Honestly, if you sit down to watch The Amityville Curse film, you need to clear your head of everything you think you know about 112 Ocean Avenue. Most people come into this 1990 direct-to-video release expecting the iconic Dutch Colonial house with the eye-shaped windows. They want the flies. They want the "Get Out!" screaming voices.
They don't get any of that.
Instead, this movie—directed by Tom Berry—takes a sharp left turn into a completely different house that looks nothing like the original. It’s a rambling, Victorian-style fixer-upper in a different part of town. This isn't a mistake. It’s actually based on a 1981 novel by Hans Holzer, a man who claimed to be a "pioneer ghost hunter." Holzer was a real person, a parapsychologist who spent a lot of time researching the DeFeo murders and the subsequent Lutz haunting. But his book was a work of fiction that tried to create a "prequel" vibe, and the movie tries to follow that thread while simultaneously tripping over its own shoelaces.
It’s a weird flick. It’s clunky. But for horror completionists, it represents a specific moment in the early 90s when the Amityville name was being slapped on almost anything to move VHS rentals at Blockbuster.
Making Sense of The Amityville Curse Film Continuity
The biggest hurdle for anyone watching The Amityville Curse film is the timeline. It’s technically the fifth movie in the series, but it shares zero DNA with The Evil Escapes or the original trilogy. It feels isolated.
The plot centers on five friends who buy an abandoned mansion in Amityville. They want to renovate it. They want to flip it. It’s a very modern premise for 1990, predating the HGTV craze by decades. But the house has a "reputation." Years prior, a priest was murdered there. Not just any murder—a cold-blooded killing inside a confessional.
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The group consists of Marvin (the skeptic), Debbie (the one with the psychic vibes), and three others who basically serve as fodder for the house’s growing resentment. Unlike the Lutz story, which focuses on a family being driven out, this is a slow-burn slasher-supernatural hybrid. You’ve got a cranky neighbor played by Kim Coates—long before his Sons of Anarchy days—who spends half the movie looking like he wants to fight a lawnmower.
The haunting itself is... subtle. At least at first. There are strange noises. There’s a basement that looks like it hasn't been cleaned since the Great Depression. The film relies heavily on "dream logic." Debbie starts having visions of the murdered priest and a mysterious figure in a cloak. Is it scary? Kinda. It’s more atmospheric than terrifying. It leans into that damp, wood-rot aesthetic that defined low-budget Canadian horror in that era.
Hans Holzer’s Influence and the "True Story" Problem
We have to talk about Hans Holzer. Without him, this movie wouldn't exist. Holzer was obsessed with the idea that the ground in Amityville was cursed long before Ronald DeFeo Jr. picked up a rifle. He believed an indigenous chief was buried on the property, or that the soil itself held a "psychic imprint" of ancient violence.
While the 1979 original film focused on the Lutzes, The Amityville Curse film tries to validate Holzer’s theories by moving the haunting to a different location. It suggests that the entire town is a gateway to something nasty.
- The Priest Backstory: This was Holzer’s bread and butter. He loved the idea of corrupted religion.
- Psychic Sensitivity: The character of Debbie is a direct stand-in for the "mediums" Holzer used to bring on his investigations, like Ethel Johnson-Meyers.
- The Lack of Windows: By ditching the "eye" windows, the filmmakers were trying to tell the audience, "Hey, this is a serious adaptation of the book, not just a sequel."
The problem is that the "Amityville" brand is built on that specific house. When you take the house away, you're just left with a standard ghost story. It’s like buying a Big Mac and getting a chicken salad. It might be okay, but it’s not what you ordered.
Why This Movie Failed to Launch a New Era
If you look at the production quality, it’s clear they were working with a shoestring budget. The lighting is flat. The acting is, let’s say, enthusiastic. But there’s a charm to it. It was filmed in Montreal, which gives the "Amityville" streets a distinct Canadian chill.
The ending of The Amityville Curse film is where things get truly bonkers. Without spoiling the specifics for the three people who haven't seen a 35-year-old movie, it involves a lot of screaming in the basement and a resolution that feels remarkably abrupt. It doesn't have the grand, house-bleeding-black-goo finale of its predecessors. It ends with a whimper and a bit of a "wait, that’s it?"
Critics at the time hated it. They called it boring. They called it a cash-in. And honestly? They weren't entirely wrong. It currently sits with a dismal rating on most review aggregators. But in the context of horror history, it’s an important lesson in branding. It proved that you can’t just put the name of a famous haunting on a box and expect people to be satisfied if the iconography is missing.
Interestingly, Kim Coates is probably the best part of the whole experience. Even back then, he had this intense energy that made you think he was in a much better movie. He plays Frank, and his descent into "house-induced madness" is one of the few things that keeps the second act moving.
The Legacy of the Curse
Does The Amityville Curse film hold up? No. Not really.
But it’s a fascinating artifact. It was the last time the franchise tried to be "literary" by adapting one of Holzer’s books. After this, the series went into the "haunted object" phase. We got a haunted clock (It’s About Time), a haunted mirror (A New Generation), and even a haunted dollhouse. Compared to a possessed floor lamp, a movie about a cursed priest in a Victorian mansion actually feels somewhat grounded.
If you’re planning an Amityville marathon, this is the one you watch when you’re three drinks in and want to argue about continuity errors. It’s the "Black Sheep" of the family. It’s the cousin who shows up to the reunion and insists they’ve changed their name and doesn't recognize anyone.
Practical Steps for Horror Fans
If you're actually going to track this down and watch it, here's how to handle it so you don't feel like you wasted 90 minutes of your life.
First off, don't pay "collector prices" for an original VHS unless you’re into that sort of thing. It’s usually streaming on some of the more obscure horror platforms or tucked away in "100 Movie Pack" digital bundles.
Second, read up on Hans Holzer before you hit play. Knowing his "theories" about the town makes the plot choices feel a lot less random. He truly believed the evil was subterranean, which explains why so much of this movie happens in a dingy cellar.
Third, watch it as a double feature with Amityville II: The Possession. The contrast between a big-budget, gooey, operatic prequel and this quiet, low-rent Canadian sequel is a masterclass in how the film industry changed between the 80s and 90s.
Finally, keep an eye out for the "confessional" scene. It’s genuinely the most effective part of the movie. It captures a bit of that Gothic dread that the rest of the film struggles to maintain. It’s a reminder that there was a decent idea buried under the budget constraints and the pressure to sell tapes.
Ultimately, this film isn't about a house. It’s about a name. It’s a 90-minute experiment in seeing how far a brand can stretch before it snaps. It snapped pretty hard here, but for those of us who love the weird corners of horror cinema, that snap is exactly what makes it worth talking about. If you want a story about a haunted house, watch the original. If you want a story about the 1990s direct-to-video market trying to make sense of a legend, watch the curse.