The Amityville Asylum (2013) User Reviews

The setting of this movie is a mental institution called "High Hopes". But don't get yours up.

[Someguysomwhere · 2/10 · 22 August 2013]

Low-budget, claustrophobic (shot indoors and confined spaces), chat-fest about a young woman who gets a cleaning job at a mental institution where she contends with intimidating and creepy staff (one guy, actually), seeing people that aren't there, and "ward X" for the criminally insane who talk to her while she's down there cleaning the hallway.

The premise of this would-be or can't-be horror movie is that the asylum is built on the same spot as the famous Amityville house of the 70's (ergo the title of the movie) and before that, earlier on in the 18th century, where witchcraft practicing native-Americans were murdered by Christians.

I did not have high hopes (ha, ha) going into this thing, but it struck me in the early go that the acting was actually quite good and the performers serious and convincing. So that kind of hooked me, got my hopes up a bit (ha, ha, again). About mid-way, after seeing a poorly executed mirror scene (a tradition in many horror movies) that was supposed to spook me, my hopes suddenly plummeted. I had found the weakness of this movie: The scenes that were supposed to scare you, horrify you, and gross you out (what little there was) were very amateurish and lame (weak). Reader, you're better off if you grab a chair, go to a window of your house and look out. I assure you that whatever you see will be as interesting as this movie. So why bother? Love, Boloxxxi.

How not to make a film

[Quotius · 3/10 · 28 September 2013]

B Movies seem to be making a big come back this year and this one fits right in there with other legends of the genre ticking every box to ensure that it'll mark low and leave you wondering why you bothered.

Woeful script? Score. Actually the script wasn't so bad although more than a little clichéd. If only the delivery wasn't so abysmal. Acting? Hackneyed characters with poor back-stories. Brought to "life" through the art of people pretending to be someone they're not. Or maybe they were good characters, hackneyed in to existence through bad acting. Scares? You'd think that borrowing the Amityville legend would lend some worthwhile thrills, but you'd be wrong.

The best thing I can say about this movie is that it was only 86 minutes long. Which was plenty.

Great concept idea, boring movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 23 August 2013]

This movie has a very alluring title, and it was what drew me in. However, don't be fall for this fools' gold trick, because you will be sorely disappointed. "The Amityville Asylum" cashes in on the older and more successful movies with its title. And the story does seem to have some meat on its bones, I mean, a mental institute built upon the grounds where the old Amityville house once stood. But whatever prospects the story did have, it failed miserably. This story dragged on in excruciatingly long scenes that took forever to get nowhere. And as for this being a horror movie, well you need to look long and far for the scares and any real horror moments. As such, then "The Amityville Asylum" is a real killer to sit through to the end. The story in the movie is about Lisa (played by Sophia Del Pizzo) who starts a new job as a night shift cleaner in a mental asylum. Without knowing of the prior history, things happen at the asylum and Lisa starts to question her own sanity. When she finds out about the tragic past of the land upon where the asylum has been built Lisa may very well wish she never took the job. The entire storyline fell to the ground given the soul-crushing slow pace the movie trotted along in, plus the story seemed a little bit pointless. There weren't any elements or things to lure in the audience and keep then riveted to their seats. Actually, the two things that worked in favor of the movie was the acting, because people really did convincing jobs with their given roles and characters - both sane and insane. And also the camera-work was quite good. "The Amityville Asylum" gets a mere 3 out of 10 stars rating from me, given the acting and camera-work, but these were hardly enough to salvage the movie and make it the least bit interesting.

The scariest thing about this is that I attempted to watch it

[damoeel · 1/10 · 27 August 2013]

As I am currently on a trek trying to find some decent horror/thrillers I have been scouring the web high and low for movies that fit into that genre and after a quick read of the synopsis of this I thought I would give it a try. I actually lasted 47 minutes, after wanting to turn it off after 8 minutes then again at the 14, 23 and 31 minute marks I could not harm my television or my eyes anymore as to be brutally honest this is just plain bad. I have shown a lot of patience in my quest to find some decent horror movies but I could not bring myself to watch anymore as the acting was atrocious although I did learn more about cleaning products than what the actual movie was supposed to be about so I guess that is a plus. So my recommendation?? don't even consider watching this as the 1/10 I gave it is more than I wanted to give it.

