Horror Movie Review: Amityvillenado (2026)

Amityvillenado. The best ‘Amityville’ film I’ve seen in years. Yes, I know how absurd that sounds, but what we have here is an entertaining experience that actually manages to link to the original horror, while being silly, self-aware, and funny in places.

Co-written and co-directed by Paul Tucker and Jeff Van Gerwen, Amityvillenado stars Trey Ball, Jib Haddan, Elizabeth McCoy, Clay Aleman, and Will Debeest.

There’s something sinister going on in Amityville, and it’s having a nasty effect on the weather. It all comes back to the DeFeo house, aka 112 Ocean Avenue, aka the Amityville house. Where, following the off-screen destruction of the house, a great evil has been unleashed and now the town must deal with soul-sucking sentient tornados.

This is not a joke.

Trey and Jib are best friends who have come from out of town to spend the weekend there. The former, so he can go to the Skull Crusher concert, the latter, so he can spend some time relaxing. Alas, all their plans go to hell when they inevitably get caught up in a spate of deaths that seem to be weather related. Meteorologist June Weathers is convinced something supernatural is going on, and eventually teams up with Trey, Jib, Officer Lipshits, and priest-turned-paranormal investigator O’Haharan to get to the bottom of things.

Will they be able to put a stop to the freak weather and send the evil back to where it came from? How many fart and poop jokes are too many? Will anyone but me care that members of the death metal band BRAT appear in the film?

As I said at the start, Amityvillenado isn’t a film taking itself seriously and is all the better for it. Yet that doesn’t mean it doesn’t try. For starters, it does what few other Amityville film’s do now, and references numerous entries in the franchise, including the real-life DeFeo murders and Lutz family whose supernatural story started this entire thing off. It’s hard to not be impressed by this, especially when the film is managing to refer to the entries like Mt. Misery Road. Which is still one of the worst Amityville films I’ve ever seen.

It’s not all references though, Amityvillenado has its own identity, even if the story is messier than I would have liked. I don’t mind the fact that we spend more time with characters then expected, and the film does try to give everyone a certain amount of clear development. Alas, the problem with this is that it’s in a film called Amityvillenado and inevitably, it bloats the runtime and the cast aren’t quite up to the task of making it feel worthwhile.

How long should a film like this be? 70 minutes? 75? 80 maximum? 110 minutes is shocking and there is no denying that most will feel the runtime too. Iffy acting, bad effects, stilted dialogue, and unfunny jokes are forgivable, being this bloated is not.

Still, I found myself enjoying it, even if a lot of that enjoyment came from the fact that I was expecting just another pile of garbage. One using the IP to draw in unexpected viewers and in the end, it wasn’t that. When it comes to this franchise, this is what helps makes Amityvillenado stand out. The fact that it is an overall decent film too makes it a modern entry worth checking out.