Amityville 3-D -- 1983 -- PG

This 3rd installment of the Amityville Horror series drops the horror out of the title and goes 3-D like Friday the 13th and Jaws did for their third installments, much to the ultimately silly look of the final film. This one only garnered a PG rating, which is surprising considering some of the content. Maybe they figured since they gave Spielberg a PG for Poltergeist, they had to be fair. The PG-13 rating didn't come about until after this film, which is a rating it would easily get if recertified today. On the plus side, this film did have a young Meg Ryan along with the girl who would eventually play Rebecca (the wife of John Stamos' character) on Full House, so that was interesting.

The plot further shows just how much as taken from movies of the 80's for modern horror films. This time, instead of sticking with the straight demon premise of the first two films, continuity is further skewed with the addition of a "well to hell" in the basement. I guess this is okay since the first film's path to hell was rocked up under the stairs; the path in the second was a storage space deep in the basement; throwing in a well that was never there fits the flow of the series, I guess. Anyway, rather than having a demon possess someone and that someone become an agent for the demon's evil doing, the roots for the Grudge films really shwo through with the house taking on a presence that can affect those who have entered it at a distance. We only get a couple of deaths, but the house can apparently affect people from a distance, where in the first two, the agents were affected because they never left the house; getting away saved them.

Anyway, this reporter who has exposed ghost house claims before buys the house and decides to live there. Weird things happen but he continues to dismiss them, but his partner (or whatever she is) is not so sure since her early photos of the house's realtor show a monster's face on the man who dies shortly after selling the place. The house's influence extends far beyond its walls in trying to prevent itself from being discovered (I think). The reporter finally goes to a paranormal expert who, indeed, conclusively proves that the house has ghosts (instead of a demon), and we get a thrilling and explosive ending to the whole thing making us wonder how they garnered 4 more sequels out of this.

The characters in this one were actually fairly well developed for it being a horror movie. It actually took its time getting into the story, was careful to explain what needed to go on, and created some characters that were at least a little believable in their actions. Granted, the dialogue was pretty hideous in places, and Meg's role being minor, she had some of the worst, but her acting chops were there even at this younger age, and she worked it the best she could.

The actual plot was pretty simple. It was more of a vehicle to get some spooky moments, but it at least made some measure of sense, so it was fairly easy to follow. It had some pretty silly and even pointless moments to it that took it down a few notches, though, but one can expect that in any horror flick.

There wer loads of moments and directorial shot choices that were done for the sole purpose of the 3-D effects. So in the non-3-D version we have on video nowadays, it looks pretty silly, but I will say that some of the 3-D items in this film aren't near as bad as some 3-D films I've seen. The main titles were pretty hideous though.

In the end, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't that good either. The spooky moments worked in some places and not in others. Continuity with the earlier films was altogether thrown out, with that mysterious boathouse being non-existant in this film like it was in the second, even though the second was a prequel to the first, and this was likely a sequel to the first. Did they build it and then take it away? Also, one of the characters gives us a history lesson, and tells the story wrong.

So if you need to watch all the Amityville movies, go right on. I'm interested to see how the ending will affect future installments, but for the casual viewer, it's nothing to write home about...unless you want to catch Meg Ryan in an early role. She's barely changed in all these years.