| Amityville II: The Possession | |
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| Date of Release: | September 24, 1982 |
| Followed by: | Amityville 3-D |
Amityville II: The Possession is a 1982 Mexican-American co-production supernatural horror independent film directed by Damiano Damiani. The screenplay by Tommy Lee Wallace is based on the novel Murder in Amityville by the parapsychologist Hans Holzer. It is a loose prequel to The Amityville Horror (1979), set at 112 Ocean Avenue and featuring the fictional Montelli family, loosely based on the DeFeo family. The cast includes Burt Young in one of his rare darker roles, as he plays an abusive and sadistic father/husband. A remake titled The Amityville Murders was released in 2018.
Plot[]
In 1974, the Montelli family, an Italian American family formed by Anthony Montelli and his wife, Dolores, move into the house of their dreams with their children, Sonny, Patricia, Mark, and Janice ("Jan"). Things go well at first, but everything changes after discovering a tunnel in the basement leading into the house from an unknown place.
An evil presence is shown to be lurking within, unknown to the family. Unusual and paranormal activities occur, such as unknown forces banging on the door at night when nobody is outside and an ugly demonic message painted on the wall of Janice's room. For the latter, Anthony blames and beats his children, Jan and Mark, then beats Dolores for intervening, resulting in a fight between the entire family. Concerned by these developments, Dolores tries to have the local Catholic priest, Father Frank Adamsky, bless the house, but an argument breaks out within the family shortly after Adamsky arrives. After Anthony shouts and hits the younger children, Adamsky tries to intervene but Anthony rudely orders him to leave. To Dolores' mortification, Adamsky leaves, disgusted at Anthony's behavior. He finds his car door open and the Bible on the passenger seat torn to pieces. The situation inside the home continues to deteriorate; Anthony is shown to be strict, abusive, sacrilegious towards the Catholic faith, violent towards his family and forcing his wife to have sex with him against her will. Dolores tries to keep things together for the youngest children. Also, Sonny and Patricia are revealed to have started to have sexual feelings for each other, due to mutual attraction that neither can act on.
The family goes to church with Anthony, so he can apologize for being rude to Adamsky. Sonny stays at home, claiming to feel unwell. He soon hears an alarming noise and goes downstairs to get his father's gun. He hears demonic laughter and follows it to the tunnel in the basement. The unseen presence pursues a frightened Sonny to his room, and he then falls victim to a demonic possession. Now possessed, Sonny approaches Patricia to play a game with him. They pretend he is a famous photographer and she is his nude model. Patricia agrees to pose naked and the pair end up having incestuous sex. Patricia is then seen at confession, confessing the act and telling the priest that he does it to "hurt God" but not quite revealing who the culprit is.
Sonny becomes more sinister and demonic, as his face starts contorting demonically. Startled, he tries to keep his family away, but is unsuccessful due to the demon's influence. On Sonny's birthday, he isolates himself from his birthday party, calls Patricia and she goes to check on him. She tells him she does not feel guilty about what they have been doing, but due to his demonic phases and his body's gradual demonic contortions, Sonny sends her away, using foul language. Patricia runs away crying, and she tries to tell Adamsky that she thinks Sonny is possessed, but he does not respond. Later that night, the evil spirit tells Sonny to "kill them all". Sonny goes and gets his father's rifle, and shoots his parents, Jan, Mark, and Patricia, after hunting her down.
The next day the cops arrive, pick up the bodies, and Sonny is arrested. He lies and says he does not recall killing his family. Adamsky then realizes that Sonny is possessed and asks the bishops if he can perform an exorcism on him, but they refuse, not believing him. He takes it upon himself to perform an exorcism, without the support of the Catholic Church. After freeing him from police custody, he takes Sonny to church. Sonny attacks him, and escapes after seeing the crosses on the doors. Adamsky runs after Sonny, traces him to the house, and performs the exorcism, releasing Sonny's soul. As the cops arrive, Adamsky asks Father Tom to take Sonny away from him. Tom takes Sonny outside, where the police arrest him and take him back into custody. It is revealed that the demon has transferred itself into Adamsky. Father Adamsky's fate and his whereabouts are left unknown, and eventually the house is put up for sale.