Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Amityville Terror’

Written by Scott Edwards

Moving to a new town is never easy for anybody. Having to pick up your life and take it somewhere you don’t know or fully understand the history of makes you feel a bit out of place. There is no way around this, all you can hope for is someone to show you around and let you know what the ropes are before you get into trouble. There are plenty of communities that welcome their outsiders with open arms and while most of us hope it is this way, it's not always the case, and the secrets that are kept from you can change your life forever.

After his mother has passed away and now that his sister has finally cleaned up her act, Todd thinks that the best move for his family is to be around each other once again. Packing up and moving to Amityville to be with his sister should be good for everyone, yet his daughter Hailey is not too keen on the idea. Arriving to see that they will be living in a massive house at the end of the cul-de-sac, Todd and his wife Jess are blown away by their new digs and are ready to get a jump start on their life once again.

Getting a tour of the house from Shae, Todd and the family see that she may not be all there, but cannot overlook the opportunities they have fallen into. With a new mechanical job lined up, Todd is ready to celebrate with Jess, but she has been shut off to his advances for some time and he is starting to get a little frustrated. While trying to find something to do in the small town, Hailey goes exploring on her dirt bike and finds a group of kids her age chilling at an abandoned cabin. Meeting Brett, she has found someone that she will be able to bond with, yet everyone else at the little party wants nothing to do with the outsider. Heading home, Hailey sees that there may be problems with these other kids but has no idea what they have planned for her and her family.

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A month into living in their new home with no issues, everything suddenly begins to fall apart when Jess sees that all of her roses have died for no reason and Todd accidentally kills his manager in the shop. While Hailey is not affected by these strange actions, since she has locked herself away in the library to find out more about the house, she sees a change coming in Shae’s behavior and needs to find out what is wrong. As Brett gives her a little bit of insight on the house, it is not enough to make her want to leave just yet, but when she is able to find damning proof that there is something strange about the house, she knows that it is time to leave. But the kids around the town know better than to let anyone leave the house in Amityville and will do anything to keep the people inside so that the house can rob them of their final breaths.

Honestly, who would want to live in Amityville, I mean besides me since I have a fascination with ghosts and haunted houses. It just seems like every house out there has some sort of tangled past and wants to kill whomever moves in. I really liked Hailey in this movie, being kind of a tomboy, yet not wanting to be alone, she shows that we can have faith in our youth to save us when something is wrong, and she has a crossbow which is always helpful. The disturbing things that happen around the house are explained away in a snap but stay in the family’s mind as they start to get worse and even a little gross for my liking. Overall, not too bad of a movie, it covers more of the haunted house essentials than most do and even gives you a little scare when the spirts start to show themselves. Stay Scared.

Five Takeaways

1. When moving across the country, the only thing that you really need is a dirt bike in the truck.
2. Crossbows are an effective way to meet boys and are great protection against ghosts.
3. Haunted houses want to feed on the people living there and if they don’t eat, the town is forced to suffer.
4. High school girls are scary, I will just leave it at that.
5. Possessed aunts, are freaky, shoot, even non possessed aunts, no matter how sober they are...are freaky.

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