Amityville: Dollhouse (1997)

Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Boring

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Well if you're expecting originality from the eighth Amityville film in the series then you have too much faith in B-movies. This is of the standard haunted house drivel that has filled the late-night television screens of the '90s, although as a plus this ISN'T a television movie for once so we do get some more adult material not to be found in that watered-down format. There are a few things to recommend this film to genre fans, but don't expect too much as it simply rehashes all the tired old clichés that were done in previous haunted house movies. I'm reaching here.Supernatural phenomena includes a pet mouse that turns into a giant mutant rat creature (only seen from under a bed, though, perhaps thankfully), chocolate sauce oozing down a staircase, a very nasty giant fly that returns from the dead and flies down someone's ear (not for the squeamish), a man getting nails driven through his feet (none gory but still shocking), a girl getting her head burnt by a possessed fireplace (!), a voodoo doll that comes to life and wreaks chaos, and the chief villain as a steadily decaying grinning zombie who brings to mind the one in HOUSE, for some reason. Although he's a weak and silly villain, his makeup job is fantastic.For some reason the events are now centred around a possessed dollhouse, so how's that for the weakest link?! It doesn't make much difference in the course of things. There are various bits of stupidity (music deafens one character but he doesn't realise all he has to do is take his headphones off) as you would expect from a mainstream movie like this. Hey, at least it's filmed well with none of this annoying pseudo-stylish camera-work that has been marring films as of late.The cast is a mixed bunch. We're stuck with a deadhead boring male lead (Robin Thomas) and an obnoxious teenage son who turns out to be not so bad after all. The intelligent daughter is an obvious descendant of Heather O'Rourke's character from POLTERGEIST while another timid child is just irritating. One of the highlights of the film for me was Starr Andreeff's performance as the step-mother, Claire; I found this actress to be absolutely GORGEOUS and the film doesn't disappoint on that front, as it were. Andreeff has also appeared in other horrors, mainly vampire films such as CLUB VAMPIRE which I'll be sure to check out.Things get predictably over the top at the end, with a spiritual friend turning up to help out and a zombie going on a rampage in the house which is now full of red lights for some reason. Characters jump through fireplaces with scant regard for audience comprehension. Add to this cheesy dialogue such as "this is a place of evil" and you have the formula for a fun, but dumb, movie. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention the slimy full-size demons who turn up at the end to provide some menace before getting dispatched as the whole building explodes (again) in one of the most drawn-out destruction scenes ever filmed. We've all seen this sort of thing before but it's a time-wasting rehash.

(Plot) A children's doll house is eerily reminiscent of the house in most of the Amityville movies. A girl winds up with the miniature house and somehow evil commences. I cannot begin to comprehend how so many of these blasted films got made. I didn't even care for the original movie that much. It was dull and overlong, so who in there right mind thought we deserved all this needless suffering?! This one has some unintentional laughs. Jimmy's (Clayton Murray) dead Father is conjured up by the demon. Not only is the makeup absolutely laughable, but I couldn't understand something. How did it take the kid so long to realize his Father wasn't who he said he was? I get that kids are gullible, but that was a bit much for me. The Martin family isn't all that likable in all honesty, and I didn't feel any suspense, just 90 minutes or so of god awful movie making, and boredom. Final Thoughts: There are two horror series which committed unspeakable sins… Amityville Horror & Children of The Corn; what did they both have in common? An endless string of terrible DTV sequels and this is one of those sequels. Leave it alone where it belongs1/10

Amityville Dollhouse is the 8th installment in this long drawn out series. This one is actually pretty decent. It's about a man who finds a dollhouse which looks exactly like the Amityville house. As soon as he gives the dollhouse to his daughter for her birthday, strange things start to happen. The fireplace turns on and off, windows open and close by themselves, a gigantic mouse hides under a bed, and the man's wife gets the hots for her teenage stepson. Classic signs in Amityville sequels that something just isn't right.What irritates me is that the young girl and her aunt realize there is something evil about the dollhouse, but do not destroy it right away. Instead, they think it's best if the little girl writes down all of the strange things that happen with regards to the dollhouse. There are some cool scares and sequences in the movie. The gigantic mouse scene is well done, the bug in the ear is cringe worthy, and the younger son's deceased father coming back from the dead is pretty creepy.Overall, this is one of the better Amityville sequels. The story goes on at a good pace and is never dull or tedious. The only downfall like many other of the Amityville sequels is that it has almost nothing to do with Amityville - other than the replica dollhouse. It's hard to get on DVD, but if you can, check this one out.6/10

"Amityville Dollhouse" is Part 8 in the "Amityville Saga" and I saw them all last week. So let's look back at all of them.."The Amityville Horror" (1979): Still a classic like "The Shining" and "Poltergeist". A scary story based on true events with solid performances by James Brolin, Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger. After 30 years, it's still a strong movie and not outdated at all."Amityville II: The Possession" (1982): A Very good sequel, not as strong as the original because it has it's flaws. The last 20 minutes is a bit too much a rip-off of "The Exorcist". But once again, scary with a good cast (Burt Young from the "Rocky" films) and it was daring to put the incest element in the plot, but it works very well to it's advantage."Amityville 3D: The Demon" (1983) : After the success of the second one, quickly produced again by Dino DeLaurentius. The first weak entry in the series, not scary with a weak ending and poor effects."Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes" (1989) : One of the worst, with a stupid plot: an ugly lamp from the original house (that was blown up at the end of Part 3, so what the hell ?) holds the demon that terrorizes a new family. Made-For-TV movie that comes off very cheap."The Amityville Curse" (1990) : Another bad TV-movie, many reviews say this is the worst but at least there is some horror at the end. It's not PG-13 stuff like the previous two and it has Kim Coates. But he can't save the dull story that goes absolutely nowhere."Amityville 1992: It's About Time" (1992) : The best of all sequels besides the second part. This time, directed by Tony Randell (Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Ticks). With once again a decent score (Daniel Licht) and an entertaining story. This was actually based on the same novel as the fourth one (Amityville: The Evil Escapes) but it's way better !! "Amityville: A New Generation" (1993) : A good cast but overall not a very convincing story. David Naughton (An American Werewolf In London), Terry O'Quinn (The Stepfather, TV's Lost) and Julia Nickson (Rambo: First Blood Part II): Nice to see them again. But that's the only good thing, this is certainly not one of the worst sequels, but that does not mean it's a really good genre movie."Amityville Dollhouse" (1996) : The eight movie with once again something from the original house. Not a lamp, not a clock but this time a dollhouse which is in fact the model of the original house from Part 1. Hardly original, the girl looks a lot like the one from "Poltergeist" (just look at the poster, not badly done..) and the demons at the end do remind you of the ending of "Hellraiser". But this time they're not scary at all. Those special make-up effects are not convincing. But there is one good thing: the make-up effects used for the zombie soldier are very well done. But once again, not original because they stole that from "House" (1986). Not scary, not convincing, unfortunately another weak entry in the series.Luckily, the stopped making sequels after that one. In 2005 the remake of the original one was released with Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George. I have to say that it's certainly not as good as the original, but looking at the sequels, it's the best "Amityville" since part 2.