I have a new AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING poster to show you. It's down below. But in making this post I got a bit obsessed with the bulls*t history of the new AMITYVILLE HORROR flick. If you're interested, I'll go through it all here.
Here is the sorted history of Blumhouse's AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING.
In December of 2013, we reported the new film was set to be a found footage flick called THE AMITYVILLE HORROR: THE LOST TAPES. A few days later we reported that the title had changed to just AMITYVILLE. The film was still set to be a found footage flick and was to be written and directed by Casey La Scala and Daniel Farrands. The flick even had a synopsis.
AMITYVILLE (found footage) synopsis:
An ambitious female television news intern, on the verge of breaking the most famous haunted house case in the world, leads a team of journalists, clergymen and paranormal researchers into an investigation of the bizarre events that will come to be known as "The Amityville Horror"… only to unwittingly open a door to the unreal that she may never be able to close.
Dimension Films had set a January 2, 2015, release date for the film.
Fast forward to March of 2014 and the flick was no longer found footage and had a whole new story. MANIAC's Franck Khalfoun was in talks to direct and a week later it was announced that Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bella Thorne had been cast. In September of 2014, we learned that the title had changed to AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING and we got or first look at the film via a bunch of screenshots. Then we got the trailer. Mind you this whole time the film's release (found footage or not) was still set for January 2, 2015.
Then Dimension pulled the flick from its January 2015 release date.
Later we learned that the film was to undergo reshoots. Supposedly there had been two separate screenings for AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. But the main issue was the ending. We then learned the film was getting a new-new title in the form of AMITYVILLE: THE REAWAKENING and that the flick had earned an R-rating for 'strong horror violence and for language'.
Then we got another trailer in February of 2016 and learned the film was set for an April 1st (yeah, right) release. Later in March learned the flick had been edited down to a PG-13 rating for "disturbing horror violence and terror, suggestive images, brief language, and thematic material."
Somewhere in there the title had changed BACK to AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING. Then the film was pulled from its April 1st release and pushed all the way to another January release in 2017. And, finally (?) the flick landed its current release date of June 30th, 2017.
Urgh. Whatever at this point. Anyhow, the film has been set back a whopping 30 MONTHS (that's 2 1/2 years) in total. But now the film is, for real, set to finally hit us on June 30th of this year.
Yeah. Right.
Anyhow all that said, here is a spooky new poster for the film. It looks like a bad straight to video movie from 2005. Why they just didn't put butt-naked Bella Thorne in front of those famous windows and call it a day, I'll never know. Sh*t. How old is Bella Thorne… Nevermind, she's 19. We're good.
AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING synopsis:
Belle, her little sister, and her comatose twin brother move into a new house with their single mother Joan in order to save money to help pay for her brother’s expensive healthcare. But when strange phenomena begin to occur in the house including the miraculous recovery of her brother, Belle begins to suspect her Mother isn’t telling her everything and soon realizes they just moved into the infamous Amityville house.
AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING is written and directed by Franck Khalfoun and stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bella Thorne, McKenna Grace, Cameron Monaghan, Kurtwood Smith, Taylor Spreitler, Thomas Mann, and Jennifer Morrison.
AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING hits theaters nationwide June 30, 2017.
Bella Thorne: 2017