Amityville 1992: It's About Time (1992)

14% of critics liked it
(7 reviews)
46% of users liked it
(11,348 ratings)

Eschewing any connection with previous installments of the creatively strip-mined Amityville saga, this film is actually derived from one of a series of novels by John G. Jones and focuses on a mantle clock from the original Long Island horror-house which serves as a vessel of supernatural evil. A… More Eschewing any connection with previous installments of the creatively strip-mined Amityville saga, this film is actually derived from one of a series of novels by John G. Jones and focuses on a mantle clock from the original Long Island horror-house which serves as a vessel of supernatural evil. A real estate developer (Stephen Macht) purchases the clock in Long Island and brings it home to California, where it promptly anchors itself to the wall and begins to exert a nightmarish influence on the house and its inhabitants. As creepy phenomena and violent behavior run rampant through Macht's family, the occultist neighbor (Nita Talbot) begins to take notice -- but is killed in a freak accident shortly after discovering the secret of the clock's Satanic history. In a twist that echoes the original Amityville Horror, Macht succumbs to the clock's evil influence and turns on his family, just as his scale-model of a planned development is transformed into a block of very familiar-looking houses. Tony Randel's direction is remarkably restrained, allowing the horror to unfold gradually until the final act, where he pulls out all the stops in a style reminiscent of his earlier Hellbound: Hellraiser II. The script makes a valiant attempt to breathe new life into a long-dead franchise, but many interesting subplots fail to develop beyond their sketchy origins. The creepy inner workings of the clock are reminiscent of the ancient machinery of The Church or the vampire-bug-machine of Guillermo del Toro's Cronos, but little is done to explain their origins. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 35 min.
Directed By: Tony Randel
Genres: Horror

In Theaters: Jul 16, 1992 Wide
On DVD: Jul 16, 1992

Critic Reviews

Stefan Birgir Stefansson, sbs.is
Never trust a movie that has the year it was made incorperated into it's name

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Featured Audience Ratings

Anthony L

It's about time....they made a decent Amityville film, boom boom! I'm sure I'm not the first person to have said/thought that while watching the franchise. Adding the time-travel element to the series could have widened the possibilities endlessly, but alas, there still… More
It's about time....they made a decent Amityville film, boom boom! I'm sure I'm not the first person to have said/thought that while watching the franchise. Adding the time-travel element to the series could have widened the possibilities endlessly, but alas, there still doesn't seem to be a person working on an Amityville film with an ounce of originality. The biggest wasted opportunity of the franchise.
Cassandra M

Okay I admit it. The Amityville movies are definitely one of my guilty pleasures in life- but hey everyone has a vice right? I just genuinely get excited before I'm about to see another, and so far (with the exception of the incoherent snooze-fest that is Amityville 3/ 3-D)… More
Okay I admit it. The Amityville movies are definitely one of my guilty pleasures in life- but hey everyone has a vice right? I just genuinely get excited before I'm about to see another, and so far (with the exception of the incoherent snooze-fest that is Amityville 3/ 3-D) they've all been pretty entertaining. So they aren't highly polished works of art, the standard of acting is variable to say the least, and the series did very quickly descend to made for TV/ straight to video territory. But I find the films to be a lot of fun, and considering the sheer number of sequels (seven and a remake to date) for the most part each film does manage to bring something new to the series, and considering the original concept of a haunted house doesn't lend much in the way of creative flexibility, it has been fun to watch the different ways in which the subject matter is approached. Amityville 1992 : It's About Time (or simply Amityville: It's About Time as it is known on DVD) continues the theme of items from the original Amityville house ending up in new households, only to wreak havoc, as introduced in Amityville: The Evil Escapes. In this case it is an antique clock, which the audience will discover has a history of its own. However, rather than go for the obvious "and then things get thrown around the house and the walls bleed route" the writers have decided to play with the theme of time- we see glimpses of the past, time slows down and speeds up, and events are undone. Yes the premise of course is ultimately silly- time warps don't fit comfortably with Amityville lore, but it does make for a nice twist in the saga. I liked the fact that characters were flawed also- our heroine Lisa (played convincingly by Megan Ward is introduced to us as a woman who is cheating on her psychiatrist boyfriend with an ex she knows she shouldn't get involved with/ Okay it's not groundbreaking stuff, but for the genre of horror it's a nice move away from the virginal stereotypical protagonist. In many other horror films she wouldn't be the female lead, she'd be the prime victim. Expect some unintentionally hilarious dialogue, one of the charms of the Amityville horror movies, and look out for an interesting death scene which reminds me of the Final Destination films- you think you've escaped death by oh no you haven't. In fact it's delivered with (I hope) a real tongue in cheek sense of humour- you'll know what I mean when you see how the poor character is finished off! So to summarise- silly fun that's certainly worth renting. If you've seen the other sequels you'll know what to expect- it won't make for high brow film discussion, but it'll entertain for a couple of hours, and make you laugh a couple of times too.