Why am I watching this?

[arskinner-50993 · 1/10 · 14 July 2018]

The DVD slipcase artwork is probably the best thing about this film. This film is so bad I'd rather watch the newest incarnation of Ghostbusters and that was an absolute pile of turd that robbed me of 2 hours of my life.

Mildly entertaining.

[sal10851 · 3/10 · 6 September 2013]

Lisa Templeton is hired as part of a cleaning crew at a hospital for the mentally disabled. She soon discovers that things are not what they seem.

I enjoyed a few things about the movie. The story kept me interested the entire time and it took a turn I was not quite expecting. With low budget films we cant expect great acting and this film is no different. The horror scenes are not well supported by the special effects. Overall I would put this film at the bottom of my list on horror movies to watch. Definitely not something I would watch twice but its worth an hour to kill.

if you want to laugh watch this film

[emmaward007 · 26 June 2014]

Looked really good, and scary from the cover, and description, but it was absolutely the worst movie i have ever seen in my life ! But it made me laugh, with the terrible acting, bad directing, and script was so bad... no more words can describe how bad this was, now i will burn it, and dance all over the ashes of this DVD... totally ripped off, i want my cash back, and the 2 hours i wasted of my life watching this terrible film, i wish that i had just watched Barney, or mickey mouse. I would rather someone set fire to me, and burn my eyeballs off than for me to have to sit and watch it again. As for the sound track, it was like a 2 year old in a school class room.

Horrible!

[africe · 1/10 · 6 December 2020]

First of all, it is poorly written and directed. The acting is pitiful and disconnected. And what's with the music? It drones out the dialogue so you can't hear it. How does one follow a movie when the most important dialogue is muffled out? I still have 30 minutes left and I'm not sure I'll make it through. Do not waste your time with this film

Can't get much worse than this

[tron2005 · 1/10 · 7 December 2013]

I only rented this movie from my local video shop because another customer said it was pretty good. Last time I take any notice of another customer.

IMDb has rated this movie at 2.6 and I'm thinking that's 2.6 too much for this movie. Should be more like a -2.6 to be more fitting.

About half way into the movie I started to get the feeling of similarities with the "Shutter Island" concept where the main character (Lisa), might just actually be an inmate of the asylum where she's working as a cleaner.

88 minutes of my time wasted when I could had been sitting outside watching the grass grow. That would had been more entertaining!

Pathetic

[mary-laking · 1/10 · 3 January 2014]

I should have known when I saw "Amityville" in the title......

I thought the pace was iceberg-slow, the acting terrible and the plot didn't hang together. What was all that stuff about Lisa's mother? She was mentioned several times, but there was no real explanation as to how she fitted into the story. Then they threw in ghosts, presumably when they couldn't think what else to do. If you're going to do that, people, don't bring them on screen and then just dump them! Like the mother, you're left wondering as to their purpose. And just a small, silly point, but you tend to notice things when the film is irritating you - what was with Delaney, played by a British actor, who seemed to be sporting some sort of German or Middle European accent? Just asking.

Very disappointing.

Words can't describe how boring and bad this was...

[RevRonster · 1/10 · 26 March 2015]

As I get older, I try hard to be a lot more positive when I watch films and desperately try to avoid knee-jerk reactions or pretend that critiquing a work means finding only flaws—however, at the end of it all, there are still some movies, shows, books, comics, video games, etc. that I can't find any positives with. "The Amityville Asylum" is one of them.

First off, it's clear this movie was just made in order to leech a little bit of fame from the horror classic "The Amityville Horror" and this fact is made clear by the reality that the story has no effort put into it. Every twist, turn, and plot development is formulaic, cliché and grossly predictable. Things aren't made better by the seemingly lack of technical filmmaking know-how as the lighting is horrendous, the camera work is barely passable for a Vine video, and the editing is chaotic to the point that simple sequences come off unhinged and nearly impossible to determine what is occurring. The final nail in the coffin is the terrible acting. Why it's expected in Direct-to-DVDs, there usually is at least one good performer that isn't looking like they were either random strangers pulled off the street, weren't being paid, or acted like this was there moment to chew on all of the scenery they could but this film had no one that was capable of looking even adequate in their role.

