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When George and Kathy Lutz find a beautiful house that is within their price range, they are delighted, and quickly move in with Kathy's three children from a former marriage. The couple are aware that the house was the scene of a mass murder some months before, but are not unduly concerned, believing that the house cannot harbour any evil as a result of someone else's wrongdoings. However, within a few days of moving in, George in particular becomes aware of an uncomfortable feeling within the house, and his mood quickly changes from laidback to aggressive. And daughter Chelsea starts talking to a little girl who no-one else can see. Kathy quickly begins to realise that her new life is falling to pieces before her eyes. Is there any solution to their problems?

As a fan of the horror/thriller genre, it is perhaps shocking that I have never seen The Amityville Horror before, either the original, made back in 1979, or this re-make, made in 2005. It is certainly a very appealing story, and is supposedly based on fact - certainly it is true that six people from the Defeo family were murdered by another member of their family, who claimed to have committed the crime because voices told him to do so. It would therefore seem almost certain that a film based on that was going to do well. Unfortunately, that is not the case, with this version at least; I hope that the original is much better than this one, otherwise I cannot really understand why it is so well known.

Ryan Reynolds plays George Lutz, an actor who is relatively unknown to me, although fans of Van Wilder and/or Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place may recognise him. I thought he was probably the best part of the film; at least, he plays what is probably the main role in the film, one that actually has some character development. As the house begins to influence George's behaviour, he changes from a happy-go-lucky, loving family man to a bad-tempered and aggressive one. Reynolds manages to portray all this very convincingly and he left me with a sense that I had actually witnessed something worth seeing. The change is perhaps a little too sudden, but I think this has more to do with the length of the film than any fault on the part of Reynolds. The fact that he has the most amazingly toned upper body didn't harm my opinion of him either! Wow.

I didn't like Melissa George in 30 Days of Night, primarily because she had a toothy thing going on that I found distracting. As Kathy, I managed to look beyond that, but

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