By Lacy Seinturier

By Lacy Seinturier

Even though I had seen the original Amityville Horror and knew what to expect, the remake scared me almost more than the first.

In a lot of the newer horror movies, the goal is just to scare you; good acting is not required. All the director needs are people to say the lines. But surprisingly enough, the acting in this movie was, at the least, bearable.

Most of the cast was made up of actors I had never heard of before, Ryan Reynolds being an exception. And for him to play such a different type of role, a non-comedic one, and do as well as he did was refreshing. I don’t think anyone will be nominated for any awards for their acting, but in comparison to other typical scary movies, their performances were at least watchable. I think having actors who can’t be identified with other well-known roles helps keep the focus on the film, and not on their lives outside the movie.

There were some newer Hollywood effects in the remake, which was to be expected. The special effects were much better, and provided for more jumps throughout the movie, but I think it was the lack of great special effects in the original that made it so believable and real. In the remake they did stick to the way the original film was shot, with similar camera angles and lighting effects, which kept some of the similarities between the two films.

There were some minor differences in the overall plot of the movie. Some scenes from the original had been cut, and some new ones added. Some should have been left in, but I can understand why the others were taken out.

The movie definitely scared me, and since I could feel the people next to me jumping in their seats, I know it scared them, too. It wasn’t the scariest movie I have ever seen, but it was definitely creepy. Overall, the movie was good, not great, but not bad. Toward the end of the movie, some scenes started to seem sort of cheesy and slightly unrealistic. And it seemed to drag on a little bit. The acting towards the end wasn’t the best, and the last few lines seemed sort of predictable. The scariest element of the movie, though, is the fact that it is based off a true story. For someone to really like this film, they would have to be a total scary movie fanatic. I think most can appreciate it, and it would satisfy the curious. I don’t regret paying for it and would probably pay to see it again. It’s definitely been better than all the other scary movies over the last few months and the last year.