There's a lot more faults to this film like a questionable set that is suppose to be a newer asylum, the pointless inclusion of scenes that feel like they were put there to actually get it to a feature length, and the director clearly not caring if the actors could actually pronounce the word "Amityville" but the reality is the film is just an exercise in bad filmmaking and the results are a tale that is equally boring and cringe-worthy. I tried really hard to find one good thing about it but I just found the whole ordeal to be taxing and the film to be below sub-par. t.

A great slow burn ghost story

[davidcohenwookie · 8/10 · 15 March 2014]

I liked the film. Creepy atmosphere in the hospital and the Sadie character was so OTT I couldn't help but enjoy it! Her laugh gave me the chills!

It mostly had a different back story to the previous Amityville movies but the DeFeos are part of it and there were some good references to the other films in the series, like the "get out" line in the original.

At times it was a bit like a tribute band playing a greatest hits of haunted house and asylum films from the past. But it was presented in a slightly different way and the story held my interest until the end so they kind of got away with it.

I have to give them props for the ending, referencing the fact that many have profited from the murder of the DeFeos. I know that's what's happened with this film too but at least the filmmakers of this one had the balls to say it.

Amityville franchise no end in sight

[adrianvangent-186-751497 · 6/10 · 14 July 2021]

I watched this with very little expectations I was surprised to find it different themed to the franchise, different to haunted house or cursed items run. Starring the male actor who starred in The Nun.

I recommend it to the Amityville franchise lover's only.

The most horrifying thing about this was the bad acting.

[samwinnard-936-988639 · 1/10 · 28 February 2014]

The DVD case for this film looks eerie, dark and dingy building, grey sky, angry crows circling; the works, however none of these make it into the film. The plot is terrible, loosely pieced together and leaves a lot of unanswered questions, such as; why is an American actor doing an Eastern European accent all film. The plot is terrible but the acting is far worse, most low budget movies cast inexperienced actors which leads to some overacting, but most of the film is under acted and you grow to dislike the main character due to her monotone delivery of the script and her unconvincing and delayed facial expressions leaving you to have no empathy whatsoever when some anonymous person finally shoots her in the head. I actually managed to sit through the whole thing, the ending was obscure, the 'ghosts' never reappeared (or were explained) and her mother who was referred to throughout the film has no significance. It feels like the movie goes through a lot of clichés; asylum, history Of murder on the land, ghosts, psychopaths, young girl cleaning alone at night, satanic rituals, and just for the hell of it let's throw in the fact the asylum built on an ancient Indian burial ground.

However, thanks to this film I now know you can get an 8 cylinder Hoover that is quiet enough to not wake someone while they're sleeping, all thanks to the 10 minute scene on cleaning products.

The Amityville Asylum: I still don't fully understand what I just watched

[Platypuschow · 3/10 · 23 November 2017]

After a seemingly never ending string of poor Amityville films the Brits step up to the plate and make one of their own.

This time set in a world where the infamous Amityville house has been demolished and upon the ground an asylum has been built instead (Which immediately makes no sense) A girl takes a job as a cleaner and witnesses strange things happening and questions both her own sanity and the motivations of those around her.

To be fair if you can get past how ridiculous the concept is it's not entirely terrible, sadly the film is.

The plot makes very little sense if any at all, the competence of the film makers is clearly there but not the extent where they could turn this around.

Poorly written and hardly an Amityville feature.

The Good:

Looks okay

The Bad:

Very dull

Plot is baffling

Concept is daft

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Christians getting tattoo's still makes me laugh

Nobody bothered telling the cast they were pronouncing Amityville wrong

Nothing at all happens

[stoob0t · 1/10 · 21 December 2021]

First off, I'll get the biggest issue out of the way: this film has nothing to do with the prior Amityville series of films, which are based around the demonic possession of the Amityville house (and later, objects from inside that house). It doesn't contain any themes around demonic possession or poltergeist activity. If that's what you're expecting from this film, then you'll likely be very disappointed.

Equally if you're looking for a so-bad-its-good hot mess like the glorious Amityville: The Evil Escapes, you'll also be sorely disappointed.

As another reviewer commented, the actual concept (asylum built on the site of the old Amityville house) isn't terrible in theory, but the execution is abysmal.

