Amityville 2 : The Possesion

Amityville 2 : The Possesion title

Tag Line : In 1976 a New York family fled this house with their lives. The previous owners weren't so lucky...This is there story

Amityville 2 : The Possesion Whilst the first Amityville film wasn't exactly the greatest of movies, it certainly made enough money at the box office for the filmmakers to decide a sequel was in order, and so decided to follow up the first film with a fictionalised account of the real-life tragedy that befell the house's previous occupants, when their teenage son went on the rampage with a rifle.

The movie starts by showing us the Montelli family, who are just moving into their new house, but of course as soon as they move in the problems start. The family continually rows with each other, the father (Burt Young) starts beating on the younger children, the local priest Father Adamski (James Olson) comes round to bless the property and blood suddenly appears on the bedroom floors and finally the teenage son, Sonny (Jack Magner) starts hearing voices telling him to kill the others.

Father Adamski believes that the house is possessed and asks permission to perform an exorcism, but of course his superiors don't believe him and refuse to let him do so. Meanwhile Sonny continues to hear voices and finally flips, grabbing one of his fathers rifles then going round the house shooting the rest of his family.

Sonny's defence lawyer and Father Adamski attempt to get him off the hook by proving he is possessed by demons and ask that he be released so the church can perform an exorcism but, not surprisingly, the judge throws their case out of court.

Sonny eventually breaks custody and hides back at his parents house, but Adamski tracks him down and performs an exorcism on him, even though it is without the church's consent. In the end, Sonny is saved from the devil's possession, but still gets thrown in jail and poor old Adamski ends up taking sonny's place in Satan's clutches in an ending that is ripped straight off "The Exorcist".

The film was adapted for the screen by Tommy Lee Wallace, who also worked on the earlier Halloween movies, and loosely based the story on the book "The Amityville Murders" by Hans Holzer, altering the real-life story and mixing in elements of demonic possession in an attempt to cash in on the success of "The Exorcist". Take my advice AVOID THIS AWFUL FILM!!!!!!!

Overall Marks : 3/10.

Other Information.

The name of the family in this story was Montelli but, as mentioned in my review of Amityville 1, the real-life family that where murdered by their teenage son was actually DeFoe.
Burt Young is probably best known for his role as Sylvester Stallone's brother-in-law in the "Rocky" films. He also appeared in the cult 80's film "Blood Beach" with John Saxon.
A minor, but interesting, goof in the plot. The movie is supposed to be set in the early 1970's, but in one scene Jack Magner's character can be seen listening to a Sony walkman. The walkman wasn't actually invented until the early 1980's.
James Olson, who played father Adamsky, was a prominent TV actor. His credits include "The Bionic Woman", "Hawaii 5-0", Battlestar Gallactica and "Columbo". He also played the role of General Kirby in the 1985 Arnie action pic "Commando".
Moses Gunn, who played Turner, also starred in the cult films "Rollerball", "The Ninth Configuration" and "Firestarter". He also starred in the acclaimed 1977 mini series "Roots" as well as appearing alongside Clint Eastwood in the 1986 film "Heartbreak Ridge"
The musical score was once again by Lalo Schifrin, although most of the music was just re-used from part 1.