Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Amityville 3-D’

Written by Scott Edwards 

Playing on people’s fears can be a vicious thing to do, but if they are paying to be scared, you need to give them what they want. Being a frequent visitor to haunted hotels, I only hope that they do not set up fake scares, as I would like to believe there is something more for us after death, and I know I’m not alone in that since plenty of people believe in the afterlife. But beliefs aside, most people like to be scared by something that they cannot explain, and even though there are explanations for these ninety seven percent of the time, the other three percent that cannot be explained are what intrigue us most of all.

John Baxter enjoys his time working for Reveal magazine. Getting to expose people for trying to pull fast ones on their customers, he has found his niche and is very good at his job. With the opportunity to investigate the Amityville house, he has formulated a plan to take one of his staff with him to pretend they have lost their child. Upon arriving at the house, they take note of everything around them and with a psychic running the show, they are prepared to be amazed. Once strange things start to happen as they try to contact the dead, Melanie, his assistant, pulls out her camera and exposes the group running the house for what they are, frauds.

Getting a chance to investigate the house in the daytime, John and his team find all of the goodies that the previous inhabitants of the house have been using to make a living. Being confronted by the owner of the house, John is given the opportunity of a lifetime in purchasing the old home. Jumping at the chance, John makes the deal and moves his life to the haunted house without thinking twice about it. Going through a divorce, he has to find a way to connect with his teenage daughter, Susan, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity. But there is something strange about the house and when Melanie develops her photos, she sees that there is much more happening here than they originally believed.

---

​Susan is happy to live in the house, if only on the weekends and tells her good friend about her father’s new purchase. But her friend is more excited about it than anybody as she knows all of the history of the murders that took place in the haunted estate. Trying to contact the dead in the attic, the girls find out that there is something in the house that is also happy Susan is living there. Using a homemade Ouija set up, the spirits speak through a glass and state that Susan will be in trouble during her stay. Thinking that it is just a joke, Susan doesn’t show an ounce of worry and decides to go boating with her friends, but Susan has been targeted by the house and will not survive her stay as she drowns in the local lake, and now everybody starts to understand what kind of power the house actually has.

But her mother does not believe any of this this, as she has seen her daughter walking back into the house, soaking wet. Which leaves John with no other choice but to convince his estranged wife that their child is dead after all, and he turns to his investigation team from the magazine for help. Not wanting to believe that the house is evil, he has kept his ears closed to all of the experiences that he is being told about, but with high tech equipment at his disposal now, he is ready to expose what is really happening in the house.

This is just a fun story about the Amityville house and what has happened in it. Although this movie does not pack the same frightening punch the first one does, it still follows the same formula and gives a little before the large reveal. Changing the basement around a little bit, you get to have fun with the dry well that mysteriously fills up with water and reveals part of the house’s secrets, but not all of them. I still am dying to know who or what is haunting the house since nobody seems to be able to put their finger on it. It could be the old burial ground that the house has been built on, or it could be the devil since there is a gateway to hell in the basement and he just likes to use it to pop up for a quick visit. I think this is what makes this movie series so entertaining to watch, as you have to come up with your own conclusions. Stay Scared.

---