Amityville, Vol. 4: The Evil Escapes (1989)

When priests exorcise the Amityville home its evil finds a new residence 3000 miles away -- just as a widow and her three children move in.System Requirements:Running Time: 95 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: NR UPC: 084296404858 Manufacturer No: 40485 Product Description

Amityville 4: "The Amityville Lamp" strikes back!!!

I can probably tell you all you need to know about Amityville 4 in the first few lines of this review and, no, these are not spoilers. One, there was a complete breach in continuity between parts 3 and 4 of this series, and I just HATE when that happens. There really is no way to reconcile the two. Two, about 5% of the movie has to do with the Amityville house in the first place. Most of the movie takes places 3000 miles away from the Amityville house. Three, much of the movie focuses on a possessed lamp taken from the Amityville house, not exactly the stuff great horror movies are made of if you know what I mean and I think you do (to borrow a phrase from the great Joe Bob Briggs)! Patty Duke is a pretty good actress and the rest of the cast is passable, but if you are going to make a movie called Amityville, have it at the damn Amityville house!

Basically, "Amityville 4" is about a possessed lamp that gets sent to an old lady. The old lady's daughter and grandchildren move in about the same time. A lot of strange things begin to happen once the lamp arrives. Eventually, one of the little girls who has never gotten over the death of her father begins to fall under the spell of the lamp. The evil in the Amityville lamp uses her loss to exercise some degree of control over the girl. Family turmoil ensues, and much more.

Finally, "Amityville 4" has that made for TV feel to it, which I believe it most certainly to be a made for TV movie, although I do not know this to be true. Sometimes, made for TV movies are very good and entertaining a la "Salem's Lot" starring David Soul which is one of the greatest horror movies of all-time in my estimation. However, in this case, the atmosphere that was so ever-present and effective in the first three installments of this series, is completely missing and probably lost forever in part 4. Many people have criticized the Amityville horror movies, but I like part 1-3, and I thought the remake was entertaining.

In short, "Amityville 4" has a completely different setting and feel to it than the previous Amityville movies. I wish there had been some effort to reconcile this with part 3. I really hate when a series becomes inconsistent like this. Granted, the ending of "Amityville Part 3" was stupid and cliche in the self destruction of the Amityville house, and certainly problematic if you plan on having any subsequent sequels. That being said, the story behind "Amityville 4" just did not do it for me at all. Overall, "Amityville 4" is a poor horror movie. April 1, 2008

The best of the bunch, but that's faint praise

Finally after a move to T.V. and a lower budget, they caught the creepy feel of the book and put a few chills into this one. Without the fx's to fall back on they went for the "thing's unseen" approach and it did the film all the better for it. Now the bad news, this is a one time only film, as all the others would use the fx's approach and laps into silly jokes. August 8, 2007

Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes (1989)

In 1989, after a six-year hiatus, a fourth Amityville came our way. This fourth installment is entitled, AMITYVILLE 4: THE EVIL ESCAPES. Grant it that this also was not the greatest in the franchise, but it was a whole lot better than that of AMITYVILLE III: THE DEMON (aka AMITYVILLE 3-D). As it would turn out, this was the first of the Amityville films to be a straight-to-video release. From this sequel down to the eighth Amityville installment were all straight-to-video releases.

This film starts off with a whole slew of priests entering the Amityville house (continuity was not an option to the producers, writers, and directors on this film, for the house was originally blown up in the third film), trying to rid the house of its evil spirits. All the evil is then transported into a hideous looking lamp. When all the chaos stops, the priests seem to be satisfied. The next morning a yard sale is held in front of the sinister house. A harmless old lady sees the lamp in the selection and decides to buy it as a gift for her sister, ALICE LEACOCK (played by Jane Wyatt). As she looks at the lamp, she accidentally cuts her finger on it, but goes on ahead with her decision to buy the lamp.

That afternoon, the woman who bought the lamp ships off the lamp to her sister, but her finger is looking terrible. But she dismisses it. Flash from New York to California, a woman named NANCY EVANS (played by Patty Duke), and her three children: AMANDA (played by Zoe Trilling), BRIAN (played by Aron Eisenberg), and JESSICA (played by Brandy Gold) are driving to Nancy's mother's house, where they'll be staying for awhile, since Nancy's husband (the children's father) had sadly passed on. Nancy's mother is...Alice Leacock. Her sister would be Nancy's aunt, and the children's grand-aunt. The arrive at her house at the same time the lamp arrives. But as Alice plugs in the lamp, everything begins going chaotic. For instance, Alice burns her hand on the tea kettle. No one turned up the stove, but an unseen force has. The next morning, Alice's parakeet suddenly dies. And Jessica seems to not be feeling well. Later on, it is found out that Alice's sister, who shipped the lamp over to Alice, had died from that cut on her finger. That's exactly would happen when you cut yourself on something, and not bother getting a tetnis shot.

Over the course of the next few days, everything goes from bad to worse, as the plumbing decides to become a little funky. The plumber comes out to fix it. As he tries to fix it, his hand gets lopped off by the garbage disposal. The toilet and sinks begin oozing something black and gooey. Nancy cannot take this no more. She decides it's time to get help from FATHER KIBBLER (played by Fredric Lehne). He climbs onboard to help the family out. He accompanies Alice and Nancy to their house, where they discover that all the evil from the lamp is controlling Jessic. With the help of Father Kibbler, they put the evil to rest.

This film, as I had stated, was not the greatest in the franchise, but it was better than AMITYVILLE III: THE DEMON (aka AMITYVILLE 3-D). There were quite a few moments that scared me, but the whole film could have been a lot scarier. August 2, 2006

Amityville strikes back

It's hard to imagine that the Amityville name could continue on to a venerable future after the horrifyingly bad Amityville 3, but after a 5 year hiatus, that's exactly what happens in Amityville: the Evil Escapes. Taking the evil out of the house that took the windows are the eyes of a house to new terrifying heights was certainly no small task, but the moviemakers did their best to make the story work in spite of the lack of the original house. Some decent scares are present, and the acting is much better in this outing than in Amityville 3, but ultimately, it's difficult to imagine an Amityville without that infamous house. More potential for the affect that this could be a real occurrence would have been the key to this movie paralelling the original, but it still is a watchable Amityville feast if you don't expect too much. October 9, 2005

another cool amitysequal

I had second thoughts of buying this when i picked up the box set, and im glad i did this is a great horror film, a good part 4. July 7, 2005

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