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About as good as 3-D, 7 July 2007
6/10
Author: Cole_Early

This one is probably one of the better sequels, and though it doesn't really live up to the classic standards, it sure packs a punch.

Unlike the fourth and seventh and eighth sequels, this one delivers far more suspense, though a lot of it is typical and expected, such as the declining sanity of the buyer of anything related to Amityville. But it's well-done/well-put-together, and the idea of an Amityville-possessed clock is far more ominous than a stupid lamp, mirror, or a doll-house, you've got to admit.

It even has some real gore thrown in there... what a surprise... Also, this is the first Amityville that really relies on lies, cons and deceits of people and how things like that can tear families and attachments into shreds.

It's a decent sequel, I suppose.

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Really good direct to video effort. Creepy concept., 15 October 2006
6/10
Author: insomniac_rod from Noctropolis

A decent straight to video sequel to a "popular" franchise. "It's About Time" centers on a possessed clock that happens to be from the original Amytiville house. A family with intentions to renew their life, move to a beautiful mansion. Unfortunately for them, they buy the possessed clock and that's when things start to get horrible.

This is probably the second best sequel in the franchise, following "The Possession", a sinister sequel. "It's About Time" obviously centers on the possession topic and has the occasional poltergeist scenes provoked by the clock's evil glow.

This movie scared me when I first rented it (I was 8 or 9) because it has a dark, creepy atmosphere. The mansion is scary enough for a movie like this. The f/x are below average but it's normal for a direct to video sequel.

If you are a fan of haunted house or possession flicks, this is a very good option that exploits the greatness of direct to video.

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Bog-standard horror in the most bog-standard of houses, 3 May 2000
Author: King_Opossum from somewhere much higher than you...

Being number six in a long line of AMITYVILLE sequels, AMITYVILLE 1992 (well it seems like it could actually be!) was never really going to be any good. Supernatural horror sequels never really seem to work, no matter how much of a classic the originals were. Look how the OMEN series depleted rapidly in quality, gasp as Freddie Kreuger becomes less of the ultimate evil and more like that old geography teacher that everyone used to play up to - vomit as the EXORCIST franchise went from classic to jurassic... Number six just doesn't sound good!

And IT'S ABOUT TIME really doesn't do anything to argue this matter. Some nice ideas are here, don't get me wrong, but the film just lollops along with a pace that starts to feel like time is stopping altogether! The only gratification I got (and the only reason why I held out) was the wonderful scene where the lovely Megan Ward experiences her 'para-sexual' awakening. Great cinema - I can't really complain!

So make of this review what you will - AMITYVILLE is not nearly as bad as some from this genre, and it is not entirely unenjoyable. Just plan something else to do at the same time - this film requires only a fraction of your attention (about 10 minutes halfway through actually!), so your brain might start to drum its bio-rythmical thumbs...

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A much needed breath of fresh air, 6 July 2008
8/10
Author: sgtking from United States

After the special effects heavy '3-D,' the hokiness of 'The Evil Escapes,' and the barely related 'The Amityville Curse,' the haunted house series that started in 1979 either needed a permanent rest or a shot of life in the arm. In 1992 Republic Pictures released the sixth installment straight to video and after the blandness that was the previous installment I don't imagine it was met with much enthusiasm. And lets be honest, the world really didn't need another 'Amityville' sequel did it? But to the surprise of some viewers this sequel was actually not too bad. In fact it's actually rather good; more than it has any right to be.

Pros: Has some of the best writing in the series. Strong performances from everyone involved. A really nice score from Daniel Licht, who kind of made a career out scoring direct-to-video sequels in the 90s. Moves at a fine pace. Some creative and graphic death scenes. Excellent work on the special and make-up effects. A couple really intense and scary sequences. Predictable is not a word I would use when describing this film. Cool twist ending.

Cons: Though not a bad directing job it's nothing spectacular, especially compared to Tony Randel's work on 'Hellbound: Hellraiser II.' The finale is exciting, but also maybe a bit too over-the-top. Lacks the feeling of dread and sharp scares of the first two.

Final thoughts: I'd always enjoyed the first four films in this series, but never thought that highly of them. I also never expected this sequel to be as good as it is. Nowadays the majority of sequels that go straight to the video store shelf aren't watchable and a complete waste of time and money, but 'Amityville 1992' is one of those rare examples of one done right.

