All Movie Guide

Eschewing any connection with previous installments of the creatively strip-mined Amityville saga, this film is actually derived from one of a series of novels by John G. Jones and focuses on a mantle clock from the original Long Island horror-house which serves as a vessel of supernatural evil. A real estate developer (Stephen Macht) purchases the clock in Long Island and brings it home to California, where it promptly anchors itself to the wall and begins to exert a nightmarish influence on the house and its inhabitants. As creepy phenomena and violent behavior run rampant through Macht's family, the occultist neighbor (Nita Talbot) begins to take notice -- but is killed in a freak accident shortly after discovering the secret of the clock's Satanic history. In a twist that echoes the original Amityville Horror, Macht succumbs to the clock's evil influence and turns on his family, just as his scale-model of a planned development is transformed into a block of very familiar-looking houses. Tony Randel's direction is remarkably restrained, allowing the horror to unfold gradually until the final act, where he pulls out all the stops in a style reminiscent of his earlier Hellbound: Hellraiser II. The script makes a valiant attempt to breathe new life into a long-dead franchise, but many interesting subplots fail to develop beyond their sketchy origins. The creepy inner workings of the clock are reminiscent of the ancient machinery of The Church or the vampire-bug-machine of Guillermo del Toro's Cronos, but little is done to explain their origins. Cavett Binion

All Movie Guide

This tired, pointless sequel (the sixth in the creatively bankrupt series) continues the premise explored in both Amityville: The Evil Escapes and later used in Amityville 1992: It's About Time, in which the demonic forces occupying the infamous haunted Long Island spook-house reside within various household items that subsequently haunt their unsuspecting new owners. This time the curse inhabits an antique mirror from the house -- passed on to a photographer (Ross Partridge) by one of his subjects -- whose reflection presages the violent death of nearly everyone who gazes into it. Inane plot twists abound, leading Partridge to discover his own connection to Amityville's dark heritage, while his pretentious friends die in messy and uninteresting ways. Cavett Binion

All Movie Guide

After filmmakers with varying degrees of talent managed to squeeze an unbelievable eight sequels out of the already-weak premise of the original Amityville Horror, the makers of this installment manage to go off on an even weirder tangent, with evil forces from the Long Island haunted house traipsing to yet another part of the world -- this time in a creepy little miniature replica. The dollhouse is well-constructed, and probably began life as a special-effects miniature from one of the previous films. Not one of the worst sequels, but unnecessary nonetheless; one can only hope that Amityville Dollhouse might finally encourage the film community to throw the last shovelful of dirt on this decaying concept and move on... a notion certainly shared by most moviegoers. Cavett Binion

Product Details

• UPC: 031398219859
• Source: REPUBLIC PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Time: 4:44:00
• Sales Rank: 35,496

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• Amityville: A New Generation
• Amityville Dollhouse: Evil Never Dies
• Amityville 1992: It's About Time

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