Amityville VR Blu Ray Review (BayView Entertainment / SRS Cinema)

Amityville VR is a 2024 independent horror film shot, edited, and directed by Matt Jaissle (The Necro Files franchise, Amityville AI, Legion of the Night, Anti-hero, Apocalypse Bigfoot, and Back from Hell). It was produced by Ron Bonk (Amityville AI, Amityville Backrooms, Amityville Ripper, Amityville Turkey Day, Amityville Bigfoot, Amityville Shark House, Amityville Karen, Amityville Death Toilet, and Amityville Thanksgiving). This is a follow up to 2024’s Amityville AI. Artificial Intelligence programmer Stuart Birdsall’s (played by: Chris Heikka from Back from Hell, Night of the Howling, Gobblefoot, and American Driller Killer) life has been turned into a living nightmare after renting a cursed house that’s possessed in Amityville. Everyone that’s been close to him has been murdered from the events of Amityville AI. He is sent to a mental institution. The F.B.I makes him go back into his dangerous haunted world through a virtual reality program. Stuart must fight to stay alive after going through hell!!!! Amityville A.I. got it’s own sequel really quick after it’s original release. I think it proves how popular these Amityville spin-offs are when it comes to the independent scene. Amityville VR is definitely a step above compared to the first film. Veteran horror director Matt Jaissle returns for this ambitious follow up and he adds something unique to the Amityville universe. You don’t really see VR really used in anything these days, it was popular a long time ago but I liked how it deals with a different technology for each film. I will say that the script takes a little too long to get somewhere so you have to be a little patient here. Matt Jaissle is very creative dealing with his casting change for the lead in this. It kinda wrapped up like a mummy from the horrendous aftermath of Amityville A.I. plus he’s wearing a VR mask for most of the time. Chris Heikka is much better as Stuart Birdsall compared to the OG actor which makes this one a higher quality effort. The rest of the supporting cast includes Amanda Foster (Left Out for Dead), Laura Schubring (Amityville AI), Rudy Ledbetter (Amityville AI), Matt Jaissle (Reanimated), Christopher Korek (Trivial), Jeffrey Hylton (Amityville Ripper), Justin W. Fox (Redhead), Lien Mya Nguyen Oost (Deadfall: Ground Zero), Phil Petranto (Friday the 13th: Blood Loss), Bill Dawson (Desert Fiends), Gary Dando (The Red Huntress), Paul Bradford (Amityville Bigfoot), Jim Bunny Bundshuh (Gobblefoot), and Bradford Blair (Amityville AI). Matt Jaissle keeps it very simple with it’s small crew and locations here. Amityville VR takes some risks and it brings something different to this sub-genre. It has some interesting darker moments every once in awhile but it’s slow at times. It really picks up towards the end and it gets wild. I wish more of Amityville VR was like this because it’s basically over not that long after it really developes. It has solid fx and villains for it’s very small budget. There’s potential for something else, I hope it capitalizes more like it’s finale if it continues. Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from SRS Cinema! This 1080p (1.78:1) definitely looks better than it’s original feature Amityville A.I. and it uses it’s limited resources wisely with basically no budget here. It has an English: PCM 2.0 stereo track on the disc. Amityville VR isn’t the type of explosive and action packed production but it does have some crazy scenarios that stand out for it’s audio. All of the dialogue is very clean, the suspense is elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. It has the little over 4 minute “A Conversation with Matt Jaissle and Chris Heikka”. It’s a chat between the director and the lead actor for this Amityville feature. They talk about the sequel, concept, and experiences. They go over their previous collaborations. It has the “Original Trailer” for Amityville VR and various SRS Cinema related “Trailers”. It’s a professionally made on demand BD-R. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!!