A twelve-year-old boy named Michael sees a monster kill his babysitter. Naturally, no one believes him. The kid is blamed for the murder, convicted, and sent to the nuthouse for fifteen years. When the now-grown Michael (Logan Lopez) is released, he tries to readjust to life on the outside. He has come to believe that a ghost named “Sickle”, the spirit thought to be the inspiration for the Grim Reaper, was the one responsible for the murder. A team of ghost hunters befriend the unlucky dude and trick him into returning to the scene of the crime so they can summon the evil spirit of Sickle.
Amityville: The Final Chapter is similar in a lot of ways to Halloween Ends, except it’s the kid who is blamed for the babysitter’s death and not the other way around. It’s also kind of like Mr. Harrigan’s Phone as there is a subplot where our hero is paid by a rich old man for conversation. I only mention these other movies because despite the stigma of being a fake Amityville flick, The Final Chapter is just about as good, if not better than those big-name films.
Although it has a cheap look about it, (most of) the performances are pretty solid. Lopez in particular, is quite good in the lead. I especially liked the sequence when he is released from prison accompanied by an over the top ‘70s-style folk ballad. Thanks to his performance, I hung in there with the movie longer than I anticipated. The frequent stalling tactics, and the fact that nothing supernatural really happens until late in the game was a little frustrating. It also didn’t help that the “Sickle” character just looked like a dude in a mask from Spirit Halloween. While it didn’t quite stick the landing, Lopez kept me watching.
Oh, and if you already couldn’t guess, this has nothing to do with the Amityville movies. (You can tell because the font for the opening title doesn’t match the font used elsewhere in the credits.) Maybe that was for the best. Sometimes, with these things, the further away you get from the Amityville lore, the better off you are as it frees you up to do your own thing.
AKA: Sickle.
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