Horror Movie Review: Amityville – A New Generation (1993)

After the welcome surprise that was the 6th instalment of the Amityville franchise being a decent movie, its back to type for this series as this 7th instalment falls woefully short of anything resembling quality.

So up to this point we’ve had a story about a haunted lamp and a story about a haunted clock, now we get an Amityville tale that surrounds a haunted mirror.

The story surrounds Keyes, a young art photographer that gets talking to a homeless man after taking his photo. His generosity surprises the homeless man who gifts Keyes with an antique mirror. A few days later, the man ends up dead & after finding Keyes’ name & address in his pocket the police are quickly involved.

Detective Clark (played by a young looking Terry O’Quinn) does some digging & discovers some interesting truths about Keyes & his family.

Meanwhile Keyes & some of his fellow artists are planning a big event & since bringing the mirror back inspiration is running wild. Keyes though is beginning to have bad dreams about a Thanksgiving dinner & a man that is clearly insane.

This is his father & its part of a repressed memory. You see his Dad went crazy & murdered the rest of his family during a Thanksgiving dinner. He killed them with a shotgun as they sat at the dinner table in…the original Amityville house.

There is our link, the one and only but it’s a significant one with obvious reference to the true DeFeo murders & the Lutz families stories. Keyes’ Dad now haunts the mirror & plans to make his son commit a similar murder.

Like father, like son.

Almost sounds quite exciting right? Well, that’s the thing…it’s not; it’s very boring & takes forever building to the reveal of Keyes & his family backstory. Even when it’s painfully obvious the charade continues just so we can have another flashback scene.

It’s not helped by the average acting from most of the leads with Keyes in particular giving off a dull performance that inspires yawns & shrugs. The flashy fun that came with the last film in the franchise is gone, replaced with a dark, cheap & dingy atmosphere. Looking incredibly dated with 90’s artwork, city shots & clothing…it’s a movie that will make you feel old.

A lack of good violence & gore with a drawn out ending just rounds off a disappointing movie. Seven films in & there have been far worse than this but not by much.