Amityville 3 [Amityville 3: The Demon] [Amityville 3-D] ** (1983, Tony Roberts, Tess Harper, Robert Joy, Candy Clark, Meg Ryan, Lori Loughlin) – Classic Movie Review 8385

Now here’s a tall storey! A sceptical reporter called John Baxter (Tony Roberts) buys the infamous Long Island Amityville horror house to write an exposé on what he sees as the supposed supernatural events and fake seances taking place there.

There is hardly a surprise or a shock in sight in the 1983 Amityville 3 – unless you count the appearance of a very young Meg Ryan (just 21). But Amityville 3 is entirely watchable and professional for chiller fans. For this, much thanks to solid acting from a better than expected cast (Tess Harper, Candy Clark, Robert Joy, Lori Loughlin) and a tip-top director (even in decline) in Richard Fleischer.

So the third story of the haunted house has journalist and professional cynic Roberts and his family (Tess Harper as Nancy Baxter, Lori Loughlin as Susan Baxter) moving into the Long Island spooky mansion before succumbing to attacks from the bug-eyed monster, a hell-spawn demon haunting in the basement.

Really we didn’t need three parts of this, but a classy director down on his luck and an attractive second-eleven cast (Roberts, Harper, Joy, Clark, Ryan) usually associated with smarter material, put a professional shine on predictable, gory stuff.

There is also a smart production and good 3D for lucky cinema-goers. Apparently it looked great in 3D, and hence its original title – Amityville 3-D. And, though it looks like the end of the cycle, there is another to come: the made-for-TV Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes in 1989.

Also in the cast are, John Beal, Leora Dana, John Harkins, Lori Loughlin, Neill Barry, Peter Kowanko and Josefina Echánove. The writer is William Wales, it is shot by Fred Schuler, produced by Stephen F Kesten, scored by Howard Blake and designed by Giorgio Postiglione and Justin Scoppa.

The advertising helpfully points out that ‘This picture is not a sequel to the pictures The Amityville Horror or Amityville II: The Possession.’

The Amityville Horror was remade in 2005 with Ryan Reynolds.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8385

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