Amityville Horror is a remake of the 1979 flick based around the slayings of an upstate New York family in 1974. The film opens with a brief prologue detailing a fictionalized view of real events—the murderous rampage of Ronald DeFeo, who used a shotgun to kill the other six members of his family.

A year later, George and Kathy Lutz, played by Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George, purchase the house where the atrocities occurred because it is selling for an astonishingly low price. With their three kids, Billy, played by Jesse James, Michael, played by Jimmy Bennett and Chelsea, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, they move into the dream house.

It only takes a few days before bad things start happening. George undergoes a personality change, as his genial nature morphs into something cruel. Apparitions make appearances and Chelsea meets an imaginary friend who has the same name as one of the murdered DeFeo girls. The family dog starts barking in the middle of the night and a local priest, played by Philip Baker Hall, flees from the house in terror when his attempted exorcism goes wrong.

From this point on the movie has some scary moments that could make you question if something similar actually happened at 112 Ocean Ave.

There was one scene in Amityville that made me laugh. The babysitter, who in my opinion should not even babysit pets, gets locked in a small closet with Chelsea’s imaginary friend Jodi. This served her right since she was obviously a horrible choice for a sitter.

Amityville Horror was not what I expected. After watching the first film, I expected more from the new release. However, there were plenty of moments in the movie that made me scream and grab on to the arm rest.

If you are looking for a movie to challenge your intellectual limits this is not the film for you. But, if you want to have a few screams and raise your blood pressure temporarily, then Amityville Horror is just the movie for you. Despite the low grade writing and sometimes dull performances, the film was okay.