My rating: 4/5

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Better than it should be, 2 April 2008
Author: slayrrr666 (slayrrr666@yahoo.com) from Los Angeles, Ca

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Amityville 1992: It's About Time" is a lot better than expected for one of these entries.

**SPOILERS**

Returning home from work, Jacob Sterling, (Stephen Macht) shows his girlfriend Andrea Livingstone, (Shawn Weatherly) and his family, Lisa, (Megan Ward) and Rusty, (Damon Martin) a new clock that he picked up from his work. As they continue on with their lives, they start to notice that there's something wrong with the house, and when he is attacked by a local dog, he is bed-ridden and forces her to bring her friend Dr. Leonard Stafford, (Jonathan Penner) to come out to help her. As the weird events surrounding the family continue, and soon start to branch out to others in the community, they realize that the incidents are caused by the clock, which was brought along from a house in Amityville, New York that once belonged to a deranged teacher who's soul had possessed everything in the house. Realizing the danger, they try to leave the house before they all succumb to the house's evil powers.

The Good News: This one here is a lot better than expected. One of the good things about it is the film has a couple really great cheesy scenes that work wonderfully. The trick with the light-switch in the living room at the beginning is pretty cool, mainly due to what the room switches over into, a call-out to the original with goo that appears in people's bed one minute and not the next, a really tense moment where a game of sibling roughhousing turns violent and much more. There's also a fantastic sequence where, as one character waits for a microwave to finish, it stops and another character appears suddenly in front of them, going off on a rant about the effectiveness of a particular firearm before turning it on them to question whether or not anything sexual happened between a former couple, then is revealed to all have been a subconscious hallucination. It's big one, though, is when the changed daughter lures the boyfriend down into the basement to sleep with him, only to have the tables turned in a sequence so glorious that the end result has to be seen. It also decides to give way to the sleaze when desired, with the simply superb sequence where, dressed in a night-gown, she proceeds to check herself out in a full-length mirror, and after a couple seconds, the mirror-image begins doing other activities, and soon after pleasuring herself, reaches out of the mirror and repeats it on her in person. It's sleazy and certainly leaves a wonderful impression on it. There's even a pretty nifty, sweat-filled sex-scene that keeps the sleaze moniker intact through most of the film. Aside from the cheese, it has some good stuff in it, most notably the realistic and brutal dog-mauling. This one is incredibly realistic, due to the dog continually going after the same wound time and time again, the absolute refusal to let go and bring the target back closer to it when it tries to escape and ends with it showing a lot of brutality. It's a really great, fantastic scene that really has a lot going it. The last big part in the film that works is the cheesy deaths, which are pretty bloody. There's a fire-poker through the leg, a radio's power cord shoved into the mouth and electrocutes, leaving a dark, festering wound around the point of insertion, impaled in the chest and a rope-hanging, among others to get some nice blood and gore in here. All these here make the film more than enjoyable.

The Bad News: This one here doesn't have a whole lot of flaws, but they are there. The fact that this one is still a really big cheese-fest is one of the main concerns with this one. It's not completely serious, at least in tone, despite what is offered as being definitely cheesy in appearance, or at least in execution. The conclusion to the basement sequence is quite a perfect example, and is one of the main reasons as to why this one will score lower than most of the other flaws. The ending is another small factor, using a time-honored trick to end it that can be seen coming from a mile away and doesn't have any differences away from the usual. The slow, more methodical pace is something that could've been fixed, mainly since it would've shortened it a bit since there's no reason why this goes on for as long as it does, but otherwise, these here are the film's flaws.

The Final Verdict: A lot better than expected, this one here has a lot more going on for it than the others and is one of the better entries. Give this one a shot if the series is entertaining or if there's something in it that appeals to you, otherwise then stick away from this one as there's a lot better ones out there.

Rated R: Violence, Language, animal violence, Nudity and a mild sex scene

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It's about relationships (including temporal), 30 October 2006
8/10
Author: Brandt Sponseller from New York City

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

For the sixth installment, the Amityville series is back in California, as in Amityville: The Evil Escapes ("Amityville 4"). This time, Jacob Sterling (Stephen Macht), a single father and an architect, brings the "Amityville Curse" home with him by way of a possessed clock that he picked up on a business trip to Amityville. The fact that the clock is the source of the burgeoning evil our cast of characters encounters is one that they don't really figure out for themselves until near the end of the film, but it's not a spoiler to reveal that to readers, because it's clear from the very first scene that the clock means trouble. So this is one of those films where the audience will be egging characters on to figure out something that the audience already knows, and which it often seems the characters should more easily discern.

