The Amityville Playhouse
Amityville Playhouse | |
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Directed by | John R. Walker |
Screenplay by | Steve Hardy |
Story by | Steve Hardy John R. Walker |
Produced by | John R. Walker |
Starring | Monèle LeStrat Linden Baker Kennie Bennoit Hollie Anne Kornik Eva Kwok Logan Russell Gary Martin Ania Marson |
Cinematography | Matthew Hickinbottom |
Edited by | Matthew Hickinbottom |
Music by | Matthew Hickinbottom |
Production company | Scrapfilms |
Distributed by | GatebreakR |
Release date |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
Countries | Canada United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Amityville Playhouse (also known as The Amityville Theater) is a 2015 horror film written and directed by John R. Walker, and co-written by Steve Hardy. It is the thirteenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror.[1] Monèle LeStrat stars as Fawn Harriman, a recently orphaned Dannemora high school student who inherits a mysterious abandoned theatre located in Amityville, New York.[2]
Plot
[edit]Fawn Harriman, a Dannemora high school student whose parents died a year ago, inherits the Roxy, an abandoned theatre located in Amityville, New York. Fawn visits the Roxy with her friend Indy, boyfriend Kyle, Kyle's bullied younger brother, Jevan, and Jevan's friend Matt while one of her teachers, Victor Stewart, looks into the history of the theatre, as well as Amityville. Fawn and her friends become trapped in the theatre, which has no cellphone service, shortly after meeting Wendy, a runaway who has been squatting in the Roxy. After making several unsuccessful attempts at breaking out of the theatre, Fawn and the others encounter paranormal phenomena, like an apparition that resembles Fawn and a Ouija board that spells out the word "SISTER."
During the course of his research, Stewart notices that six people always die on every November 13 in Amityville. Stewart brings his findings to Elliot Saunders, the mayor of Amityville, who explains that the caves that are located beneath Amityville are a gateway to Hell that was accidentally unsealed centuries ago by the Shinnecock. The first six Shinnecock who entered the catacombs were possessed by demons, and buried alive in the caverns by the other Shinnecock. The catacombs were at some point unsealed again, and ever since a cult made up of Amityville's elite has sacrificed six people (including every elite's firstborn child) to the demons, to keep them appeased and to stop them from spreading from Amityville to the rest of the Earth. Fawn was supposed to be sacrificed to the demons alongside her twin sister, Adrienne, but her parents only gave the demons Adrienne. The cult orchestrated the deaths of Fawn's parents, knowing that they would try to stop them from "apologizing" to the demons for the Harrimans' earlier transgression by giving them Fawn. Saunders, wracked with guilt over all of the deaths that he has overseen and orchestrated, commits suicide after killing his own bodyguard and giving Stewart a special key that will grant Stewart access to the Roxy.
Stewart saves Matt, but Wendy disappears while Fawn is captured by decomposing demons who have killed and replaced a surveyor, Jevan, Indy, and Kyle. Stewart and Fawn escape from the demons, but just as they reach an exit, Fawn, her voice now demonic, drags Stewart back into the Roxy while yelling, "I'm Adrienne!"
