Surprisingly, this sequel turns out to be better than the original. While THE AMITYVILLE HORROR was a slow moving, dull, relatively action-free flick with a few macabre elements, the sequel is an all out in-your-face film with plenty of gross moments and excess gore. This time around there are lots of supernatural events happening constantly, the film basically moves from one of them to the next, with events building up to the eventual shotgunning of the entire family by the teenage son. This scene is very powerful as he even shotguns the little kids to death, and is obviously not suitable for children, and neither is the incest subplot. These elements make this a very adult film indeed.
The cast range from good to not so good. Burt Young (ROCKY) is suitably bullish as the father who enjoys whipping his children, while James Magner undergoes an okay transformation into a demon, although his acting never rises above average. Diane Franklin is great as the teenage sister who becomes a victim, but the mother's acting is atrocious, she opens her eyes wide and screams in an over the top unrealistic and awful way at every available opportunity. Moses Gunn and Andrew Prine lend solid support in minor roles, and James Olson (CRESCENDO) is also good as the nervy priest who becomes convinced that the boy is possessed and tries to perform an exorcism upon him.
There are a lot of fairly good special effects, especially the surprise ending where the boy rips his face off to reveal the rubbery demon underneath. This is particularly gory and grotesque and shocking, therefore effective. However the demon makeup is far too reminiscent of THE EXORCIST and indeed, in the final thirty minutes that film is copied copiously, with the priest even taking the demon into himself at the end. It's a pretty good and powerful rip off though. Although overlong and unoriginal, AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION is solid dark entertainment with plenty of unpleasantness and disturbing images for the horror fan. Good.
The cast range from good to not so good. Burt Young (ROCKY) is suitably bullish as the father who enjoys whipping his children, while James Magner undergoes an okay transformation into a demon, although his acting never rises above average. Diane Franklin is great as the teenage sister who becomes a victim, but the mother's acting is atrocious, she opens her eyes wide and screams in an over the top unrealistic and awful way at every available opportunity. Moses Gunn and Andrew Prine lend solid support in minor roles, and James Olson (CRESCENDO) is also good as the nervy priest who becomes convinced that the boy is possessed and tries to perform an exorcism upon him.
There are a lot of fairly good special effects, especially the surprise ending where the boy rips his face off to reveal the rubbery demon underneath. This is particularly gory and grotesque and shocking, therefore effective. However the demon makeup is far too reminiscent of THE EXORCIST and indeed, in the final thirty minutes that film is copied copiously, with the priest even taking the demon into himself at the end. It's a pretty good and powerful rip off though. Although overlong and unoriginal, AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION is solid dark entertainment with plenty of unpleasantness and disturbing images for the horror fan. Good.