Horror purports to be an account of true events. What the film is, in fact, is the film adaptation of the book of the same name, which tells of the Lutz family, which moved into a house in Amityville, New York and claimed to experience all manner of supernatural events. The facts of the situation are this: the DeFeo family, living at 112 Ocean Ave. were shot and killed by their son who is still in prison for the murders today. The Lutz family moved into the house in 1977 and left within a month claiming they were in fear for their lives.
The Lutz family's claims have long since come under much scrutiny, but the film has gone on to grow in popularity over the years and has now even miraculously garnered status as a "classic" of the horror genre.
The Amityville Horror is ultimately a silly amalgamation of 1970's horror themes of a haunted house movie and Roman Catholic religious overtones that were far better served by other films of its era such as
The Omen,
The Exorcist, and
Friday the 13th.
As a horror film,
Amityville fails in on just about every count. There is no gore, the psychological aspect is far from deep or thrilling and the special effects -- what little there are -- are poorly rendered. From the happenstance stumbling upon a seeming gateway to hell to a mysteriously vanishing wad of cash, the "scares" in
Amityville Horror seem trite and ultimately lacking in chills. James Brolin's (as George Lutz) supposed descent into madness is so over the top and inexplicable he might as well be having a run-of-the-mill nervous breakdown rather than being what I guess we are to believe is being possessed by an evil spirit.
This is a horror film that only the biggest fans of horror could possibly find something to like in. It's so poorly done it's almost humorous rather than horrifying. Why exactly this has gained the moniker "classic" is a mystery to me. Perhaps in these days of instant access to so much content merely being aged a certain amount of years is enough to be considered classic.
The Picture
Amityvile Horror's AVC/MPEG-4 encoding of its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 comes to Blu-ray Disc looking about as well as it can. The encoding is free from artifacts and the source is relatively clean showing only minimal evidence of dirt and scratches. The look of the film, however, is typically 1970's with a flat color palette, dull contrast and soft detail. Grain is persistent yet consistent and the transfer looks film like and natural. Flesh tones are slightly pink and blacks are solid throughout even if not quite as deep as they could be. This may be the best this film has ever looked on home video or even in theatres, but I fear it will never look spectacular.
The Sound
The Amityville Horror comes with a newly remixed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack plus its original English Mono soundtrack. Additionally, there are English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 options.
The 5.1 lossless mix might as well have been left off of here, because it is completely unspectacular. Dialogue is clear, but ultimately thin and tinny. The mix is rather stagnant and front-heavy, with minimal amounts of barely audible ambience in the surrounds and only occasionally more discrete sounds escaping to the rears. Overall, it's dry and weak with very subtle use of the LFE channel. The original English Mono only collapses the soundfield further with scratchier sounding dialogue and less dynamic range. This mix won't become a reference anytime soon.
The Extras
There are no extras available on this release.
Final Thoughts
The Amityville Horror has to be one of the sillier horror films to come out of the 70's horror boom in Hollywood. Its storyline veers off in so many directions, it's difficult to keep track of. Still, many seem to look to this film as a classic horror film and this Blu-ray release is no doubt the best version of this film ever made available. If you plan on pulling this one out for the upcoming holiday, however, I cannot recommend it as anything more than a rental to anyone other than the most ardent horror fans.
Where to Buy
Product Details
- Actors:James Brolin, Marget Kidder, Rod Steiger
- Director: Stuart Rosenberg
- Audio/Languages: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Mono, French & Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: Cantonese, English, French, Korean, Spanish
- Region: A
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rating: R
- Studio: MGM
- Blu-ray Disc Release Date: October 7, 2008
- Run Time: 119 minutes
- List Price: $39.98
