Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes (1989)
- Cody Iden
- Oct 19, 2021
- 3 min read
Release Date - May 12, 1989
Synopsis:
An antique lamp from the Amityville house is purchased at a yard sale and mailed to a family living in California only for the demonic forces inside the lamp to begin to terrorize the family.
Directed by - Sandor Stern
Written by - John G. Jones and Sandor Stern
Produced by - Barry Bernardi and Kenneth Atchity
Cinematography - Tom Richmond
Music by - Rick Conrad
Distribution Company - NBC
Cast:
Patty Duke - Nancy Evans
Jane Wyatt - Alice Leacock
Fredric Lehne - Father Kibbler
Lou Hancock - Peggy
Brandy Gold - Jessica Evans
Geri Betzler - Amanda Evans
Aron Eisenberg - Brian Evans
and Norman Lloyd - Father Manfred
Robert Alan Browne - Donald McTear
Gloria Cromwell - Rhona
James Stern - Danny Reade
Peggy McCay - Helen Royce
Warren Munson - Doctor
Alex Rebar - Walt Reade
Jack Rader - Detective
Michael Korn - Unknown Role
Richard Crystal - Unknown Role
John Debello - Priest
David Elliot - Unknown Role
Gary Michael Davies - Plumber
Run Time - 1 hr. 35 min. Rated - R
Budget - Unknown Gross - Unknown
Review:
Following the commercial failure of Amityville 3-D (1983) and a gap of 6 years the Amityville franchise finds itself revived in the form of a made-for-TV movie that originally aired on NBC in May of 1989. This film successfully manages to take the franchise away from the Amityville house by introducing the idea of a haunted object that came from the infamous haunted house. The Amityville home does make a brief appearance in the opening sequence of the film but the majority of the movie is instead focused on a California family that inherits a haunted lamp that came from the Amityville house. The story is certainly more interesting than what we got in Amityville 3-D, though it does come across as a little hokey and campy at times. The cast is also an improvement, especially Patty Duke and Jane Wyatt who really bring a sense of experience to the proceedings. The child actors here are okay but not great, Aron Eisenberg who later appeared on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) plays the family's son. The cinematography on the film is surprisingly good considering this was initially made-for-TV, though the special effects do their job but there aren't a lot of them to begin with. The score is fine but not particularly memorable but overall the movie is generally enjoyable and a great improvement over the series' previous installment.
My Score: 66
Plot - 7 Cinematography - 7
Attraction - 7 Editing & Special Effects - 6
Theme - 5 Sound & Music - 6
Acting - 7 Directing - 7
Dialogue - 7 Enjoyability – 7
Trivia:
The director of this film, Sandor Stern, had also written the script for the first film in the series, The Amityville Horror (1979).
George Lutz, whose experiences were the basis of the first film in the Amityville series, has stated that after leaving their possessions behind in the Amityville house they were later sold in a yard sale.
The exterior of the Amityville house was filmed at a residence in Wilmington, California where a facade was constructed to look like the famous home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York.
Though credited as being based on the book Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes by John G. Jones, which was really a collection of short stories, this film actually features an entirely new story that does have some slight similarities to the stories in Jones' book.
Availability:
Watched on October 18, 2021
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