Amityville 1992: It's About Time [1992]

An attempt to revive the horror franchise, with a haunted clock from the famous mansion exerting an evil influence over the family of architect Stephen Macht. Savaged by a supernaturally-influenced dog, Macht becomes bedridden and increasingly tetchy, while his daughter turns into a hyodenish slut who tempts her boyfriend to his death by mutation in a pit of ooze and makes incestuous advances to her metealhead brother.

Despite an overfamiliar plot, the film has a few imaginative touches as the clock slows down or speeds up so simple actions seem to take hours or time stops entirely. Reasonably well-acted with witty dialogue, this is mainly an excuse for minor but well-executed slime effects, but there are a few stray moments of subtlety from director Tony Randel, best known for Hellbound: Hellraiser II, as when the heroine discovers the model of the housing development Macht is working is now covered with lit?up replicas of the familiar Amityville house, complete with gravestones and hanging corpses.
KIM NEWMAN

First published in this form here.

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