To my own surprise, I liked the other two nineties' outings in the franchise, namely "Amityville 1992: It's About Time" and "Amityville: Dollhouse", so I was reasonably confident I would at least enjoy this in-between sequel to a certain extent as well.
Wrong way of thinking, obviously, as this installment truly sucks. I should have guessed in advance, because even the title-addition "A New Generation" is boring and uninspired compared to the other two entries in the mid-nineties' trilogy. The story itself revolves around the most irritating and redundant type of people in the world, namely pseudo-artists. Not real artists, but obnoxious and wannabe amateurs that live in a ramshackle apartment block in a dangerous neighborhood and think of themselves as talented. When photographer Keyes Terry receives the gift of a mirror from a homeless man, the ugly antique thing appears to have a direct link with a vicious family massacre that occurred at the notorious Amityville house. Oh, and there's a connection between Keyes and the culprit of the massacre as well.
"Amityville: A New Generation" is dull and far too pretentious for a straight-to-video sequel from the early 90s. There is potential, for sure, but director John Murlowski fails to generate any tension or atmosphere, and a half-decent connection with the lead characters never gets established. The kills are too few and unmemorable, and the whole climax is a joke. The film is mainly a waste of a good cast, as it's full of familiar faces that can do (and have done) better. There's David McNaughton ("An American Werewolf in London"), Richard Roundtree ("Shaft"), Terry O'Quinn ("The Stepfather"), and Lin Shaye ("Dead End") and all of them deserve better.
Wrong way of thinking, obviously, as this installment truly sucks. I should have guessed in advance, because even the title-addition "A New Generation" is boring and uninspired compared to the other two entries in the mid-nineties' trilogy. The story itself revolves around the most irritating and redundant type of people in the world, namely pseudo-artists. Not real artists, but obnoxious and wannabe amateurs that live in a ramshackle apartment block in a dangerous neighborhood and think of themselves as talented. When photographer Keyes Terry receives the gift of a mirror from a homeless man, the ugly antique thing appears to have a direct link with a vicious family massacre that occurred at the notorious Amityville house. Oh, and there's a connection between Keyes and the culprit of the massacre as well.
"Amityville: A New Generation" is dull and far too pretentious for a straight-to-video sequel from the early 90s. There is potential, for sure, but director John Murlowski fails to generate any tension or atmosphere, and a half-decent connection with the lead characters never gets established. The kills are too few and unmemorable, and the whole climax is a joke. The film is mainly a waste of a good cast, as it's full of familiar faces that can do (and have done) better. There's David McNaughton ("An American Werewolf in London"), Richard Roundtree ("Shaft"), Terry O'Quinn ("The Stepfather"), and Lin Shaye ("Dead End") and all of them deserve better.