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Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”
We’ve reached the last of the studio Amityville films with writer/director Franck Khalfoun’s Amityville: The Awakening (2017). It’s taken this editorial series a while to reach this milestone because we’re going through the Amityville films chronologically, though anyone familiar with the troubled production history of the film could feasibly argue this should have been covered back among the 2014 films (when the film was originally filmed) or 2016 (when reshoots were done and the film was originally scheduled for release).
In addition to those 2016 reshoots – the results of poor audience scores – the film was derailed due to its ties to the Weinstein/#MeToo movement. It was eventually dumped onto Google Play for free in late 2017.
Putting aside the scheduling challenges, though, how does the actual film fare?
For the first time in a long time, this isn’t simply a haunted object film or an Amityville film in name only. The Awakening directly acknowledges not only the existence of the original film, but also its sequel and the 2005 remake. Of course, the narrative purports that the events of the film are “real” while those texts are fictional, but the visual inclusion of not just the box art, but also a clip of the original film and the 1977 novel by Jay Anson, is an interesting creative decision.
Alas, this is one of the few adventurous decisions that Khalfoun makes. The vast majority of Amityville: The Awakening is a relatively derivative possession story, which finds the Walker family move into the iconic cat-eyed house on 112 Ocean Ave in order to provide better care for teenage son James (Cameron Monaghan), who has been in a vegetative state for two years following an accident.
The film’s protagonist is James’ twin Belle (Bella Thorne), who uncovers the tragic history of the house and, in time, deduces that James is being possessed by the same entity that made Ronnie DeFeo kill six members of his family forty years earlier. She does so with the help of new school friends Terrence (Thomas Mann) and Marissa (Taylor Spreitler), though both characters essentially disappear before the last act of the film to retain exclusive focus on the Walker family.
While the actual possession aspect of the narrative is pretty basic, the film has a number of bizarre and/or intriguing elements, although most of them sadly underdeveloped.
Early in the film the main source of conflict is the combative relationship between Belle and her mother Joan (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Right from the start, there’s tension between the two around the move: Belle is frustrated about moving in the middle of her senior year of high school, while Joan blames Belle for James’ condition. As the narrative progresses, we learn that James was injured when he fell (or was thrown) over a balcony and he was only there because he was defending Belle’s honor when the man leaked nude photos of her.
Joan and Belle also disagree about James’ prognosis. We learn that the move was undertaken in an effort to move James closer to his doctor, Milton (Kurtwood Smith), but James’ status hasn’t changed in two years. If similar medical cases are to be believed, he will never improve.
Belle admonishes her mother that “he’s not there” and chastises her when Joan requests an fMRI after James’ eyes open. Obviously discerning horror enthusiasts understand that this is due to the influence of the Amityville house and the Red Room in the basement, which Terrence explains is directly below James’ bed.
Belle believes that her twin brother is “gone” while Joan has literally forsaken God and moved the family, which includes youngest daughter Juliet (Mckenna Grace), to Hell in order to tap into the “power” that presides in the house – all in the hopes of resuscitating her son.
This is fascinating in multiple ways. Not only is Amityville: The Awakening exploring the often unspoken idea that parents may prefer one child over another, but their larger familial debate essentially boils down to the debate surrounding euthanasia. In short: Belle maintains that the twin connection she and James had is gone, and that his vegetative state is nothing more than his physical body decaying. Even when this proven untrue and James begins responding to treatment in the new home, his first request via special AAC computer is to ask Belle to kill him.
This is still an Amityville film, however, so the film doesn’t really engage in a dialogue about each woman’s respective beliefs. And the message becomes confused in the climax when Belle drags her brother’s body past the binding circle to kill the demon and James is not only present, but thanks her verbally for killing him.
Naturally there’s also a hint of incest in the mix when Belle has a nightmare suggesting her mother’s relationship with James is sexual (we see James’ hand stroking his mother’s back). Unlike other films in the “franchise,” though, The Awakening never revisits the idea, defaulting instead to implied violence and predictable outcomes.
There’s a curious blandness to the film, as characters are seemingly forgotten or abandoned for long stretches (Belle’s friends, Jennifer Morrison’s Aunt Candice). Even the visual style of the film feels curiously flat: Khalfoun and cinematographer Steven Poster shoot the film in a perfunctory workman-like way, and despite its well-known cast, none of the performances stand out.
The most memorable aspect is when James finally (inevitably) awakens. His emaciated, shrunken body is done via a combination of special make-up prosthetics and digital effects, which are removed when James touches the wall of the Red Room. It’s a bizarre, almost surreal moment as his body inflates into Monaghan’s usual beefy frame, his jacked muscles and six pack abs fully on display. Alas this is the most exciting moment of the film, which proceeds to sic James on the family with a shotgun. Not only are the resulting deaths underwhelming or offscreen, but Monaghan is barely given the opportunity to play villain. The Awakening suffers in large part because Khalfoun sticks to familiar possession tropes, but also because when he refuses to embrace the interesting facets of his narrative, let scenes play out, or even allow his performers to react. The result is bland; this is a movie that just is.
The Amityville IP Awards go to…
- Best Death: Alas none of these deaths are remotely interesting. Morrison is utterly wasted as Aunt Candice, who appears in only a few scenes before she is shot offscreen. Joan’s death is more drawn out as she is given the opportunity to acknowledge that James is not her son before she, too, is shot. There is a tiny bit of blood splatter, but ultimately both deaths are underwhelming.
- Worst Exchange: Terrence proposes he, Marissa and Belle watch either the original film, its sequel, or the Ryan Reynolds remake, prompting Marissa to offer the groan-worthy line “remakes totally blow.” The obvious metacommentary feels painfully antiquated by 2017, and also weirdly feels like the film is dissing itself. Utterly baffling.
- Child Acting: Unsurprisingly Grace does well as Juliet, despite being given nothing more to do than speak to James when he’s unresponsive and then be put in danger when he awakens. Still, her star quality is evident even here.
- CGI Intrigue: Like many low budget studio films of this era, there’s a reliance on not great digital FX. The moment when Dr. Milton rolls James over to discover his festering wounds are filled with bugs who then promptly fly into the doctor’s mouth isn’t terribly rendered, though like too many horrific moments in the film, this is quickly proven to be nothing more than a (waking) nightmare.
- Celebrity Nudes: The plot point about Belle’s leaked photos was topical in 2014 (this is when celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence were publicly contending with it). Ironically Thorne herself would go through it herself in 2022, prompting her to post her own photos in order to reclaim agency and deny her blackmailer.
Next Time: We’re checking out Amityville: Mt. Misery Road (2018) from husband and wife directing team Chuck and Karolina Morrongiello!