ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - November 18th
"AMITYVILLE 3-D" released in 1983
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After he exposes a pair of con artists with his partner Melanie (Candy Clark) in the infamous 112 Ocean Avenue house in Amityville, journalist John Baxter (Tony Roberts) is persuaded to purchase the house by real estate agent Clifford Sanders (John Harkins). While preparing the house for John, Clifford investigates footsteps in the attic, but is locked in the room, where a swarm of flies attack and kill him. John believes Clifford died of a stroke, even after Melanie shows him some photos she took of the real estate agent before his death which depict him as a rotting corpse!
Laster at work, John himself is almost killed in a malfunctioning elevator, while, simultaneously, Melanie experiences bizarre occurrences in John's house; she is found later that night by John, cowering and hysterical against the wall. Her attempts to convince John that something is inside the house fall on deaf ears. Later, while looking over blowups of the photos of Clifford, Melanie discovers a demonic-looking face in the pictures, but when she attempts to show the photos to John, she is killed in a horrific car accident. Melanie's death is ruled accidental by everyone, including John, who still remains oblivious to the evil in his home.
While John is away one day his daughter Susan (Lori Loughlin) and her friend Lisa (Meg Ryan) and two boyfriends use a Ouija board in the attic, where the game tells them Susan is in danger. Growing bored, Susan and the others go out in John's motorboat. Susan's mother Nancy (Tess Harper), who has come to look for her, is surprised to see a drenched Susan silently walk up the stairs, while at the same time outside, John arrives home to find Susan's friends bringing her lifeless body to shore. Nancy has a nervous breakdown and, believing Susan is still alive and will return shortly, refuses to leave, even for Susan's funeral. After having nightmares about the old well in the basement and unable to deal with Nancy's delusions that Susan is still alive, John finally allows his friend, paranormal investigator Doctor Elliot West (Robert Joy), and a team of paranormal investigators to set up in the house, to help prove if Nancy actually saw something or not - and confront the evil that has plagued the Amityville house for centuries!
Laster at work, John himself is almost killed in a malfunctioning elevator, while, simultaneously, Melanie experiences bizarre occurrences in John's house; she is found later that night by John, cowering and hysterical against the wall. Her attempts to convince John that something is inside the house fall on deaf ears. Later, while looking over blowups of the photos of Clifford, Melanie discovers a demonic-looking face in the pictures, but when she attempts to show the photos to John, she is killed in a horrific car accident. Melanie's death is ruled accidental by everyone, including John, who still remains oblivious to the evil in his home.
While John is away one day his daughter Susan (Lori Loughlin) and her friend Lisa (Meg Ryan) and two boyfriends use a Ouija board in the attic, where the game tells them Susan is in danger. Growing bored, Susan and the others go out in John's motorboat. Susan's mother Nancy (Tess Harper), who has come to look for her, is surprised to see a drenched Susan silently walk up the stairs, while at the same time outside, John arrives home to find Susan's friends bringing her lifeless body to shore. Nancy has a nervous breakdown and, believing Susan is still alive and will return shortly, refuses to leave, even for Susan's funeral. After having nightmares about the old well in the basement and unable to deal with Nancy's delusions that Susan is still alive, John finally allows his friend, paranormal investigator Doctor Elliot West (Robert Joy), and a team of paranormal investigators to set up in the house, to help prove if Nancy actually saw something or not - and confront the evil that has plagued the Amityville house for centuries!
Lisa: I hear you bought yourself a haunted house.
John Baxter: I just bought the house, not the ghost.
Top: Journalist John Baxter (Tony Roberts) is the latest owner of the infamous Amityville house;
Above: In the attic, Baxter's daughter Susan (Lori Loughlin) and her friend Lisa (Meg Ryan) use a ouija board
Due to a lawsuit between the Lutz family and Dino De Laurentis over the storyline which did not involve the Lutz family, Amityville 3-D was not called a sequel, although it does make reference to The Amityville Horror (1979) as it follows a paranormal investigator John Baxter - fact loosely based on Stephen Kaplan - and his investigation of the house, who at the time was trying to prove the Lutzes' story was a hoax.
Like the previous installment, Amityville 3-D filmed the exterior scenes at the same house in Toms River, New Jersey and a house nearby for the exterior of Nancy's house. The interior was a set in a Mexico studio. The filmmakers almost never got the house to film at again. It was scheduled to be picked up and moved over one lot. They were just able to film the exterior shots before the house was moved. Originally the house had four quarter shaped moon windows, two on both sides. However, by the time of filming in 3D, the owners of the house did not want the eye windows on the side of the house facing the road so they modified them to look like small ordinary square windows. All shots of the "eye" windows (except for the most noticeable scene when John and Susan pull up to the house) had to be filmed on the side facing the river that has the sundeck.
