I don’t really get into Halloween which I realize is odd considering that I love a good horror movie and have been known to lurk around graveyards after dark on occasion. Last year I got talked into attending a party where costumes were mandatory so I took the easy road and went as a vampire waiter from Merlotte’s. Lame I know. Our usual Halloween involves getting out of the house to avoid the marauding rug rats and attending a horror movie party at my best friend’s house in Cabbagetown. We usually choose one good film and one cheesy one we can make fun of. The movie I am about to speak about would fall into that second category.

If you’ve been lurking around OMGNeal very long you know that I’m a tad obsessed with The Amityville Horror, so any new film bearing that moniker immediately goes to the top my viewing list. The Amityville Haunting arrives on DVD December 13 and I’ll be waiting. It will be terrible I’m certain, but I’ll enjoy it. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a bone to pick with Director Geoff Meed. Is it really that freakin hard to get the damn house right? I mean come on! Look at that poster! Now look at the real house:

You can’t tell me there wasn’t a 2 story Colonial in whatever city you were filming in that could provide some passable exteriors. I can think of three within a five mile radius of my house in Marietta, Georgia. The one thing easy to get right in these adaptations is the house, yet the only film that managed it was the original trilogy. Even the extremely low budget Shattered Hopes managed to build an exact replica at half scale in the director’s backyard. Here is a pic of that masterpiece.

The house on that Amityville Haunting poster is pretty cool, I’ll admit that. But the movie isn’t called The Haunting of the House That Sort Of Looks Like Amityville. This sequel, the 10th in the series stars someone names Jon Kondelik who has exactly 3 credits to his name on IMDB. He could be the next Brando for all I know, so stay tuned and I’ll let you know how it goes. And maybe The Amityville Tapes, the 11th movie bearing the Amityville name will get the house right for a change.