Amityville: A New Generation

**_The setting switches to the Arts District and an artifact from the Dutch Colonial house_** This was the seventh of eight “Amityville” movies released from 1979-1997. Only the first three were theatrically released. The fourth one was made-for-television and the next four went direct-to-video. What sets this installment apart is the milieu noted above. Like Tommy Lee Jones’ “Broken Vows” from six years earlier, the movie focuses on artists and their studios in the heart of the big city. The city is never specified, but it has to be West Chelsea on the West Side of Manhattan, although the flick was shot in Los Angeles (and obviously so in a scene or two). Julia Nickson and Richard Roundtree happen to play two of the artists. I find the setting interesting because I had a couple of friends in this uncertain line of work; one being my best friend at the time. The protagonist is played by Ross Partridge, who looks like Dermot Mulroney, just taller. On the feminine front, blonde Lala Sloatman shines. You might remember her from “Watchers” from five years prior. Corey Haim starred in that film, and they ended up dating for a year or two afterward. The idea of a cursed artifact is also interesting. In the Bible, aprons and handkerchiefs were blessed with an anointing via Paul’s touch; the articles thus healed people and sent demons fleeing. It was similar with Elisha’s bones in the Old Testament. This idea is simply reversed in the movie: An item from the Amityville house is cursed by an impure spirit attached to it. It runs 1h 31m and was shot in Nov-Dec 1992 in Los Angeles, with the loft exterior done in the Arts District in the heart of the city. GRADE: B-