I understand that this film was created solely to make a point, through the medium of comedy. But this could actually be the quintessential and most Amityville-ish Amityville movie there is yet.
This film was created by Michael Stone (whose moviemaking career I will be watching VERY closely from here on), as a parody of the low-budget in-name-only surfeit of Amityville titles. But in parodying all the Amityville titles, it acts as a focus of all the Amityville titles before it. Where most of the Amityville movies do not acknowledge the events of the other titles, this is the film that ties together all the other titles by recognising them, and in doing so, affirming a shared Amityville universe. No other Amityville title builds the canon so effectively. It is the End Game of Amityville movies.
Also, let's discuss the comedy aspect. There have been plenty of movies that rely on fart jokes, but this title sets itself above all the others in its dedication to the fart joke - does any other movie not just pivot on fart humour, but can claim to be nothing but a one long fart joke? A one hour twenty plus minute fart joke? That takes commitment and dedication to the art of the fart. It succeeds where "Sausage Party" and other double-entendre movies fail.
If I may be permitted some spoilers (although after the first 15 seconds of this film where Stone opens the focal paperback book which is, very appropriately, the novel "The Amityville Horror" - there is little more of the movie beyond this that can be spoiled), the plot of the movie is Stone reading a paperback copy of the book that started it all - the foundation stone of the entire franchise. It could easily be passed off as another attempt at a self-indulgent arthouse movie, in the same vein as Warhol's "Sleep" (1964). But this is so much more than that. Without speaking a single word, Stone gives us an insightful and contemplative perspective of independent film, while simultaneously laughing along with the audience through fart comedy. "Amityville: Gas Chamber" is one of the few films that directly converses with the audience, and it does this through ingenious Pop-Up Video style discourse and factoids. The factoids not only break the fourth wall by engaging the audience through one-way conversation, but also teach the audience interesting facts relating to the Amityville ouevre, as well as other quite random information. You will walk away knowing more about camel's milk and burrito existentialism than you ever anticipated. It also introduces secondary characters Sylas and Styx, introduced so briefly and, with the same brevity, so quickly forgotten, much like Claudette's cancer diagnosis in "The Room." Many viewers will be expecting a follow-up Amityville movie with a greater performance from Sylas and Styx.
This is not just recommended viewing, it is essential viewing. It encompasses the Amityville universe, and provides the audience with a succinct and fitting metaphor for that universe by way of 80+ minutes of fart sounds. And it does it on a budget of less than what I spent on all the alcoholic beverages I drank while watching the film. Move over Lynch, go away Spielberg, get lost Cameron, because Michael Stone is the next big actor/writer/director/producer/film editor, and I hope that there are many more titles from this legend in the future.
