James Olson gives the performance of a lifetime in this underrated film that is, ultimately, about self-sacrifice as well as the ongoing battle between good and evil. When we term ''good and evil'' here it is, of course, the purest of goods (Christianity's vision of God) versus the foulest and darkest of evils - the devil. And Olson's character is the priest fighting the good fight; in a much more involved way than even those in The Exorcist. It is undeniable that this movie owes a lot to the latter, its predecessor in this genre that pretty much set the standards for this sort of thing. However, here, in great part due to Olson's performance, we get to truly feel for the character of the priest and we truly admire the sacrifice that he makes in the end (we warned you about spoilers - didn't you? However, you should have seen this one coming from a mile away...) Let us simply put it this way: after seeing this film, you will not think of priests as cowardly, frail dudes in frocks anymore!
Jack Magner (not to be confused with Jack Wagner nor with Michael O'Keefe, whom he resembles considerably more) is equally impressive in the role of the possessed boy that started the entire Amityville legend. His performance evokes that of Andrew Stevens in *The Fury* but is ten times more believable than that due to various factors that would take too much time to elaborate here. Suffice it to say, this is a frighteningly convincing case of possession, if you suspend your disbelief for a second and ignore the few technical flaws, here and there, throughout this film which is, overall, extremely adequate and effective.
Cast member Rutanya Alda (who was also in The Fury, incidentally) glows in the few minutes of screen time that she has. Most viewers will recognize only one other cast member though: Burt Young, famous for his supporting role in the Rocky movies.
There have been a number of films made about demonic possession in the last few years in Hollywood - none were as scary and well-done as this one is in its simplicity and straight-forwardness. This is much more than some scary fare to watch on Halloween night: don't be fooled by the programmers over at specialty channels such as Space The Imagination Station - they actually lack imagination there.
This film is *The French Connection* of horror films.
Jack Magner (not to be confused with Jack Wagner nor with Michael O'Keefe, whom he resembles considerably more) is equally impressive in the role of the possessed boy that started the entire Amityville legend. His performance evokes that of Andrew Stevens in *The Fury* but is ten times more believable than that due to various factors that would take too much time to elaborate here. Suffice it to say, this is a frighteningly convincing case of possession, if you suspend your disbelief for a second and ignore the few technical flaws, here and there, throughout this film which is, overall, extremely adequate and effective.
Cast member Rutanya Alda (who was also in The Fury, incidentally) glows in the few minutes of screen time that she has. Most viewers will recognize only one other cast member though: Burt Young, famous for his supporting role in the Rocky movies.
There have been a number of films made about demonic possession in the last few years in Hollywood - none were as scary and well-done as this one is in its simplicity and straight-forwardness. This is much more than some scary fare to watch on Halloween night: don't be fooled by the programmers over at specialty channels such as Space The Imagination Station - they actually lack imagination there.
This film is *The French Connection* of horror films.