AMITYVILLE RIPPER (2023) ** ½

Well, it finally happened.  They’re tearing down the old Amityville Horror house.  But before they do that though, a bunch of stuff from the haunted home is going up for auction.  Marianne (Kelsey Ann Baker) is a hot goth chick who wins a knife owned by Jack the Ripper from the auction.  The night of Y2K, she invites her friend Annie (Angel Nichole Bradford) over for a seance so they can communicate with the killer’s spirit.  That also happens to be the night when Marianne’s obnoxious brother is throwing a party.  Predictably, it doesn’t take long before the resurrected Jack begins cutting up the partygoers. 

After watching Amityville Frankenstein, what has to be the worst fake Amityville movie I’ve seen thus far, I was ready to swear them off entirely.  Of course, that didn’t happen, but I must say that Amityville Ripper went a long way to restoring my faith in the genre.  While it’s not exactly what you’d traditionally call a “good” movie, it knows exactly what it is and who its audience is.  It aims low and hits the target more often than not.  More fake Amityville movies should take a page out of its playbook. 

The opening scene nicely sets the tone.  It’s made up of a lot of news reports and faux YouTube videos that humorously mention some of the more outlandish premises for fake Amityville movies, which I guess in effect, makes everything that ever happened in an Amityville movie unauthorized or otherwise canon.  The fun really begins when the film stops trying to be a typical Amityville rip-off and starts winking at the camera.  In fact, at some point it stops winking and begins blinking in Morse code with the never-ending line of fourth wall breaks. 

Amityville Ripper tries to do for fake Amityville movies what Scream did for the slasher film as it’s simultaneously a critique and an example of the genre.  The surprising thing about it is that it hits more than it misses.  Sure, many of the humorous touches land closer in Scary Movie territory, but at least its heart is in the right place.  I will say you probably have to sit through about fifty fake Amityville flicks to feel this way.  Then again, speaking as someone who has done just that, I can say with confidence this belongs in the upper echelon of Amityville rip-offs.  Heck, as uneven as most of it is, it still manages to be better than most of the “official” entries in the Amityville series. 

Near the end, a character says, “I think I’m done with Amityville movies”.  I’m happy to report that I am not.