"The Amityville house now has a mojo..."

A reconstituted family moves into the haunted house of Amytiville, rebuilt from the ashes left after a fire a few years ago. The children have a cold relationship with each other and things worsen when the house starts playing tricks on them to make them hate each other even more.

Soon after the father offers what proves to be a voodoo dollhouse to his daughter, objects start to fly, the fireplace lights by magic and people start getting hurt.

There is a lot of money that can be made by a franchise based on a supposedly true haunted house. There is even more to be made by featuring its chimney, especially when the movie that features the house has such a low budget.

The film isn’t that bad compared to some others in the series but haunted houses must be the sub-genre the least well exploited. Amityville: Dollhouse has the honour of imitating Poltergeist to perfection. There is nothing really violent, no atrocious deaths, no suspense and no surprises.

The idea behind the dollhouse is divine. It is badly used, however. The actress who plays Claire, Starr Andreeff, has the charm that only one out of every thousand mature actresses has. She made me want to go and watch the movies she made when she was younger.