The Amityville Podcast

Tom and Pat get back into alignment on this entry, that either closed out the trilogy or ground the series to a halt for years. But we still find things to disagree about, like the professional podcasters we are.

Someone has taken their love of sequels too far. Or not far enough. Either way, we debate this follow up to the genre pivot point from the previous year. And speaking of rehashes, we had to re-record the main discussion, but mostly captured the magic of the first try hopefully. Does the movie? Results may vary.

Kicking off another sidequest while the Amityville series recharges (and boy howdy did it!), we take on a series loved by one of us, not so much by the other. While we both agree this first one is a masterpiece, we still manage to fight about something. Still haven't hit that dealbreaker yet, though. 

Sometimes a long running but all over the place franchise will have a small budget entry sneak out and be one of the best the series has ever had, concentrating on character and theme and not just cheap gags or fan service. But for every Godzilla Minus One, there are dozens of death toilets. We close out this batch of Amityville movies with one that sets the bar at a new low. Sigh.

An in-franchise semi-remake about house flippers. We keep track of these things, I suppose. This one has a bigger budget than the usual stuff, but does that mean a bump in quality? Yes, but a hill in Delaware is nothing in Appalachia. 

Two overlong franchises full of knock offs and spin offs finally hook up. Is it super hot and steamy, like a good coffee, or is it exhausting and tepid, like a bad coffee? Does it spend much time on either franchise? Both? The answers will very likely not surprise you!

And we're back to our core franchise. What was waiting for us? A family quarantine project. Yes, it's a narrative, but it's also another home video that got distribution by name dropping Amityville. Seriously, if anyone out there is an aspiring film maker, you can get distribution. 

Finally we wrap things up with the Hulu reboot, which calls back to the franchise in several ways while completely reimagining in others. Will there be more? We have no way to know, because one year in most franchises is a bare minimum gap, but we've come to expect several a year from our flagship franchise, which we return to next time. But for now, let's just enjoy a little more time in Hell before our suffering really returns.

It definitely feels like this franchise has had more endings that others. And here's another, the last of the Gary Tunnicliffe era, before the big budget relaunch by Hulu, which does completely close out this season for now. With one of the smallest budgets in the franchise, it relies on lore, ideas, thematic explorations, and yet another corrupt cop mystery.

This week we watch the first of the series to not feature Doug Bradley. An entry produced primarily to retain the rights, and filmed on what would be a shoestring budget if you weren't for some reason watching every Amityville movie. But hey, as they say, just finishing a movie is an accomplishment, especially when there's the chance from the get go it might never get released.

Not known at the time of recording, let us also say goodbye to Anthony Hickox, director of Hellraiser III, as well as Waxwork I & 2, Sundown, and plenty of other fun flicks.