The pacing is way off. Nothing starts to happen until just after an hour has passed. And boy does that feel like a long hour. If you made/make it that far, then I would to take this opportunity to personally congratulate you!

The acting (with the exception of the psychiatrist running the asylum, played by Jared Morgan) is college standard at best. There is zero conviction in any of the other performances, and most of the time it feels as though the cast are reading their lines for the first time as they're being filmed.

It doesn't feel like they did a second take of ANY part of the film. Even where scenes are performed to an embarrassingly low standard.

The photography, however, is solid enough and there's some good use of practical effects in the final act. The score on the other hand, is pretty weak and fails to build any tension or atmosphere.

Overall, Amityville Asylum is a hard film to get through, with no pay off or reward for dragging yourself through to the end credits.

Amityville Abysmal

[Stevieboy666 · 1/10 · 5 October 2021]

Another turd of a movie from director Andrew Jones. He insists on setting his movies in the US despite the fact that they are obviously filmed in the UK (South Wales to be precise). He also uses actors who can't do a half convincing American accent if their lives depended on it. The only thing of interest for me here is British scream queen Eileen Daly amongst the sorry cast. Terrible movie!

UK Amityville

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 11 February 2020]

Andrew Jones is best known for his series of films about Robert the Doll, as well as producing remakes and reimaginings of films, like Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection and Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming.

Knowing what we know about the direct-to-video and streaming history of the Amityville films post-2005 - and we can also include the Canadian direct-to-video films as they have only minor ties to the original film - it was amazing that it took so long for Jones to make an Amityville-themed movie.

Lisa Templeton has started a new career at High Hopes Hospital - nice tie to the sign in the yard of the DeFeo family - but she soon learns that the issues of the facilities go beyond the paranoid ramblings of the patients and the strange staff that serves them. You know - there's something supernatural going on, because we're in Amityville, a town packed with cursed lamps, lumber, furniture and even stuffed monkeys.

Eileen Daly is in this film as well. She started Redemption Films with her then-boyfriend Nigel Wingrove and was even in their logo as Redemption's Dark Angel.

Despite being set in Amityville, there's little to no mention of Ronald DeFeo. That's because the actor set to play him was turned away at immigration due to a screwed up work visa. The other inmates of the asylum are based on real people, such as Sadie Krenwinkel being a mix of Manson Family members Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel as well as Dennis Palmer being based on British criminal Robert Maudsley.

What's even better than a movie being called The Amityville Asylum being made despite there not being an asylum in the actual town? In Germany, this movie was released as The Nesting 2: Amityville Asylum, as The Nesting had just been successfully re-released in that country.

Killer asylum

[TheLittleSongbird · 2/10 · 30 September 2018]

Was drawn into seeing 'The Amityville Asylum', with a cool poster/cover, a truly great premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre it fits under. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there (though there are decent to good ones as well), made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws present in those films are here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'The Amityville Asylum' is really very bad, with so many huge flaws and doesn't do anything with any potential it had. There is net to nothing good here in 'The Amityville Asylum', just amateur hour all round. The idea was great and the camera work is decent with some atmosphere, but the good things end there.

Going on to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it comes over as vague and under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less unsettled and never gaining momentum. All the characters are too sketchy and with cardboard thin and colourless personalities and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. The chemistry is bland and unfocused.

The sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions), the effects are shoddy and nearly all of the acting is lacking severely on the whole, that's actually an understatement as the worst of it is horrendous. There is no sense of horror or engagement with the awful predicament they're in, and no connecting with the character, it just reeks of indifference and complete blankness which makes the viewer not care less too.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace and film drags on forever, apparent from the very start, never recovering that interest is lost fast. The ending has no build-up and just ends ridiculously. Found too many of the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Thrills are none, thanks to stodginess and excessive over-familiarity, and found myself never invested in the drama, which tended to be indifferently acted, interminably paced and statically directed.

A lot of 'The Amityville Asylum' has really dull and going nowhere plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you shocked are far from creative or unsettling. It all feels rather tame while the threat completely lacks menace and looks terrible.

