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Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.

Asked to name an Amityville remake, the natural response is the “all abs, all the time” Ryan Reynolds 2005 remake. What folks may not know is that there is *technically* another option: director Éric Tessier’s Tubi original, The Amityville Curse (2023) which is a Canadian remake of another Canadian Amityville film of the same name from 1990.

You can revisit my editorial on the Og film from <gulp> two years ago, but the premise of both films is nearly identical. Each follows a group of College students who purchase a house for dirt cheap under the pretense of fixing it up. At the time, I wasn’t super enthusiastic about Tom Berry’s 1990 cash grab sequel, if only because it was one of the first...

Exclusive: Marvin Jones III (Halo), Michael Xavier (Wild Cards) and Dominic Burgess (Palm Royale) have joined the cast of Prime Video‘s graphic novel series, Criminal, in recurring roles. They join the previously announced leads: Charlie Hunnam, Adria Arjona, Richard Jenkins, Kadeem Hardison and Logan Browning.

Criminal is an interlocking universe of crime stories based on the multi-Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series created by Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Jones III will play Chester, crime boss Sebastian Hyde’s (John Hawkes) fearsome chief enforcer. Much like a seven-foot-tall man becoming a basketball player whether he likes it or not, Chester was drafted into the criminal life for his size and fearsomeness. He’s no sadist, relying on his reputation and intelligence to get his way. He speaks softly most of the time, but the threat of sudden and deadly violence is always there.

Xavier will play Terry, another criminal, a good...

On November 13, 1974, at 112 Ocean Ave. in Amityville, New York, a young man named Ronald DeFeo woke up in the middle of the night, took up a shotgun, and went from room to room in his home, systematically murdering six members of his family. DeFeo was apprehended by the police. At first, DeFeo claimed the murders were mob-related, but he later confessed to committing the crimes himself. He was sentenced to 25 years to life for his crimes. DeFeo died in prison in 2021. 

DeFeo's murders became notorious with the publication of Jay Anson's nonfiction book "The Amityville Horror" in 1977. After the killings, the Lutz family moved into 112 Ocean Ave., and they claimed to experience a panoply of paranormal phenomena. Flies mobbed the building, and the entire Lutz family reported hearing eerie voices. George Lutz, the family patriarch, claimed to be possessed by a demonic presence that was driving him to kill his family.

One thing you might not know about Tubi is that they release A Lot of Tubi Original movies, many of them horror movies. They don’t seem to get nearly as much recognition as the vast archives of catalogue titles that you can find streaming – always for free! – on Tubi at any given time, but you might like to know that a brand new one just debuted over there today.

It’s titled Cabin Girl, and it’s now streaming only on Tubi.

In the latest Tubi Original horror movie, “When an influencer moves into an isolated cabin, she soon discovers its dark history and becomes haunted by a troubled spirit.”

Rose Lane Sanfilipo stars in the movie alongside Austin Scott, Lee Tergesen, and Michael Rispoli (The Sopranos).

Cabin Girl is directed by Jon D. Wagner, producer of various recent horror movies including The Strangers: Prey at Night, Haunt, and...

There’s another Amityville movie to watch! And this one actually has some connection to the early days of the franchise. These days it seems like every indie filmmaker in the world has made something with Amityville in the title, but the new film The Amityville Curse is based on the novel of the same title, which was written by Hans Holzer. Holzer was a parapsychologist who invested the supposedly haunted house in Amityville in the ’70s and went on to write the books Murder in Amityville (which served as a source of inspiration for Amityville II: The Possession), The Secret of Amityville, and yes, The Amityville Curse. The new adaptation of Holzer’s work has been released through the Tubi streaming service as a Tubi Original – and you can check out the trailer for it in the embed above.

This is actually the second movie to be called The Amityville Curse.

A new film adaptation of Hans Holzer’s The Amityville Curse, which was published in 1981, brand new Tubi Original horror movie The Amityville Curse is now streaming.

Hans Holzer’s book, it’s interesting to note, ended up serving as the basis for official franchise movie The Amityville Curse, which was released back in 1990.

Tubi previews, “The new adaptation of Hans Holzer’s novel is a modern take on the ever popular franchise with a fictionalized story that remains true to the novel.”

Further ensuring an authentic approach, Incendo secured the underlying rights to Hans Holzer’s titular original novel from the estate.

In The Amityville Curse, “A group of friends purchase an infamous home with the intention of flipping it, only to discover a deadly paranormal presence bent on destruction.”

The film was adapted by Dennis Heaton (“Motive”) and directed by Éric Tessier (“You Will Remember Me”), with Graham Ludlow...

Stars: Jenny Raven, Dillon Casey, Vanessa Smythe, Mercedes Morris, Tommie-Amber Pirie, Michael Xavier, Kenny Wong, Brendan Fehr, Ennis Esmer | Written by Dennis Heaton | Directed by Eric Tessier

The Amityville Curse seemed to bear a couple of its own curses. It’s an Amityville knockoff and after Amityville Cult, Amityville Thanksgiving, Amityville in the Hood, and so many more, it’s pretty much a guarantee of mediocrity. Secondly, it’s a Tubi Original, which usually carries a very similar guarantee.

But there were a couple of reasons to be hopeful as well. Director Éric Tessier may not be well known outside of Quebec but his adaptions of two of Patrick Senécal’s novels, 5150 Elm’s Way and more importantly, Sur le Seuil aka Evil Words, are both excellent. Dennis Heaton wrote the film, based on the novel by the late Hans Holzer. Heaton you may recall wrote the Billy Connolly zom-com Fido.