Leofwine_draca AMITYVILLE IV: THE EVIL ESCAPES is the first of the ultra-cheesy Amityville sequels with increasingly spurious connections to the first films in the series. This one's a TV movie which doesn't help, as the production values are noticeably lacking compared to the earlier films. The storyline involves the Amityville curse being transferred into a creepy old lamp, which is subsequently purchased as a gift for an unsuspecting family who begin to suffer strange hauntings as a result.This is a rather dull film that stretches out for long moments of boredom and occasionally intersperses them with silliness. It's also incredibly cheesy and not the least bit scary, so it's a film to watch if you've got a sense of humour. Patty Duke as the put-upon mother is the only actor here who gives anything approaching a legitimate performance. Scenes involving flies and priests feel like weak retreads of what has come earlier and are largely without merit.The film is better when it works in new supernatural events (even if they are ridiculous). THE EVIL ESCAPES has the best garbage disposal scene since ROLLING THUNDER, although that moment is eclipsed by a later set-piece involving a plumber and a blocked pipe that has to be seen to be believed. The cheesy highlight involves the woman's son (played by a dwarf actor) having an encounter with a possessed chainsaw in the basement; a moment that truly has to be seen to be believed. Stuff with a creepy blonde possessed girl is too obviously indebted to POLTERGEIST and the ending is routine, although that last freeze frame is pretty funny.

callanvass Helen Royce goes to get her sister Alice (Jane Wyatt) a hideous looking lamp from Long Island at a garage sale as a joke. She cuts her finger on it and dies shortly after. Meanwhile, Nancy Evans (Patty Duke) is a widower, struggling to make her family into a cohesive unit. Nancy makes the choice to move in with her aloof mother (Jane Wyatt) Things go wrong right from the outset when strange occurrences keep happening from electronic appliances. Nancy's daughter Jessica thinks she is talking to her father, but that's just the beginning. They have no clue of the evil that awaits them from that lamp. Those that like cheesy entertainment are likely to get a few kicks out of this one. This isn't a good movie at all, but it's never boring and it does manage to give you unintentional chuckles. I guess they got bored of the Amityville house and decided to start making inanimate objects threatening. Next time they should make a T.V haunted, or a phone, get my drift? The entire plot setup is way too easy. How is it that Helen Royce's character finds nothing of interest at a garage sale and conveniently gets interested in a hideous looking lamp? I guess we're supposed to believe the lure that Amityville has or something like that. There are some great cheesy moments, Brian with a chainsaw is a blast. The death scenes are extremely weak as well. We get a bird in a toaster, a rubbery phone filled with goo, a nasty finger wound, and blood here and there. It was pretty lame. Speaking of lame, how about that lazy ending? All that struggle for an easy payoff like that? Talk about cheap. The actors try hard. Patty Duke is above this and she knows it. She certainly doesn't phone it in and does what she has to do well as the mother. I can't fault her. Jane Wyatt plays it stone faced half the time. The fact that it takes so much for her to believe something is wrong in the house was ridiculous. It shouldn't take Albert Einstein to make a verdict! Watching her go nuts in the end, throwing a lamp out the window was amusing though. Brandy Gold is annoying as Jessica. What do you expect from a child actor? Oddly enough, she never worked again after this, according to IMDb. Rest of the cast are OKFinal Thoughts: Fun can be had in a corny way at times, but it'll likely take a few beers for the fun factor to kick in. It's a pretty crappy movie and not worth seeking out. What more do you expect from a T.V movie?4.3/10

lost-in-limbo After the outrageous "Amityville 3D", the rest of the films of the franchise wouldn't see a cinema release until the 2005 remake of the original. "The Evil Escapes" would get a TV release, but those after it would go straight to video. Anyhow this entry begins off with a group of priests preparing to enter the Amityville house (even though it did blow up after the third feature) to battle the evil force that dwells within. But the entity manages to escape in to a sinisterly ugly looking lamp and the priest that happened to see it was badly knocked out. Couple weeks have past and the priest has awakened to discover the lamp was sold as a garage sale. Now it's ended up on the other side of the country, dwelling in the home of Mrs Alice Leacok who's newly widowed daughter and her three children have just moved in. Soon enough unusual things begin to happen and the youngest child keeps stating she can see her dead father. This particular sequel has a different take on the Amityville curse, but its outcome is just… bonkers. Making it terrifying for all the wrong reasons. So many stupid things occur; you wonder how everyone keeps a straight-face. Think about it. A haunted lamp. Even if it wasn't haunted. Its just looks ominous… and ugly. We watch how the entity makes the light glow (when its not plugged in?!), attract the flies and then move between the electrical cords (a lump of black goo), as it goes about causing trouble, which often leads to freak accidents and machinery going crazy. Hey we even get some uncontrollable chainsaw action; a melting phone and an insane climax when the family battles the flickering satanic lamp ending off with a payoff which makes you think why it took them this long. A little extreme, but it does the job. These shocks might be nasty, but at the same time quite humorous. Some sequences are just too fun, but they indeed lack the rush. The family at the receiving end of this curse are an irritating bunch. How the youngest child (who's quite a sour-face) becomes possessed just reeks of "Poltergeist". The mother is clueless, while the two dumbfounded teenagers (Zoe Trilling) fair no better. Jane Wyatt is suitably good in her role as Mrs Leacok and then there's Fredric Lehne who plays the priest that persistently comes off second best with the encounters. For a TV production is durably pulled off with some decent location atmosphere (the remote house is on top of a cliff that faces an ocean) and the camera-work fluidly frames the action. The music score can be a little too raucous and uncanny. What can you say, be careful when you decide to drop in at a garage sale."That evil is searching for souls".

Toronto85 Six years after the infamous house blew up in Amityville 3-D, it appears to have rebuilt itself in time for Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes. This was a made for TV movie in 1989, and in my opinion was a lot better than the last two. After some priests exorcise the house, the evil escapes into a lamp which is sold at a yard sale. Fast forward to the story of a recent widow (Patty Duke) and her three children who make a move to live with her mother (Jane Wyatt). The lamp is delivered to the house and soon, the youngest child starts to see her deceased father inside, even communicating with her.Several strange occurrences begin happen (a bird dies, a chainsaw comes "alive", electrical appliances turn hot when touched). A priest who assisted in the exorcism of the house begins to realize the evil escaped into a lamp and tracks down where the family lives. After a few attacks and deaths, the lamp/evil is destroyed by being thrown out a window. Great acting in this one. Jane Wyatt and Patty Duke are very believable as the feuding mother and daughter. Now this sequel sounds really cheesy, and you know what, it is! But I quite enjoyed it for a TV movie. It's a fun and entertaining little unknown sequel with some creepy and unsettling moments. Some disturbing scenes involve a plumber in the basement who dies a "smelly" death, a hand in the garbage disposer, etc.I have the Vidmark VHS tape, but it is out on DVD. I say buy it. It's a much better watch then the dreadful Amityville II: The Possession, and the hilariously bad Amityville 3-D.7/10