Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Amityville: The Evil Escapes (1989) is less a demonic possession movie and more an electrical appliance and deadly household accident horror movie along the lines of Maximum Overdrive (1986) and movies later in the '90s such as The Mangler (1995) -- Stephen King appliance horror movies; and, also note the Children of the Corn (more King) references with the little blond girl drawing violent crayon art. It's almost like it's a warning movie for single mothers who read Stephen King novels: FEAR the INCURABLE tetanus and the DEADLY garbage disposal. ESCAPE the STRANGLING electrical cord in the attic or the OXYGEN DEPRIVING, SEWAGE SPEWING water pipes in the basement before it's too late! BEWARE the impenetrable BLAMING GLARE of your grandmother, also a single woman, as she struggles with -- BRATTY CHILDREN! All of these things can be avoided with proper household disaster prevention tactics -- such as: 1. NOT running your finger along the edge of sharp metallic objects. 2. NOT installing a garbage disposal on/off switch UPSIDE DOWN! 3. Not hoarding heavy appliances with long electrical cords, but if you do, secure any loose cords. 4. Don't lay directly underneath the end of a pipe you're loosening up, especially if you know there's some type of heavy disgusting sewage running through those pipes. Or at least give yourself a little wiggle room even if you become pinned. 5. Get your messed up catatonic daughter with PTSD and daddy issues PROFESSIONAL HELP from the full spectrum of psychiatry, therapy and behavioral science. You don't just listen to some Freudian quack and his pseudo-scientific responses; you seek second, third, and fourth opinions on any serious mental health diagnosis, especially if therapy/medication doesn't provide results. There's a range of decent to very good acting, as well. Not nearly as bad as some other movies, and happily campy as a consolation prize from time to time. One of the more deliciously twisted scenes depicts a child and a chainsaw that comes alive in his hands! Grandma/mom, don't leave that thing laying around even if it's unplugged! Amityville: The Evil Escapes may be derivative of its contemporaries but the leading lady is excellent. Thanks Patty Duke, R.I.P. If you want to see truly bad acting from a leading lady, watch Linda Hamilton in the campier but more classic Children of the Corn (1984). Anyway, good movie when you consider it's actually a household appliance horror movie intended to teach single mothers and grandmothers how to raise healthy children. I give this movie 7 bratty children being watched by 1 nanny, 1 mama, a grandma, and 1 ex- bowling champ with only 1 hand. :)

This fourth one has a lot in common with the third one. Again, it seems like it's just another Made-For-TV movie: the acting is average, the story isn't scary or suspenseful and the effects are extremely cheap. No real horror here (well, it's called Amityville HORROR: The Evil Escapes !) and it looks more like a PG-13 movie than what it's rated for (15 years and older).The real problem is that the story is rather stupid: a god awful lamp from the original house has the demon inside it. In a few scenes, the demon is showed inside the lamp but they were better off leaving that on the cutting floor. The story is actually based on the novel with the same title. That novel was again used for the 6th one. And that movie (It's About Time) is much better than this which is actually one of the worst Amityville sequels.