Nothing freaky or interesting, no development and too derivative, while everything is unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of dread. There is nothing interesting or illuminating with what the film was trying to do and the drama is overwrought with no momentum and a lot of weirdness. The direction is barely there and disorganised and the music is ill-fitting. 'The Amityville Asylum' is very amateurish visually, too drearily lit and shoddily designed effects-wise.

Overall, very bad. 2/10 Bethany Cox

YOU ARE GOING TO DIE IN HERE

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 3 September 2018]

The film is written, produced, directed, and scored by Andrew Jones (Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection, The Feral Generation, Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming) .

Lisa (Sophia Del Pizzo) gets a job as a night time cleaner at the High Hopes asylum built on the same spot as the infamous Amityville haunted house. We later find out that some pagan worshiping Native Americans from Salem were massacred and buried there also. Lisa soon sees non-special effects ghosts and the staff doubts her. Oh where is Zelda Rubinstein when we need her? The first 20 minutes of the film is an introduction of the criminally insane patients and the cleaning agents used by the staff...which never played a part in the film. Seriously, Andrew if you are going to spend time telling us what kind of cleaners the hospital uses on different stains, you must bring this full circle and utilize it later on.

It is a low budget production shot in basically one location, light on special effects and action. The film consists mostly of boring dialogue connecting a few boring action scenes. I can't fault Sophia Del Pizzo for her role, she wasn't given much to work with. She didn't let the total lack of talent around her drag her down to their level. Unfortunately the film needed more than actors.

Not recommended viewing.

Just terrible.

[pyroboi-451-118228 · 2/10 · 20 February 2014]

This film is a work of art that should be used as the apex of examples as to why movie piracy is as strong as ever. Because no-one (and I mean NO-ONE) should have to pay to sit through such mind-numbing drivel.

The acting is terrible. Scenes are unfinished. Camera-work is shoddy. Most of the 'horror' is off camera (trying to be arty? didn't work). The story is intriguing and could have been made into a really fun horror flick if the right director and crew got hold of it.

Sadly this never happened.

Characters are unbelievable, the set is completely flat and without atmosphere. Nothing about this film grabs you.

The most painful scene for me being the main character in a corridor after her colleague has been shot dead - over-acting and instead of fleeing for her life, hovers over the body (dry sobbing) whilst the faceless gunman patiently waits around 3-4 minutes for her to finish her scene before reloading the gun, prompting her to find her feet and run around the corner.

Don't even get me started on the guy peeling liquid latex off his face to reveal some very bad make-up. Oh, I'm sorry...? He was peeling his own FACE off? Poltergeist circa 1982 did a more believable job.

Absolute garbage. Avoid like the plague. This film is just an utter insult to would-be audiences.

Is she crazy?

[Realrockerhalloween · 31 August 2016]

What makes a production company think placing a brand name on a sloppy poor written script will sell movie tickets? The movie shows the cow has been milked to death with the house being torn down and a mental institution erected in its place. So now the timeline is really screwed on if the demons blew it up or does it still stand for the Benson family to reside there in haunting?

Lisa Templeton (Sophia Pizzo) desperate for work takes a job at the asylum when she notices weird occurrences at night and investigates its dark past. You literally can tell how it will end during the first ten minutes. The acting was not bad on Pizzo's part as a strong leading lady, but its not saying much when the rest are inadequate.

The movie suffers from a low budget with cheap effects, poor lighting and if I'm not mistaken the volume cuts out or becomes low till you can't make out what the actors are saying.

Pure boredom to sit through as the film offers no twists or scares to keep you interested and as I've said the ending was obvious.

The amittyville horror was a fantastic thrill ride that ran out of stream without recovery at this point. I pray this will be the last.

Amazed at the low rating for a good film

[needabiggerboat1975 · 10/10 · 27 May 2014]

I really dug this so I was amazed to come to the IMDb and see how low the rating is. I guess people see the Amityville name and expect a big budget studio production like the Ryan Reynolds remake so it bums them out when they're offered up a low budget movie instead. I have no idea where all the hate is coming from because I enjoyed seeing a ghost story that didn't just have a series of pointless jump scares and no story. The movie actually tried to tell a story and at times it played kind of like a drama with the deep issues of the lead character. Looking up the real story of the DeFeo family and the indians on the land in Amityville it looks like this movie stayed pretty close to the truth. Some of the back stories of the inmates reminded me of real life people like the female inmate who seems to be based on one of the Manson family girls. Some of the dialog was really deep with discussions about religion and death going on between characters which I thought was unusual for a low budget flick. You don't often get much philosophy talk in films made for twenty thousand dollars! The shootings at the end were realistic too and quite startling. Yeah there were some false notes like one or two of the performances weren't the best because I guess you don't get Hollywood actors for this budget but overall I was interested in finding out how the story was going to be resolved and I thought the ending was quite unexpected and shocking. An under rated movie for sure.

