From all accounts the feedback that I had received about this movie weren’t exactly glowing, so I went into watching this with low expectations. It can’t be that bad, surely?

The Amityville franchise is the curse that keeps on giving. Now with 18 movies in based on the Amityville hauntings and another movie with an imminent release, it now boasts the most movies of a horror movie franchise, so it’s little wonder that the response is lacking as the filmmakers search the bottom of the barrel only to find grease and grim with little hope of any originality or substance.

Starring Bella Thorne as Belle who unwittingly moves into the infamous Amityville house with her mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh), her younger sister, and her twin brother who is brain-dead and on a life support. There are the usual trappings of inner turmoil amongst the family members that has caused a rift and pushed Belle to explore her gothic leanings. Of course once in the cursed abode, strange happenings occur namely around the twin brother James as he is deemed to be a weak vessel for the entity to exhume.

As with these kind of movies, there is a tendency to stick to the usual tropes to scare and delight but director Franck Khalfoun offers nothing new to the fold. The script does try to go “meta” with deliberate acknowledgment to the original movie and the others that have been inspired to go to the Amityville source, this attempt just falls flat on its face. As for the scares, they fail to materalise and as such we are left wallowing with the characters, hoping for something, anything to happen to make the 87 minute running time worth it.

The diagnosis:

This movie was D.O.A. Whilst it tries to resuscitate the Amityville name for a new generation, the offer is weak and boring to watch. At least Jason Leigh’s ring in performance keeps you hanging in there… but even that is a struggle.

• Saul Muerte