Daddy Veto

Em has been wanting to watch The Amityville Horror. It had been a long, long time since I'd seen it, and I saw it was rated R.

I'm not one of those Dads who shows his eleven year olds R rated movies as a rule. But the ratings system is so ridiculous, I've seen PG movies (and, come to that, prime time TV commercials) that aren't appropriate for my kids. Yet a couple of boobs and the movie is rated R. I don't care if Em sees boobs. And in the 1970s, a topless scene for any attractive female star was de rigueur, something I appreciated greatly in my early adolescence.

I requested it from the library but said I'd have to preview it. My Dad used to do this same annoying thing. What I didn't realize was I'd gotten a remake.

It struck me that the women, especially Melissa George and Rachel Nichols, were dressed in styles that would fit with 1979 but would easily fly in 2007 as well. I had this little script about fashion repeating itself running through my head before I realized that the picture quality didn't say 1979.

I was also impressed by the special effects, there was a remarkable lack of cheesy, ill-defined effects. This movie, in fact, gave me the willies.

Big time. I mean, it was skillfully done, the kind of shit that makes you spill your drink.

Plus, I remember reading a critique of the 1979 film by Stephen King, where he talks about the resonance with the audience because they can relate to the financial stress angle. They kept that in the remake, the sense that they were getting in way over their heads even with the amazing discount a mass murder put on the asking price of the house.

In fact, debt is the monster of the house. It's what makes George say unconscionable things, it's what splits up the young couple. Only massive money fights would make a dude in the basement with Melissa George on the third floor.

Even the way George insists on toughing it out, both for his wife and to show her how wrong she was, the failure to cut and run, etc. Wow.

But Em doesn't need to watch this. It's way freaky, and it deals with more stepfather issues than would be healthy for a kid who just got a stepfather.

It's a solid reamke, though. Not sure if the 1979 one would hold up, but I'm not sure I'm willing to screen it to see if Em could watch THAT version.