Director Tony Randel seems to have chosen the setting of the film to invite associations with the Poltergeist series. The suburban neighborhood of Amityville 1992: It's About Time, or "Amityville 6", looks very similar to the neighborhood in Poltergeist; for all I can remember of Poltergeist at the moment, it may very well be the same location. But it doesn't matter if it isn't, the desire is still there to latch on to same kinds of archetypes, so that evil invades generic U.S. suburbia, with the hope of making the fears more relatable and immediate for the audience. That's not the only film reference that Randel makes. One of the odder and more enjoyable ones, for which I still haven't figured out the symbolism, is a fairly literal quoting of Ed Wood's famous footage of Bela Lugosi in front of Lugosi's home, walking out of the front door with a black cape on (of course), and slowly going over to smell a flower. Wood shot the footage without a specific use in mind. It ended up in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). Randel recreates the scene (minus the flower in a direct way) with Iris Wheeler (Nita Talbot), one of the more interesting, although a bit underused, elements of Amityville 6. The appropriately named Iris is something of a "seer". She has visions of evil invading the Sterling household almost immediately. Later on, she functions as a plot facilitator in a number of useful ways--she provides a link to a more esoteric, supernatural world while simultaneously anchoring, catalyzing and supporting our more grounded/realistic characters' mounting beliefs, she provides important historical information, and she is the first to be dispatched by the evil presence. Her death scene manages to be amusingly ironic, and maybe even a bit absurd, but without bringing the film into a humorous mode; it veers towards but doesn't quite visit campiness, as do many subsequent events.

The twisted relationship dynamics in the film are particularly interesting. Jacob returns from his trip to Amityville to greet his children and Andrea Livingston (Shawn Weatherly), a former live-in lover who was watching the kids. Jacob quickly reinitiates their physical relationship, but Andrea makes no bones about wanting to get back to her boyfriend, Dr. Leonard Stafford (Jonathan Penner). Jacob suggests that Andrea have Leonard stay at the house, and eventually, this does happen. Meanwhile, Jacob is supernaturally devolving into a George Lutz-styled monster, from the same forces that got to George, but Jacob is also physically transforming--or deteriorating more accurately--in a more literal way. There is complex love triangle material between the three throughout much of the film, and Randel executes most of it so it works on two levels--as a straightforward but twisted soap opera and as horror with a strong psychological edge. This is reflected in Leonard's job--he's a psychiatrist, and appropriate to one of the popular stereotypes about psychiatrists, Leonard is the character who falls apart psychologically in response to the Amityville curse.

The Amityville force has often been about unhinging deeply suppressed "dark" feelings and desires in its victims. That works as a catalyst for the twisted relationship dynamics, including between Jacob's kids, Rusty (Damon Martin) and Lisa (Megan Ward). Lisa is the one with more hedonistic suppressed desires, which might seem surprising given the initial character development of the two kids, but on the other hand, Rusty is more outwardly expressive from the beginning, so maybe it's not so surprising after all.

The more purely supernatural aspects of Amityville 6 are both a bit understated and charming in their own way. As suggested by the subtitle, "It's About Time", time and especially time manipulation provides the theme for much of the supernatural material. This enables characters to be placed in alternate realities and it gives Randel and his writers another way to explore elements of characters' subconscious minds, including their fears, of course. Maybe more could have been done to work the time theme into the film in various surrealistic ways, as when that material occurs, it's certainly one of the films' strengths, but the decision to take a subtler track and stay closer to soap-operatic realism wasn't a bad one.

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won't make for high brow film discussion, but silly fun nonetheless, 2 September 2006
7/10
Author: boy_in_red from United Kingdom

Okay I admit it. The Amityville movies are definitely one of my guilty pleasures in life- but hey everyone has a vice right? I just genuinely get excited before I'm about to see another, and so far (with the exception of the incoherent snooze-fest that is Amityville 3/ 3-D) they've all been pretty entertaining.

