For more than two years, Joe Lipsett has dissected Amityville Horror films to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”

I have no recollection of The Unspoken. Canadian writer/director Sheldon Wilson’s film apparently played at Fright Fest in 2015 before getting a day and date theatrical/VOD release in October 2016, followed by a DVD release from Anchor Bay that December.

Reviews were middling (9% Rotten, albeit based on only 11 reviews) with most critics decrying the film’s reliance on ghostly figures and jump scares, lamenting its lack of scariness (an extremely subjective criticism) and protesting its “complicated” story.

So why is the film a topic of conversation for this editorial? Because The Unspoken is a secret Amityville prequel.

Okay, yes, it’s literally only revealed in the film’s closing scene when the film’s antagonists, single mom Jeanie (Pascale Hutton) and her mute son Adrian (Sunny Suljic in his film debut), pause in front of the Amityville sign. But it’s also part of a larger third act twist that reveals that Jeanie and Adrian are otherworldly beings with telekinetic abilities and that their kind are responsible for Earth’s haunted houses.

Depending on your appetite for dangling propositions, this revelation is either tantalizing or frustrating. Because Wilson essentially ends the film on this note, The Unspoken fails to unpack or explore the idea in any detail. It does, however, work reasonably well as an answer for both the events of the film and, more broadly speaking, every haunted house film, including all of those contained within the Amityville “franchise.”

In fact, The Unspoken actively incorporates most of the common haunted house tropes throughout its runtime (a fact that clearly contributed to accusations of boring familiarity by critics). Doors and cupboards open and close by themselves; there’s a recurring bit with a sentient marble that closely resembles moments from 2013’s The Conjuring; and folks have a nasty habit of being attacked by an unseen force.

The Unspoken begins in 1997 when a beat cop discovers a single living occupant at 166 Briar Street. The bloody woman flees in terror, but the hanged body of a priest with an upside-down crucifix carved into his forehead and the disappearance of the family hints at a demon and/or possession.

The film has two separate, but complementary narratives. One is a supernatural film about a financially desperate girl, Angela (Jodelle Ferland), who gets a job as a babysitter for a traumatized boy and his mother when they move into the town’s haunted house. The other is a home invasion film about local teen drug dealer Luther (Anthony Konechny), who sneaks into the house with his friends Logan (Jonathan Whitesell) and Rodney (Jake Croker) in order to recover a stash of drugs hidden before Jeanie and Adrian moved in.

The stories intersect courtesy of Angela’s queer crush, Pandy (Chanelle Peloso), who is dating Luther and may (or may not) be gaslighting Angela. Eventually all of the characters wind up in the house for a surprisingly violent climax that sees all of the intruders dispatched in clever (albeit too brief) moments of violence.

Naturally the creepy/powerful kid is another pervasive horror trope. The Unspoken has more in common with 2019’s creepy kid double bill, Eli and The Prodigy, than it does with The Omen, though.

The film’s other spiritual predecessor is, naturally, The Amityville Horror (1979 or 2005, take your pick). Not only is there a suggestion of satanic rituals, courtesy of the mutilated animals left around the house (offerings made by Luther and co.), but there several moments involving flies, the aforementioned dead priest, and locked closets that provide plenty of creepy moments.

The end of The Unspoken suggests that there’s a reason why these tropes are so familiar: these beings play on humanity’s imagination to explain away supernatural hauntings, which are actually just their youngsters learning to control their powers. That’s why places like Amityville exist: they can easily be written off as (ludicrous) fiction whenever these beings need to take up residence (again and again, over the years).

This explanation is a variant of the one put forth by The Last Amityville Movie (and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare before it). There’s a cyclical element to these events and stories; one that has a perfectly logical explanation. According to The Unspoken, the Amityville house (and by extension this entire “franchise”) is simply the result of these otherworldly controlled experiments.

Who would have thought that, after nearly sixty entries, the answer to the Amityville IP would be something other than money?! If we’re being honest, aliens are nearly as believable.

The Amityville IP Awards go to…

• Genre Staple: Ferland is actually quite good as the film’s protagonist. She’s saddled with a sad sack backstory involving her mother (Jessie Fraser), but her empathy for Adrian, whose condition is a trauma response to losing his own father, is nice. Angela is definitely too trusting, but Ferland never plays her like she’s stupid.
  • Speaking of familiar faces, don’t get excited to see Neal McDonough (as Officer Bowser) or Lachlyn Munro (as Angela’s dad) because they’re barely more than tertiary characters and each only has a few scenes.
• Crime Story: The Luther subplot undoubtedly contributes to accusations of an overstuffed or underdeveloped narrative because it adds a certain amount of additional complications beyond Angela’s storyline. On the flip side, though, the home invasion in the third act contributes to many of the film’s best moments, including a scalding bath, a knife impalement moment worthy of Michael Meyers, and the film’s piece de resistance:
• Floor Nails: Aside from the creepy shenanigans of a memorable recurring red/black marble, which includes a homage to The Changeling (another classic Canadian haunted house), the single best set piece in the film happens to Rodney. First: he steps on a large nail in the floor. Then he falls directly onto a bed of them! Alas Wilson and cinematographer Eric J. Goldstein opt to cut away from the gore, so we only see Rodney after he’s been impaled. Still, it’s a really effective, visceral moment.
• Lose Your Jaw: The other great moment of violence happens early in the film when a reanimated dog corpse lunges at handyman Mr. Walker (Michael Rogers) and rips the entire bottom half of his jaw off. This bit is courtesy of special make up effects artist Caitlin Groves and it looks <great>.
• Matter of Fact Queerness: Several reviews complained that Pandy and Angela’s relationship was undercooked (spoiler: Pandy dies second, so she’s not a huge presence in the film). While it’s true that the film would have benefitted from exploring their secret liaison more, Pandy is actually fascinating. It’s clear that she’s keeping the relationship from Luther (he’s surprised when he stumbles on the girls making-out) and her resulting gay panic reaction is either internalized homophobia and/or she’s afraid of him
  • If it’s the latter, Pandy is right to be afraid: the climax reveals that he’s comfortable killing her girlfriend and a mute kid).
  • Would I have loved to see more of the character and this complicated relationship? Sure, but give me messy, interesting representation over a cookie cutter queer best friend any day of the week.
• Alternative Title? At least one website listed the alternative title of this film as The Origin of the Amityville Terror which is…hilariously specific and more than a little ungainly. Rotten Tomatoes’ other option is a little better: The Haunting of Briar House, which evokes the A Haunting in Connecticut films and anticipates Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series.

Next time: And then there was one! There’s one final secret Amityville film left to explore: 2019’s The Dawn aka The Amityville Dawn.