Convoluted!

[InDyingArms · 1/10 · 11 April 2015]

This film was unbelievable. I honestly can't even believe I fell for this garbage, my curiosity got the best of me, thanks to the title. I personally don't even know where to start with this, so allow me to start with the plot. Oh wait a minute, there seemed to be none. As far as I could tell from this film, the plot was a mixed around, confusing mess of random events just to consume running time. Even from what I could collect from the given "plot" it's still a very confusing mess of an idea. This girl decides to work in this asylum, but it's completely "haunted" due to it being built on the now torn down Amityville house? What!? From there on out, us as the audience are sitting back, watching as a load of confusing, extremely hard to follow mess is being thrown at our face. The characters in this film are so horribly clichéd, and so horribly boring, and unpleasing it's hard to even watch them deliver their lines. The characters themselves, we can't even really tell how, or what they even are due to they're underwhelming, depressing - like line delivery / acting itself. Some of they're deliveries don't even remotely make any sense, and go as far as angering the audience with they're horrible character choice making, if that. This movie gets even worse as it's supposed classification of horror just delivers itself as a very dull, very uneventful, boring, and just simply bad.

I truly can't say anything else about this film. I realize it's on a micro-budget. But it's so horribly bad, and it tries so desperately to take itself seriously. But utterly fails, instead turning itself into a terrible, terrible film. It makes little, to no sense involving its plot, characters, scares, and overall storyline. The characters given are clichéd, boring, and even depressing. And overall, once again, involving it's needed elements, it just failed. And came out, even, ridiculous. I don't recommend this horrid, convoluted film under any circumstances, I truly can't.

Spoilers follow ...

[parry_na · 5/10 · 28 July 2017]

Despite a disastrous interview, young Lisa is delighted to gain employment as cleaner at the High Hopes Hospital. After meeting head Doctor Mixter (Jared Morgan), the chief (only?) cleaner Delaney (a curious Welsh/Russian hybrid played by Lee Bane), she is introduced to some of the patients, including one played by a terrifying Eileen Daly (who also sings the end theme). The first thing that strikes me about this Andrew Jones produced film is how empty the asylum is. Granted, Lisa is working the night-shift, but there is no background noise, nothing. Also, the location of 'Amityville' is something of a mystery. Lisa and the security guard are American, Delaney could be from any number of places, the young female reporter is Welsh and Mixter is decidedly English.

I'm a big fan of Andrew's work, but assigning his low-budget, tightly shot styles to the Amityville series (this is the tenth film in the run) is a curious decision. Having said that, the sequels had become so far removed from the style of the original film by this time, perhaps Jones' slow-burning style isn't that jarring. The idea of High Hopes Hospital being built on the land where once stood the Amityville House is curious – Amityville was a residential area, and this institute would appear to be in the centre of it, not that we are afforded any establishing exterior shots, or barely any outside shots at all – which is why I am never convinced we are actually anywhere near America at any point (we aren't – this was filmed in Wales).

UK born Sophia Del Pizzo plays American Lisa, her accent sounding perfectly convincing to my equally UK ear – although American viewers may disagree. As is often the case with Jones' films, we care about his main character, so that when she begins to doubt her own sanity, we are wishing her well.

Sadly, this isn't Jones' finest hour. Possibly because the link to Amityville is so tenuous, possibly because the coldly-lit slow-burning style isn't what we expect from an Amityville film, possibly because unfortunately it is a very plodding affair … all of these things together are never convincing and rarely frightening. Which is a shame, because the cast try hard, especially Pizzo and Daly, to inject some life into the proceedings.

"Get your hands up, you sick f***!" "I see we've dispensed with the usual pleasantries."