Stuart Rosenberg's "The Amityville Horror" should have catapulted him to the throne of the King of the Surreal, because this disjointed, shrill, and inexplicable flick is just as weird, if not weirder than, the oddest work of current King David Lynch. I'm not sure what the hell was going on in Rosenberg's life at the time, but this same year he directed another weird, cartoonish-yet-lethargic genre film, the Charles Bronson revenge vehicle, "Love and Bullets." Also both "Horror" and "Bullets" share totally inappropriate and WAY over the top performances by the great & unique Rod Steiger.
VERY MINOR POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD(if such is possible with a movie that makes no sense)
Nothing much happens in "Amityville Horror" until the climax, just a lot of odd little things. But when that climax comes, and the movie suddenly ends, you realize that it answered no questions and, more importantly, made no sense at all! The film has no logic but dream logic--perfect surrealism. Characters float about aimlessly in search of some kind of coherent story, crying, screaming, chopping wood. The secondary characters appear and disappear without having any impact on the plot and without really doing anything, much the way characters in a dream come and go, shift and change for no reason. A psychic has visions--nothing comes of it. A cop has suspicions--he does nothing with them. a child has an imaginary ghost friend who may be at the root of it all--or not. A priest's life is ruined--because there were flies on the window! And--there's an evil pig in the window! I'll repeat myself--There's AN EVIL PIG IN THE WINDOW!! An EVIL PIG THAT DOES NOTHING! Really, the film is fascinating--all the more so since it is obvious that its fascinating qualities are entirely unintentional. A CLASSIC!
VERY MINOR POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD(if such is possible with a movie that makes no sense)
Nothing much happens in "Amityville Horror" until the climax, just a lot of odd little things. But when that climax comes, and the movie suddenly ends, you realize that it answered no questions and, more importantly, made no sense at all! The film has no logic but dream logic--perfect surrealism. Characters float about aimlessly in search of some kind of coherent story, crying, screaming, chopping wood. The secondary characters appear and disappear without having any impact on the plot and without really doing anything, much the way characters in a dream come and go, shift and change for no reason. A psychic has visions--nothing comes of it. A cop has suspicions--he does nothing with them. a child has an imaginary ghost friend who may be at the root of it all--or not. A priest's life is ruined--because there were flies on the window! And--there's an evil pig in the window! I'll repeat myself--There's AN EVIL PIG IN THE WINDOW!! An EVIL PIG THAT DOES NOTHING! Really, the film is fascinating--all the more so since it is obvious that its fascinating qualities are entirely unintentional. A CLASSIC!