Putting the year of release in the title was a good strategy in 1992, making it clear to video-store patrons that they were getting the freshest “Amityville” release with “Amityville 1992: It’s About Time.” Today, the title remains effective, indicating the time-capsule status, as this sixth “Amityville” film features a sterile suburban mini-mansion populated by a yuppie, his punker son and his mall-tripping daughter.
Around this time, director Tony Randel was helming the second “Hellraiser” (1988) and writing the third (1992). He brings that franchise’s gore effects and throw-it-at-the-wall world-building over to “Amityville.” It’s a nice change of pace.
The original trilogy exhausted the possibilities of the first haunted house (although part five found a smidgen of life with a different abode), and “Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes” was boring. But part four did have a good way to keep the series going: a haunted object.
“Amityville 1992: It’s About Time” (1992)
Director: Tony Randel
Writers: Christopher DeFaria, Antonio Toro; John G. Jones (book)
Stars: Stephen Macht, Shawn Weatherly, Megan Ward
On Tuesdays this summer, RFMC is looking back at selected films in the “Amityville” series.
Clock is scarier than the lamp
“It’s About Time” — like “Amityville 4” adapted from John G. Jones’ short-story collection “The Evil Escapes” – does the haunted lamp one better with a manipulative mantelpiece clock. The result is a shlock-filled, R-rated “Poltergeist” riff.
The screenplay by Christopher DeFaria and Antonio Toro avoids getting snagged on cliches because the clock can cause anything to happen. It makes some of the residents turn evil, and it makes others see things.
Every actor has something fun to do. Stephen Macht and Megan Ward, as father Jacob and daughter Lisa, get to act possessed. Jacob’s dog-bitten (although the reality of that is unclear) leg is infected, sending him on a gross metamorphosis like Jeff Goldblum in “The Fly” (but limited to his leg). Lisa goes from wallflower to sexpot, I guess because the clock infects the living-room mirror.
This leaves us with refreshingly non-standard protagonists. Jacob’s ex Andrea (Shawn Weatherly) is too good of a person to leave this family in rough shape (although she should, given how Jacob treats her). And antisocial son Rusty (Damon Martin) is the person who figures out what’s going on, thanks to his unorthodox friendship with cool old neighbor lady Iris (Nita Talbot), who provides the occult reference books.
Spicing things up with a fast-talking turn as yuppie psychiatrist Leonard is Jonathan Penner. Leonard’s off-the-cuff diagnoses may not be wrong, but it’s hard to believe Andrea is into him. Between Jacob and Leonard, she shows a remarkable range of bad taste in men.
Gore and gleeful goofiness
Although not a comedy, “It’s About Time” has a light, insubstantial nature. It stops safely short of parody, but I sense it would’ve gotten there given another 30 minutes. It doesn’t feel wrong that Dick Miller of “Gremlins” fame has a cameo as the neighbor.
The way the story plays with time makes about as much sense as hell-dimension rules in “Hellraiser,” but you can’t say you know what’s gonna happen. In the final act, when the house falls apart and reveals another dimension (or something), it flirts with being more of a “Hellraiser” film than an “Amityville” film.
Rather than being “Amityville In Name Only,” though, “It’s About Time” hits on the saga’s tropes. In addition to the haunted clock following part four’s haunted lamp, we also have a reversal of the incest plot from “Amityville II: The Possession,” with the sister trying to seduce the brother. It doesn’t go as far here, and it’s more silly than creepy. Jacob’s possession, of course, calls to mind the first two entries.
A superior film would’ve gone deeper into the themes of time, aging and the advancements of civilization, but Randel glosses over them. And that’s OK, for one viewing anyway. “Amityville 1992: It’s About Time” succeeds as an unabashed course-correction from “The Evil Escapes.” It says “If haunted-object movies are inherently dumb, then they should at least be fun.”