Ryan Reynolds is famous for many things: the Deadpool movies, his great sense of humor, and his high-profile relationship with Blake Lively to name a few. But what some might not know about the actor, is that back in 2005 he was the star of a movie widely considered to be one of the worst remakes in horror history, The Amityville Horror.
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg in 1979, and Andrew Douglas in 2005, The Amityville Horror movies center on the newly-wed couple, George (James Broslin/Ryan Reynolds) and Kathy Lutz (Margot Kidder/Melissa George), who, along with Kathy’s children, move into a Long Island mansion with a suspiciously low-price tag. The catch, they discover, is its murderous history. And though the Lutz’s can accept this, they soon discover they can’t accept the demonic forces that plague the property. Demons such as Jodie, the demonic pig (1979)/Grudge-like figure (2005), wreak havoc on the Lutz family, with George having a particularly hard time. Possessed, he begins hearing voices that tell him to murder his wife and stepchildren. The same voices assumed to have driven previous resident, Ronald DeFeo to murder his family.
True crime fans will recognize the DeFeo name, if not the Lutz’s. As The Amityville Horror movies portray, there really was a Ronald DeFeo who shot his family in their Amityville, NY home. As the story goes, on a November morning in 1974, 23-year-old DeFeo entered a nearby bar yelling, “You got to help me! I think my mother and father are shot!” Forgetting to mention his four siblings, the police were in for a surprise when they discovered the six dead bodies in the 112 Ocean Avenue home. DeFeo had shot them in their sleep; though this isn’t the story he originally presented.
At first, the murderer had claimed a hitman carried out the killings, however, when that story was disproved DeFeo confessed to doing it himself (before changing his story several times again). Though his lawyer pushed for an insanity defense — claiming DeFeo heard voices of his family plotting against him — DeFeo was found guilty on six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Skeptics, however, aren’t convinced, believing the house to be responsible. And it would seem George and Kathy Lutz had a part to play in this narrative.
Again, as The Amityville Horror goes, the Lutz family was next to move into the 112 Ocean Avenue house. They too were made aware of its history, decided to purchase the house anyway, and left after paranormal events became a common occurrence. These experiences are recounted in the 1977 Jay Anson book which inspired the movie series. As it reads, the priest who blessed the house was the first to encounter evil when he heard a masculine voice tell him to “Get out!”
Not long after, the Lutz family experienced similar horrors for themselves such as strange odors, unexplainable chills, and loud noises which would keep them up at night. Like his on-screen counterpart, George is said to have regularly woken up at 3:15 am (the time DeFeo committed his murders) and to have seen his wife transform into an old woman. The morning after he witnessed her levitate, the family fled the house, and as the movies’ intertitles state, they never returned for their possessions.
Of course, doubt has been cast on the Lutzs' story, with many believing it to be a cash-grabbing hoax. But that is beside the point when it comes to evaluating the movies’ success — or lack thereof. Though the original Amityville Horror far surpassed its reboot in terms of its commercial success (remaining the highest-grossing independent film until 1990), it generated mostly negative reviews from critics. As it stands, the 1979 movie has a 30% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 6.2 rating on IMDb; only slightly better than its 2005 reboot which has a Tomatometer score of 23% and 6.0 IMDb rating.
One popular Rotten Tomato review says it all, “As the first film begs the question, ‘why was this film made,’ the remake begs the question, ‘why was this film remade?’” Indeed, it doesn’t add a whole lot to the original story. Both share the same basic plot, though the priest plays a larger role in the original, and the house’s history features more heavily in the remake. The original is slower (put it down to the times) and unsettling, whereas the remake is fast and… also unsettling, but in a much less subtle way. Sure enough, if there is one thing that the 2005 movie isn’t lacking in, it’s cheap jump scares. And whilst these fix the pacing issue of the original, they don’t offer much beyond shocking the viewer into waking up. Which is a necessary feature to its credit.
Aside from these drawbacks, critics have a lot to say about Reynolds in the movie. Unfortunately, it does seem like the actor was miscast here. A newbie to the horror genre, Reynolds had found success with the comedies, Van Wilder, and The In-Laws before starring in Amityville Horror, and has since found huge success with the subversive superhero comedy, Deadpool, of which he is perfectly cast. Clearly, comedies are his thing. And whilst nobody can blame an actor for branching out, they can call out bad acting when they see it. That is, Ryan Reynolds in the second half of The Amityville Horror.
Though he does a fairly decent job of portraying kind and funny George in the first half, his transition into mean and abusive George is unintentionally hilarious. And the red contact lenses don’t help. Reynolds also spends much of the movie shirtless which, while not benefiting the story in any way, at least pleased viewers. Even critics spared a nice word for those abs with a capital A.