When I have my mind set on something, you can be damn sure I'll make it happen. As of lately, I had my mind set on knowing the truth about the AMITYVILLE series. I had developed a curiosity towards the whole franchise (yes, all of the 9! Movies). If only, it was for trying to understand how such a mediocre haunted house movie from 1979 could spawn no less than 8 sequels/prequels/instalments/re-incarnations/and a re-make. And frankly, I still don't understand it. Even though I must admit I've developed a certain liking towards the iconic Amityville-based house of hauntings (which is only the main place of horrifying events in the first three movies and re-make) and I did have a bit of fun with the straight-to-video sequels from the 90's, sitting through the complete series wasn't all that of an enjoyable experience, I'm afraid… Well, my negative feelings towards AMITYVILLE might have been influenced by the last one I could check off my list, being... ...AMITYVILLE IV: THE EVIL ESCAPES. I've now seen them all. And boy, oh, boy, this 4th instalment undoubtedly is the worst, in my humble opinion. You can already guess it could suck bigtime when you know that after part 3 (a theatrical release from 1983), they suddenly came up with this made-for-TV movie in 1989. I don't really know what happened to the continuity of the AMITYVILLE time-line, because THE EVIL ESCAPES opens with a scene where we can see some priests trying to cleanse the notorious house. The next sequence shows us a yard-sale in front of the house, where people are selling all the furniture and stuff from the house. Now, because of the house having been destroyed at the end of part 3, I can only assume that part 4 takes place somewhere between the second and the third movie. Well, no problem with that, really. The real problem lies with the fact that THE EVIL ESCAPES remains made-for-TV rubbish from the beginning 'til the end. So this goofy looking stand-up lamp (about the size of a human, and even equipped with two arm-shaped tentacles with light-bulbs as hands) gets bought at the yard-sale and shipped to some other house where an elderly lady lives (her being the sister of the person who purchased it). Around that same time, her daughter with her three kids moves into the house with her (because of her husband having died). And then this movie becomes more like a family drama than a horror movie, really. There's some arguing, disputing, etc… The only horror in this movie is supposed to be coming from the lamp, and all it does (on numerous occasions) is starting to light up and turn itself off again without being plugged in. Well, its electrical cord does strangle somebody in one scene. Pretty predictable, of course. But at not one point it does something else. I was so hoping for the damn thing to come alive or something, but alas… But it does seem to attract flies. And on two occasions it shows us the image of some devil-dude's face projected in the big light-bulb at the top. Pretty cheesy.One hilarious scene in the basement has the son (who's got an incredible silly hair-cut, looking way too old for his age, and also over-acts just a tad bit too much) loosing control over a possessed chainsaw. Of course nobody gets hurt (hey, it's a made-for-TV movie, remember?), but it was one of the most funny scenes of the whole movie (seeing the little dude pull silly faces and all trying to control the chainsaw). Well, the ending is a hoot too. It's the Priest vs. the very static Haunted Lamp. Very funny. And then grandma (of all people!) just picks the darn thing up and throws it out of the window! Between all the family-drama, the youngest daughter gets possessed by the evil spirit too and seems to be able to talk to her dead dad (who we don't see throughout the movie, of course). The other tedious events in THE EVIL ESCAPES include one plumber getting killed by some Black Gooey Substance of Death and a teenager getting his hand cut off in the garbage disposal sink device thing (how imaginative!). Oh, and the lady who initially bought the ugly lamp, dies (after cutting her finger on it) from tetanus in the hospital. There, now you know it and you don't have any reason to watch this rubbish. Or wait a minute. You might still want to get a copy of this movie for free and fast forward to the end of it. It features a frozen frame shock ending of a… possessed cat! Complete with cheesy red-glowing eyes and all! Aside from that end-shot, seeing Zoe Trilling's cute face again as the teenage daughter Amanda, was the only joy I got out of this movie (she's credited as Geri Betzler, by the way, in this movie). Oh and yes, I almost forgot: A pet-bird also ends up in a toaster-oven. Haha. All the rest is boring, bad and silly crap. But since it was a made-for-TV thing from the late 80's, I'll try to be generous in my final rating.Aside from elderly ladies who have done nothing else with their lives other than being a housewife (and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, okay?), I can not recommend this movie to anybody. THE EVIL ESCAPES simply is the worst (and most un-eventful) movie of the whole series (at least in book). You want to know what I thought was the best one? Guess what…? It's the re-make (from the original) made in 2005. And the one I had the most fun with? Probably part 2 THE POSSESSION (very loosely based on the real Defeo murders). That one goes so much over-the-top and then suddenly turns into a shameless EXORCIST rip-off. Recommended for those facts alone even.

This movie is just awful, but in a very fun way. We had a blast watching it, so watch it with a group of people and you will have a good time making fun of it. If you are looking for a drinking game, here it is...During the movie, they make a really big deal about the haunted floor lamp lighting by itself even though it is not plugged in. It happens a lot, trust me. Here are the rules: Every time the lamp turns itself on and does the spooky glow thing, everyone in the room has to say out loud at the same time, "Oh my God, the lamp lights by itself!", and take a drink. Put some emotion into it - it's fun. You better have a designated driver if you do this... the lamp really likes to light itself up.Have fun.