This hair-raising remake of the 1979 horror hit depicts the ordeal of the Lutz clan, whose new home has a gory past and a legacy of demons. Before long, the family patriarch is plagued by nightmares and his daughter is seeing phantoms.
The Amityville Horror is a Xerox so tattered and faded that it's impossible to determine who's to blame for the overproduced mediocrity before our eyes.
– David Ng,
Village Voice,
19 Apr 2005
rotten:
Nothing gets in the way of the rote staging, the ham-handed predictability, the feeling that you've been to this house, and yawned at these ghosts, once too often.
– Owen Gleiberman,
Entertainment Weekly,
20 Apr 2005
rotten:
Never buy a house with a basement, and while you're at it, avoid old Dutch Colonials in which the previous occupants were murdered by an eldest son possessed by demons.
– Chuck Wilson,
L.A. Weekly,
21 Apr 2005
rotten:
A few lines get laughs, but the horror is standard fare, without a shred of innovation.
– Rex Reed,
New York Observer,
21 Apr 2005
rotten:
The problem with The Amityville Horror is that, in a very real sense, there's nothing there.