So they aren't highly polished works of art, the standard of acting is variable to say the least, and the series did very quickly descend to made for TV/ straight to video territory. But I find the films to be a lot of fun, and considering the sheer number of sequels (seven and a remake to date) for the most part each film does manage to bring something new to the series, and considering the original concept of a haunted house doesn't lend much in the way of creative flexibility, it has been fun to watch the different ways in which the subject matter is approached.

Amityville 1992 : It's About Time (or simply Amityville: It's About Time as it is known on DVD) continues the theme of items from the original Amityville house ending up in new households, only to wreak havoc, as introduced in Amityville: The Evil Escapes. In this case it is an antique clock, which the audience will discover has a history of its own. However, rather than go for the obvious "and then things get thrown around the house and the walls bleed route" the writers have decided to play with the theme of time- we see glimpses of the past, time slows down and speeds up, and events are undone. Yes the premise of course is ultimately silly- time warps don't fit comfortably with Amityville lore, but it does make for a nice twist in the saga.

I liked the fact that characters were flawed also- our heroine Lisa (played convincingly by Megan Ward is introduced to us as a woman who is cheating on her psychiatrist boyfriend with an ex she knows she shouldn't get involved with/ Okay it's not groundbreaking stuff, but for the genre of horror it's a nice move away from the virginal stereotypical protagonist. In many other horror films she wouldn't be the female lead, she'd be the prime victim.

Expect some unintentionally hilarious dialogue, one of the charms of the Amityville horror movies, and look out for an interesting death scene which reminds me of the Final Destination films- you think you've escaped death by oh no you haven't. In fact it's delivered with (I hope) a real tongue in cheek sense of humour- you'll know what I mean when you see how the poor character is finished off! So to summarise- silly fun that's certainly worth renting. If you've seen the other sequels you'll know what to expect- it won't make for high brow film discussion, but it'll entertain for a couple of hours, and make you laugh a couple of times too.

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And on and on and on and on...., 26 February 2006
4/10
Author: mutty_mcflea from Bristol, UK

It might be about time (Yeah? Geddit?) but I can't see too many people crapping themselves waiting for this fifth or sixth or what-the-hell-ever instalment in the seemingly never-ending 'Amityville' series. Irritatingly, this one has some decent ideas but never makes use of them, while the slow build up is wasted thanks to short cuts in the story and a reliance on that most clichéd of horror movie characters, the batty neighbour who somehow knows exactly what's going on and fills in all the blanks. Almost as annoying is the film's insistence that its ending is clever, when anyone can tell it's utter cobblers. It's better than most other entries in the series, but then so is a kick in the balls.

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Pretty decent B horror movie..., 25 October 2005
8/10
Author: trancejeremy from St. Louis

I love B-horror movies. Ones that are not too gory, slightly campy. Amityville 3-D is one of my favorite all time movies.

So when I saw this out on DVD, I scooped it up. I wasn't sure what to expect.

It's actually quite decent.

This guy, the father of a family, brings home this clock. Which came from the Amityville house, but has an older history than that.

The family is a bit odd - you have the father and two children (both teenagers, one a metal-head guy and the other sort of a goody girl) and an ex-girlfriend of his, living with them. She apparently helps take care of the kids while he is a away. And she has a boyfriend, a stereotypical loafer wearing psychiatrist.

Anyway, various haunting type stuff happens. Much of it is time based, since it's focused around the clock. Most of this is pretty cool, actually. Also some stuff from the original movie, the black goo coming out of the ground/pipes stuff. And some stuff seems borrowed from the Omen series. And meanwhile, the father gets possessed. Sort of. But he's not really the focus of the movie. Basically each character gets equal time, with the main focus being the ex-girlfriend.

I really enjoyed it a lot. Not scary, but lots of stuff is different than you'd expect, or think what will happen. Surprisingly intelligent. Much better than the original movie.

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pretty good direct to video sequel, 30 April 2004
Author: (callanvass@hotmail.com) from victoria b.c canada

pretty good direct to video sequel is very entertaining suspenseful and bloody with awesome effects and steady direction and very good acting i really dug this sequel for a lot of reasons Megan Ward is HOT! she turned me on and wanted to see more of her it had lots of goo to like as well as with some bloody and good kills the plot was good and very unique until i see the original this is the best of the series by far because well made and just fun to watch and the cast is very amiable and once again Megan Ward is just awesome she is gorgeous! and very sexy this is also very stylish as is the directing by Tony Randel overall a gem i highly recommend this ***1/2 out of 5 a very cool ending too

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