The Amityville Horror

The original The Amityville Horror from 1975 is a mild classic these days. It was likeable, but nothing as good and loved a Romero's Dead movies or the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Now those got remakes these past years, the latter produced by Michael Bay, and it got mixed reviews from fans, some liked it, some didn't, and those hadn't seen the original, like me, loved it. Now Michael Bay gives us The Amityville Horror remake, and having seen the original last month, having it fresh in my mind, I have to say the new one is much better than the original.

The movie is based on true events that happened to the Lutz family when they moved to their new house in Amityville, NY in 1973. A year before that in the same house, the eldest son of the DeFeo family that was currently living there, killed his parents and 4 siblings because the house told him to, as he said.
Now George and Kathy Lutz, and her 3 children, suffer through 28 days of horror before leaving the house to never come back again.

Great work by Ryan Reynolds here as the mood swinging and then total psycho George Lutz. I was skeptic before the movie, because every time I see him I can't avoid thinking about his Van Wilder and laugh, so I was scared that I he wouldn't work in a horror movie kind of slow paced like this one. But he does work, and he's really good. Australian beauty Melissa George (who was in Playboy once btw) plays Kathy Lutz, and she's great too.

There are tons of differences between this one and the original, starting with the priest. Phillip Baker Hall plays Father Callahan and he's the only member of the church that appears in the movie and he's role is not as big as the priest in the original. It's a big change, but I think it works good because now they added more Defeo ghosts appearances and also the story of the house and why it was possessed (before the DeFeo's), which was a great part of the movie and I don't understand why it wasn't done in the original. This new stuff made the movie gorier and scarier.
Something else I noticed is that the alarm clock showing 3:15 is used way less now. In fact, it appears only three or four times during the movie. Same for the movie telling us which day it is within the 28 count. It only happens at day 1, 15 and 28, while in the original I remember it seeing it a few more times.
Also different, and for good, are the kids, specially Billy (the big one) played great by a kid named Jesse James. The kids staying with the babysitter sequence is also kind of different, but much better. And the babysitter herself and her talk with the kids is pretty great (plus she's hot now instead of a little girl with braces).
By the way, IMDB lists the children as being Lutz's but I think that's incorrect since they had a different father, and they didn't have a last name in the original.
Another upgrade? The dialog. More real now and Ryan Reynolds had very good lines at totally unexpected times. It sounded wrong but funny, and just right for the movie. And luckily, the cheesy "To a perfect house and to a perfect family" line from the trailer didn't make the final cut.
Now the ending, basically the same as in the original, with the family leaving the house forever, but it happens totally different here and though now gone is my favorite part from the original, the new ending works just as well or better.

Director Andrew Douglas did a really good job, specially creating that great atmosphere that helped by the writing team, made the entire movie scary and not just parts. Add to that a great cast with Ryan Reynolds as the highlight and you have a vastly superior remake that makes us forget about the January and February tries (that ranged from horrible to ok), as The Amityville Horror, Bay style, is the scariest movie of the year so far.