Amityville: The Evil Escapes (1989)

Wonderful character development!

Very best movie i ever watch

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Given everything that happened in the first three films, you have to question the wisdom of buying anything from a yard sale at the infamous Amityville house, but that's exactly where Helen Royce (Peggy McCay) goes to get a present for her sister Alice (Jane Wyatt). An ugly light stand powered by three centuries of evil, the unlikely gift turns up at Alice's home in California just as her recently widowed daughter Nancy (Patty Duke) and grandchildren Amanda (Zoe Trilling), Brian (Aron Eisenberg) and Jessica (Brandy Gold) arrive to stay.Very few horror series reach a fourth instalment with much dignity intact, and it seems that the Amityville movies are no exception: The Evil Escape is totally dumb and devoid of logic. Thankfully, it is also so daft at times that it becomes one of those 'so bad it's actually quite entertaining' experiences that can be passable fun just so long as one watches it accompanied by several beers and a few mates with equally questionable taste in movies.Much of the film's unintentional hilarity can be attributed to podgy faced actor Eisenberg, whose awkward mannerisms and unconvincing facial expressions are almost as terrible to behold as his nasty 90s hairstyle (Eisenberg's 'best' scene: Brian wrestling with a possessed chainsaw in the cellar), but the film also gets chuckles courtesy of its laughable central prop (the supposedly malevolent lamp that looks like a balloon-headed tree-person with glowing hands), a couple of silly death scenes (plumber drowned in goop, strangulation by lamp cord), and one hell of a crazy climax that sees the evil defeated by elderly Alice, who simply throws the lamp out of the window!Sadly, being a made-for-TV movie, Amityville 4 suffers from minimal gore (the only bloody scene being when a guy gets his hand caught in the garbage disposal) and nudity is non existent despite Zoe Trilling looking more than qualified for a gratuitous shower scene.

Six years after the infamous house blew up in Amityville 3-D, it appears to have rebuilt itself in time for Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes. This was a made for TV movie in 1989, and in my opinion was a lot better than the last two. After some priests exorcise the house, the evil escapes into a lamp which is sold at a yard sale. Fast forward to the story of a recent widow (Patty Duke) and her three children who make a move to live with her mother (Jane Wyatt). The lamp is delivered to the house and soon, the youngest child starts to see her deceased father inside, even communicating with her.Several strange occurrences begin happen (a bird dies, a chainsaw comes "alive", electrical appliances turn hot when touched). A priest who assisted in the exorcism of the house begins to realize the evil escaped into a lamp and tracks down where the family lives. After a few attacks and deaths, the lamp/evil is destroyed by being thrown out a window. Great acting in this one. Jane Wyatt and Patty Duke are very believable as the feuding mother and daughter. Now this sequel sounds really cheesy, and you know what, it is! But I quite enjoyed it for a TV movie. It's a fun and entertaining little unknown sequel with some creepy and unsettling moments. Some disturbing scenes involve a plumber in the basement who dies a "smelly" death, a hand in the garbage disposer, etc.I have the Vidmark VHS tape, but it is out on DVD. I say buy it. It's a much better watch then the dreadful Amityville II: The Possession, and the hilariously bad Amityville 3-D.7/10

This fourth one has a lot in common with the third one. Again, it seems like it's just another Made-For-TV movie: the acting is average, the story isn't scary or suspenseful and the effects are extremely cheap. No real horror here (well, it's called Amityville HORROR: The Evil Escapes !) and it looks more like a PG-13 movie than what it's rated for (15 years and older).The real problem is that the story is rather stupid: a god awful lamp from the original house has the demon inside it. In a few scenes, the demon is showed inside the lamp but they were better off leaving that on the cutting floor. The story is actually based on the novel with the same title. That novel was again used for the 6th one. And that movie (It's About Time) is much better than this which is actually one of the worst Amityville sequels.

I have always felt there was something special about this TV movie. The film isn't actually anywhere near as bad as a lot of the reviews. Because the acting is decent, the storyline is a little silly but well executed, and most of all you get to see the Amityville house before it moves location. Jane Wyatt and Patty Duke are faultless as the concerned elders of a dysfunctional family. The theme music gives away a sense of evil and the lamp looks as hideous as as dreaded it needs to be.Within the 96 minutes nothing seriously gory happens (this film is disturbingly rated US:R and UK:18), although a lot of people die. That demonic deaths occur around veteran actors Duke and Wyatt make this film pretty disturbing as the atmosphere is unnervingly more Murder She Wrote than a demonic horror - nice houses, antiques, old people, all being looked upon by a hideous piercing-eyed evil. That certainly gives this an edge over the other formulaic episodes in the series.So yes, don't be deterred by the silly storyline because the Evil Escapes handles this very well.Interesting facts: The televised UK version of this movie is laughably cut by approx 15 seconds for the mild gore (waste disposal/plumber hand sequences).