AMITYVILLE 3-D (1983) ** ½

In what’s probably the best of the original Amityville movies, Tony Roberts stars as a writer who moves in to the Amityville house and people start dropping like flies.  When his daughter drowns, he hires a parapsychologist played by Robert (Land of the Dead) Joy to investigate.  The home video and TV versions don’t preserve the excellent theatrical 3-D effects.  I remember seeing this in the theater as a kid and loved seeing flies, a flaming Candy Clark, and fire breathing basement dwelling demons in glorious 3-D.  This third installment has nothing to do with Jay Anson’s best selling book and was not based on any so-called “facts”, so anything goes.  (It owes more to Poltergeist than the original movie.)  Since it’s solely a work of fiction it doesn’t have to adhere to the rules of reality and actually frees up director Richard Fleisher to cut loose.  I mean in the end the house blows up!  Co-starring Tess Harper, Lori (Full House) Loughlin and a young Meg Ryan (who talks about having sex with a ghost).  Fleisher next directed Conan the Destroyer for producer Dino De Laurentiis.  This was the last Amityville movie to receive a theatrical release.  (Until the 2005 remake that is.)  

AKA:  Amityville:  The Demon.