Horror Movie Review: Amityville Prison (2017)

Trying to follow the Amityville movie timeline is a nightmare. There have been (as of October 2018) 21 movies with the Amityville title. However, many just took the Amityville title to try and drum up interest in their sub-standard horror. Even in some cases changing the title completely even though their film had absolutely nothing to do with Amityville or the original crime/movie.

1979 – The Amityville Horror
1982 – Amityville II: The Possession
1983 – Amityville 3D
1989 – Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes
1990 – The Amityville Curse
1992 – Amityville: It’s About Time
1993 – Amityville: A New Generation
1996 – Amityville Dollhouse
2005 – The Amityville Horror – Remake
2011 – The Amityville Haunting
2013 – The Amityville Asylum
2015 – Amityville Death House
2015 – The Amityville Playhouse
2016 – Amityville: Vanishing Point
2016 – The Amityville Legacy
2016 – The Amityville Terror
2016 – Amityville: No Escape
2017 – Amityville Exorcism
2017 – Amityville: The Awakening

Amityville Prison is one such film being originally called, Against the Night. This is a bad film. A very bad film and has absolutely nothing to do with Amityville.

The basic plot sees a group of friends get bored of their house party and sneak into an abandoned prison to do some ghost hunting. Cue pranks, bad camera footage, sex and eventually characters start going missing!

Is the prison actually haunted or is something much more sinister?

By time it’s revealed you’re very unlikely to care one bit. From the bad acting to the bad story, this is an absolute to chore to get through and if you’ve not switched off by the halfway point you’re a real trooper. Or you’re a glutton for punishment.

The lack of original ideas in this film is impossible to ignore. Everything…every scene, bit of dialogue and jump scare has been done countless and countless times before. It’s tiresome to see such little effort put in here.

If the opening house party scenes isn’t enough to make you realise how bad this movie is then once we arrive at the prison it all becomes perfectly clear. Shaky camera work and incredibly dark visuals makes it impossible to actually tell what is going on. It’s all so very pointless.

Amityville Prison AKA Against the Night is a movie you suffer through, not enjoy.