An explosion at a chemical factory in Amityville causes a cloud of pollution to hang over the town. A stormfront moves in, and soon Amityville is drenched in acid rain. Citizens unlucky enough to be out and about in the storm get turned into melty zombies when the poisonous precipitation comes into contact with their skin. Amityville police officers, who are already dealing with the arrival of a psycho prisoner to their stationhouse, try to stand their ground when the zombie menace tries to invade their precinct.
Amityville Uprising is basically Assault on Precinct 13 crosspollinated with a zombie movie. Unfortunately, it never quite lives up to that pitch. I liked the fact that they made acid rain the cause of the zombie outbreak, but that’s about the only novel touch in the film. Ultimately, it just takes far too long to get going and there are way too many moving parts and unnecessary supporting characters that gum up the works. It’s also padded with a lot of news report footage featuring an anchor who keeps yammering on and on about the acid rain. This stuff is especially gratuitous and could’ve easily been excised to make way for more zombie action.
If you can wade through the talky first and second acts, you’ll be treated to some decent face ripping and body melting effects. Too bad the finale is rushed, especially when compared to the lethargic set-up. While I appreciate the attempt to flesh out some of the characters, writer/director Thomas J. (The Amityville Moon) Churchill completely fumbles the ball when it comes to the sluggish pace. He also fails to stick the landing with the downbeat ending. Still, all things considered, for a low budget zombie flick (as well as a fake Amityville movie), Amityville Uprising isn’t terrible or anything.
Churchill was also responsible for another fake Amityville movie, The Amityville Harvest, which I’m sure I’ll review sooner than later.
AKA: The Amityville Rising.
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