Review of Amityville III

Introduction

Back in the 80`s when video recorders became cheaply available, people stopped going to the cinema, instead preferring to to sit at home with a rented video. In order to meet this new demand for films, quality was regularly sacrificed in order to get new released on the shelves - to avoid having to write new plots, endless sequels would appear...

Now I used to thrive on b-horror movies, having viewed the entire horror collection of the local video store when I was a student, but going back to them now is a painful experience...

Video

I`ve already reviewed other releases from MIA, and I`m afraid to say that the visual quality hasn`t impressed me so far.

Amityville III is no exception, and possible even challenges for the title of "worst video transfer on DVD" award.

The picture is 4:3, grainy, dark, and of far lower quality than even a poor VHS home recording.

Abysmal.

Audio

The audio, like the video is of low quality.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack sound has very little range - it`s the sort of quality you would expect from a mono video recording, or perhaps a low quality recording from the radio onto ferric cassette.

Add muffled voices into the equation and you have a good match for the dreadful picture.

Features

You are joking surely?

Conclusion

Well, we`ve established that the video and audio are of the lowest quality imaginable, so is the movie good enough to ignore these failings?

Of course not! - it`s utter drivel.

Quite apart from the movie not being good enough to warrant a release on DVD, the picture and audio are a disgrace - making this possibly the least attractive DVD on the shelves this Christmas.

Unless you want a present for someone you really don`t like, avoid this at all costs. If you really want to watch Amityville III (and I really can`t imagine why), either get a cheap VHS version, or wait for it to appear on satellite TV. The DVD is just not worth it.