Cast
[edit]- Monèle LeStrat as Fawn Harriman
- Linden Baker as Kyle Blaker
- Kennie Benoit as Matteus "Matt" Darnell
- Hollie Anne Kornik as Wendy Shardlow
- Eva Kwok as Indira "Indy" Divani
- Logan Russell as Jevan Blaker
- Gary Martin as Mayor Elliot Saunders
- Ania Marson as Professor Celia Nightingale
- John R. Walker as Victor Stewart
- Spencer Banks as Reverend Simon Randall
- Cheryl Burfield as Liz Randall
- Ian Donnelly as Wayne Fletcher
- Lesley Scoble as Karen
- Tiana Diehl as Dorothy Felix
- Emily Diehl-Reader as Tanya Hernández
- Donald Philips as Ed Clayton
- Mike Reader as Frank Harriman
- Mellissa Borkent as Jean Harriman
Release
[edit]Amityville Playhouse was released on DVD in the United Kingdom by 4Digital Media on April 13, 2015. 4Digital Media also released the film, under the name The Amityville Theater, on DVD in North America on June 23, 2015.[3]
Reception
[edit]Amityville Playhouse was deemed "a slog" that was full of "terrible actors" by Tex Hula of Ain't It Cool News.[4] Patrick Cooper of Bloody Disgusting lambasted Amityville Playhouse, writing, "The film is absolutely miserable from the script to the acting. The lighting is either washed out or too dark and overall just avoid this mess."[5] James Luxford of Radio Times was similarly critical of the film, calling it an unoriginal "shabby shock-fest" with "stiff and awkward performances" before concluding, "Unlikely to excite even the most ardent horror fans, Amityville Playhouse is an under-developed misfire that, if nothing else, makes you pine for scary movies of old."[6] The film was allotted a score of 1/5 by The Guardian's Leslie Felperin, who succinctly stated that it suffered from "bad special effects, deliciously lousy scriptwriting, cack-handed direction and, above all, truly atrocious acting, attaining a level of ineptitude and woodenness that would shame the cheapest amateur porn film."[7]
References
[edit]- ^ Christopher Berry-Dee (2020). Serial Killers at the Movies: My Intimate Talks with Mass Murderers who Became Stars of the Big Screen. Ad Lib Publishers. ISBN 9781913543839. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
- ^ Brickley, Sean (23 June 2015). "DVD and Blu-ray Releases: June 23, 2015". dreadcentral.com. Dread Central. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
- ^ Barton, Steve (27 February 2015). "The Amityville Theatre Open for Business". dreadcentral.com. Dread Central. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
- ^ Hula, Tex (4 February 2019). "AICN's Tex Hula Reviews Amityville Murders and ALL other Amityville Films! A Look into Madness!". aintitcool.com. Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ Cooper, Patrick (1 July 2015). "[Review] Amityville Theater Is a Shoddy Mess". bloody-disgusting.com. Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ Luxford, James. "Amityville Playhouse". radiotimes.com. Radio Times. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ Felperin, Leslie (16 April 2015). "Amityville Playhouse review – horror franchise sinks to a new low". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
External links
[edit]- Amityville Playhouse at IMDb
- Amityville Playhouse at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Brandon Sun
- Interview with John R. Walker at Native Monster
- 2015 films
- 2015 directorial debut films
- 2015 horror films
- 2015 independent films
- 2010s British films
- 2010s Canadian films
- 2010s English-language films
- 2010s exploitation films
- 2010s ghost films
- 2010s mystery horror films
- 2010s psychological horror films
- 2010s supernatural horror films
- 2010s teen horror films
- Amityville Horror films
- British body horror films
- British exploitation films
- British ghost films
- British independent films
- British mystery horror films
- British psychological horror films
- British sequel films
- British supernatural horror films
- British teen horror films
- Canadian body horror films
- Canadian ghost films
- Canadian independent films
- Canadian mystery horror films
- Canadian sequel films
- Canadian supernatural horror films
- Canadian teen films
- Demons in film
- English-language Canadian films
- Films about atonement
- Films about brothers
- Films about bullying
- Films about cults
- Films about educators
- Films about human sacrifice
- Films about mass murder
- Films about orphans
- Films about politicians
- Films about runaways
- Films about shapeshifting
- Films about spirit possession
- Films about twin sisters
- Films set in 2014
- Films set in 2015
- Films set in a theatre
- Films set in abandoned buildings and structures
- Films set in London
- Films set in Long Island
- Films set in New York (state)
- Films shot in England
- Films shot in London
- Films shot in Manitoba
- Murder–suicide in films
- Murder mystery films
- Films about siblicide
- Films about squatting
- Teen mystery films
- Unofficial sequel films