Amityville 1992: It's About Time (1992)

Jacob Sterling brings home a mysterious clock from the infamous Amityville house, not knowing that it's haunted by demonic spirits.

Director:

Tony Randel

Writers:

John G. Jones (book), John G. Jones (story)

Stars:

Stephen Macht, Shawn Weatherly, Megan Ward

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Stephen Macht	...	Jacob
Shawn Weatherly	...	Andrea
Megan Ward	...	Lisa
Damon Martin	...	Rusty
Jonathan Penner	...	Leonard
Nita Talbot	...	Mrs. Wheeler
Dean Cochran	...	Andy
Terrie Snell	...	Mrs. Tetmann
Kevin Bourland	...	Officer #1
Margarita Franco	...	Officer #2
William Jackson	...	Officer #3 (as William B. Jackson)
Willie C. Carpenter	...	Doctor
Dick Miller	...	Mr. Andersen
Alan Berman	...	Van Driver
Dylan Milo	...	Baby Rusty

Storyline

When an old clock arrives at home as a gift, strange things begin to happen. The family that proudly assigned a privileged place to the clock in the living room, is unaware that this thing is a link to an old and evil house...

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Plot Keywords:

magical clock | demonic possession | brother sister relationship | supernatural power | suburb | 

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Taglines:

The Terror Returns With a Vengence

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for horror violence, sensuality and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 July 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Amityville 1992: It's About Time

Filming Locations:

24722 Cordillera Drive, Calabasas, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Steve White Productions,VPS Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Just like the fourth film of the series, Amityville: The Evil Escapes (1989), this film is also loosely based on the series of short stories titled "Amityville: The Evil Escapes" by John G. Jones.

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Goofs

(at around 46 mins) The yogurt lid disappears and reappears between shots when Leonard is in the kitchen.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jacob Sterling: Hi. I'm home.

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Connections

References La Jetée (1962)

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Soundtracks

YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS
Performed by Bang Gang
Written by John Scott Taft, Kjartan Ove Kristofferson and Scott Thomas Earl
Courtesy of Sinclair Records
(c) 1991 Bang Gang Music/BMG Songs Inc. (ASCAP)

User Reviews

A Welcome Improvement

'It's About Time' rehashes a concept last seen in 'Amityville IV: The Evil Escapes', in that an artifact from the infamous Long Island house is relocated into the home of another family, where it soon begins to take over their lives with its demonic intentions. Hardly surprising, given that John G. Jones was the scribe for both installments.

This, I have to say, is the better attempt, and it goes a long way towards rebuilding the damage done by the painful and indeed execrable 5th film, 'The Amityville Curse'. This time around, the artifact is a clock, and its hellish influence not only possesses both the house and its occupants (naturally), but plays around with time itself, breathing at long last some new ideas into the franchise. The tension is reasonably well-paced, allowing for a gradual build until all hell breaks loose.

At the same time however, 'Amityville 1992' still suffers from a fairly silly and uneven storyline, aggravated by sloppy editing choices that prevent the overall effort from meshing together seamlessly. Add to this some rather hammy acting from veteran performers Steven Macht and Nita Talbot, along with some just plain bloody awful acting from Jonathan Penner, and it becomes difficult to take the film seriously. Thankfully the principal lead is Shawn Weatherly, who avoids the obvious temptation the script offers to go over-the-top and gives a creditable performance under the circumstances, as does Damon Martin, in what looks to be his final film.

Nonetheless, 'It's About Time' makes a far better effort to remember its roots than its two predecessors. With minimal rewrites, IV and V could very easily just be standalone horror flicks, but the plot of VI rests upon the apparently again-destroyed Amityville house's past history. On the one hand, it has no conscious ties to the DeFeo murders, but in the universe of the film franchise, these were supposed to be influenced by the house's long-present demonic incumbents, and it is here where 'It's About Time' builds its story. In the process, it grafts yet another unnecessary centuries-old European explanation for its dark history which I didn't really buy into, but I can let it slide since new ground is being explored. After all, I also have to put aside the obvious fact that if this clock has been in the house all along, why does it only manifest its powers now? Yet this is the most interesting aspect of the film, and if anything, Jones should have really let fly with the time distortion element and tried harder to pull it together into what could have been an even better and possibly mind-bending tale.

At any rate, 'It's About Time' pulls the franchise out of the mire that the previous installment dumped it into. It's still fairly silly, but a great improvement nonetheless.