The third film in the Amityville series, released in 1983. Also known as Amityville III: The Demon.
John Baxter (Tony Roberts), a professional debunker of psychic phenomena buys the Haunted House in Amityville since it's cheap, and comes to regret that decision when he and his family become targeted by the supernatural forces within it.
This 3D picture has examples of:
- All Just a Dream: John sees his wife sitting near the basement well where the decaying corpse of their dead daughter jumps out of.
- All There in the Manual: Also counts as deleted scenes. The Caswells were supposed to return to the house in the middle of the night to take back their equipment from the basement, but the evil of the house possesses some electrical cords and causes them to trip. The fiery car crash scene was supposed to happen differently too. The fire starts in Melanie's car while she is driving and then she crashes. It cuts to the point of view from a hobo watching as blue fire causes Melanie to go up in flames. Scenes at Melanie and Susan's funeral were supposed to take place. One of the teenagers during their seance asks if anyone in the room is a virgin. This was likely cut for time.
- Antagonist Title: Some of the home video releases and the TV version call this movie Amityville III: The Demon.
- Anyone can die: You would think Susan and Melanie would be safe characters but no. Melanie has arguably the most gruesome death in the whole film even though it cuts away and Susan dies offscreen. Kind of surprising that Lisa and the other teenagers didn't get offed by the house for provoking it through seance.
- A Beast in Name and Nature: The Demon that appears outside of the well at the climax of the film causes all the spooky and gruesome events that happen to the house and to the characters.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The demon of 112 Ocean Avenue kills almost all of Elliot West's team (and Elliot himself) before blowing up the house. It also got John's friends, the realtor and his daughter and he is finally convinced that evil forces exist.
- Big Bad: The Demon lurking beneath the depths of the basement well and the cause of all the evil it.
- Catapult Nightmare: Baxter has a nightmare where he is onfronted by his daughter's drowned corpse, and bolts up in fright as he wakes up from it.
- Continuity Nod: The demon that jumps out of the well and drags Elliot under appears to be the same demon that claws its way out of Sonny at the end of Amityville II: The Possession.
- Creepy Doll: The doll on Susan's bed can appear creepy to some.
- Evil Elevator: Baxter finds himself in a malfunctioning elevator that goes up and down at high speeds after he spots one of the Amityville flies inside it.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: The car crash scene. Need I say more? For a PG Rated film this scene is just disturbing to watch, especially with Candy Clark's convincing performance. Being burned to death is never a great way to go. She even jokes about not wanting to die this way in the Blu-Ray Extras despite saying how much fun she had filming this scene.
- Flies Equals Evil: Flies are still be buzzing around the house to signify the fact that it isn't free from evil. They even cause one direct death.
- Foreshadowing: The spooky, distorted images of Sanders in the photographs depict how he will eventually meet his demise.
- Haunted House: Obviously the point of the film.
- Hearing Voices: Well not voices, but Melanie hears ominous footsteps creaking on the floorboards above her as she thinks she's alone in the house.
- Indian Burial Ground: Just like the first two Amityville films, Lisa recaps the Amityville history to Susan, stating an Indian Burial Ground is said to be the site the house was built on top of.
- Lighter and Softer: The film has PG rating, with content which contrasts sharply with all the after all terror, incest and murder from the two previous films.
- Locked into Strangeness: The effect of Susan's death leaves Nancy in denial. The next morning apparently she has seen Susan's spirit appear before her as she is stuck in a state of believing Susan will return as she does her laundry.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: Susan is the only female character with long hair. Nancy, Melanie and Lisa all have short hair styles.
- Mood Whiplash:From a horrific scene of Melanie's death involving burning to death in her car, goes straight to John and Nancy handwaving it off as an accident and cuts straight to the teenagers being silly at the diner. It's almost an insult to Melanie's character who suffered such a protracted, agonizing death and she's completely forgotten about and never mentioned again.
- New House, New Problems
- Novelization: A tie-in novel was made for the film. See All There In The Manual above. Some scenes are filmed differently when they were originally written how they were played out in the novel. Other details the novel includes is Melanie's experience being frosted over as she is able to feel the ice form on her eyes and sees the image of the demon that she will later see in the photograph. The demon was also described as a gargoyle, rather than the look it sports in the movie, which is the demon from Amityville II's grandpa.
- No Kill like Overkill: Melanie's character. She's already a Shrinking Violet who is paranoid about everything. The house fucks with her with noises, a blackout and sending a powerful force of frost on her leaving her alone and hysterical. She discovers the demon face in the photograph and rushes to the house to tell John. The house continues to fuck with her by crashing her car into steel pipes. It didn't inpale her? No problem, light the whole thing on fire and kill her that way. Talk about evil.
- Numbered Sequels
- Ouija Board: Friend's of Baxter's daughter use a homebrew ouija board, and get in contact with spirits that tells them that one them is going to die.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Baxter's ex-wife sees their daughter walking around the house before she learns that she drowned moments before.
- Paddleball Shot: Two of them during the car crash scene: first one comes from a pipe that crashes through the car's windshield, and the second comes from the burned corpse stretching its arms towards the camera.
- Spiteful Spit: After the old psychic couple in the opening are revealed as frauds, Baxter's partner Melanie gets spat on in retaliation.
- Spooky Photographs: Before Sanders is killed by a stroke caused by the house, Melanie notices that pictures taken of him show his face being weirdly distorted.
- Spooky Séance: Subverted. The supernatural shenanigans in the seance of the opening are fake and staged.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The movie climaxes with the Amityville house getting totaled by self-inflicted explosions.
- Supernatural-Proof Father: John Baxter, initially.
- Third Is 3D: The film was part of the early eighties' 3-D Movie sequel trifecta alongside with Jaws 3-D and Friday the 13th Part III.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Although the only Amityville film in the original trilogy to not be based on an event such as the Defeo murders (Amityville II) and the Lutz's (Amityville Horror), John Baxter's character can be seen as Stephen Kaplan who tried to discredit the Lutz' for creating a fabrication.