Like the previous installment, Amityville 3-D filmed the exterior scenes at the same house in Toms River, New Jersey and a house nearby for the exterior of Nancy's house. The interior was a set in a Mexico studio. The filmmakers almost never got the house to film at again. It was scheduled to be picked up and moved over one lot. They were just able to film the exterior shots before the house was moved. Originally the house had four quarter shaped moon windows, two on both sides. However, by the time of filming in 3D, the owners of the house did not want the eye windows on the side of the house facing the road so they modified them to look like small ordinary square windows. All shots of the "eye" windows (except for the most noticeable scene when John and Susan pull up to the house) had to be filmed on the side facing the river that has the sundeck.
Melanie: [to John] I don't want another one of your rational explanations, John. I know what I experienced, and I'm not crazy.
Top and Above: Strange, deadly events start to occur - Baxter's wife Nancy (Tess Harper) starts seeing her daughter's spirit in the house, and Baxter's partner, photographer Melanie (Candy Clark) is burnt alive in her car!
As with Friday the 13th Part III and Jaws 3-D, which were also released in 3D in 1983, Amityville 3-D was filmed using the ArriVision 3-D process - coordinated, for this film, by cinematographer Tibor Sands. The Arrivision 3D system filmed 3D movies in standard color, with a single camera and one single strip of film. The process utilized a technique in which a special twin lens adapter was fitted to the camera and divided the 35mm frame in half down the middle – the result was that the right eye image was in the lower half of the frame and the left eye image was in the upper. The innovation was to allow a single camera to capture the image that could be merged when with the help of the special polarized glasses.
At the box office, movie patrons were given the disposable polarized glasses so they could see the film, creating the illusion that certain props and elements were coming toward the viewers. In this case, a pole that penetrates a car window; a Frisbee that flies toward the screen; a skeleton reaches out its arms; and a set a French doors that fly at the audience during the climactic scene. Most striking are the film's opening titles, in which the large block letters moved outward, and the “3D” were skewed as they moved outward. The process was supposed to be the new beginning for the 3D process, but it did not last long. The chief complaint was that the images in Amityville 3-D were blurry and distorted. Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert complained on At the Movies, that the images were indistinct, and said “it really looks crummy.” Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel said that "The 3D added nothing to the experience. All you ended up with was eye-strain."
At the box office, movie patrons were given the disposable polarized glasses so they could see the film, creating the illusion that certain props and elements were coming toward the viewers. In this case, a pole that penetrates a car window; a Frisbee that flies toward the screen; a skeleton reaches out its arms; and a set a French doors that fly at the audience during the climactic scene. Most striking are the film's opening titles, in which the large block letters moved outward, and the “3D” were skewed as they moved outward. The process was supposed to be the new beginning for the 3D process, but it did not last long. The chief complaint was that the images in Amityville 3-D were blurry and distorted. Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert complained on At the Movies, that the images were indistinct, and said “it really looks crummy.” Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel said that "The 3D added nothing to the experience. All you ended up with was eye-strain."
TRIVIA: Amityville 3-D is featured in an At the Movies special, The Stinkers of 1983 (1983), where Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert give poor reviews for this and other sequels released that year, Jaws 3-D, Porky's II: The Next Day, The Sting II, Smokey and the Bandit Part 3, and Staying Alive (sequel to Saturday Night Fever).
Top and Above: Baxter's friend, paranormal investigator Doctor Elliot West (Robert Joy), has a deadly encounter with the demon in the basement of the Amityville house!
Other critics were also extremely negative in their reviews for the film, with Variety reporting “A new cast of characters and the addition of 3-D does little to pump new life, supernatural or otherwise, into this tired genre.” Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Once the first two films in a series have exhausted most opportunities for action, the third is liable to average half a dozen exposition scenes for every eventful episode." Of the 3D, she said "3-D exposition is the stuff of which headaches are made; the footage tends to be so dark that you can barely tell whether it's night or day.
Despite the reviews however, Amityville 3-D finished its opening box office weekend at #1, with a box office take of $2,366,472 according to Box Office Mojo. Its final domestic gross ended at $6,333,135, and was ultimately considered a box office flop. Thus ended up being the last film in the series released theatrically until the remake of The Amityville Horror in 2005.
Despite the reviews however, Amityville 3-D finished its opening box office weekend at #1, with a box office take of $2,366,472 according to Box Office Mojo. Its final domestic gross ended at $6,333,135, and was ultimately considered a box office flop. Thus ended up being the last film in the series released theatrically until the remake of The Amityville Horror in 2005.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 0%
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