"Amityville" & "Lifeforce" on cable today

For those who'd like to know, the Sci-Fi channel is running a "three-peat" of Amityville movies this afternoon. "Amityville Horror" at 1:30 pacific (check local listings for times in other time zones), with "Amityville II: The Possession" (my personal favorite in the series and the film that legally defined the term "prequel" for litigation purposes) and the last theatrical film in the franchise "Amityville: The Demon" (a.k.a. "Amityville 3D") too follow.

Also, the Mystery Channel (I love this freakin' channel) will again be running the U.S. cut (which you just don't see very often anymore) of one of my favorite guilty pleasures, "Lifeforce" tonight at 9:30 Pacific. Sure it's truncated and incomprehensible (and heavily rescored), but if you're only familiar with the European cut, you should see what we here in the states had to show for this movie for 10+ years. Notice how anything meant to help explain what's going on has been excised. Feels like the same team that edited "Halloween 6" for theaters.

As I understand it, the version running on cable tonight is the "studio-tampered" version. For whatever reason, Tri-Star re-cut and (as a result of said cutting) had major chunks of the film rescored by Michael Kamen and some other composer whose name escapes me.

I think the difference between the running times of the original cut and the U.S. theatrical cut (the one on Mystery Channel tonight) is upwards of 20 to 25 minutes. Huge amounts of expository dialogue and major plot points were cut in favor of pace, scares and action. The result, if you give it a watch, is an incomprehensible madhouse. The type of film I like to refer to as a "Kitchen Sink Movie."

The expanded European cut is all you can get on DVD and home video at this point. The old video of the truncated version is still sitting on rental shelves, but I don't think you can buy it anymore. Believe me, this is a good thing.

Don't get me wrong, the longer cut isn't "Citizen Kane" either, but it makes a hell of a lot more sense. Still a great kitchen-sink / midnight movie. And if that Mathilda May were any cuter (or more naked for such long stretches of screen time) ... I just don't know what I'd do.

Regarding "Amityville 3D" and Meg Ryan: Yeah, she and Lori Loughlin are definitely reasons to watch. Ryan, interestingly enough, gets to tour the house while re-telling the story of the Defeo family murders. It's one of the better scenes in the film if I remember correctly. It's consistent with history, and the first film, but not consistent with "Amityville II" (which heavily fictionalized the murdered families' story and changed their names) and I think 2 and 3 were produced by the same people.

"The Possession" is cool in that it's a re-telling of the backstory, however fictionalized, until it becomes an Exorcist rip-off in the final reel.

"The Demon" is pretty bad. A low concept "Poltergeist" rip off with no basis in any of the novels or "true" stories. About the only cool thing about it (aside from the scene I've just mentioned) is that it's the last film to be set entirely in the house, and that they used the same location from one and two to shoot at. From here on it was haunted clocks, mirrors and doll houses.

WGON--

Glad you caught it. It really is a blast. Now you need to seek out the expanded edition and see what Hooper really meant. Like I said, it's available on VHS and DVD from MGM Home Video. It's a better film, not much better, but better none the less.

You'll find yourself saying "Oh, that's why that happens!" pretty often. It almost seemed like they consciously chose to cut out just about anything that helped explain any of the plot.

Weird.