View source for Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes


{{Distinguish|Amityville: The Evil Escapes (book)}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2019}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| alt_name             = ''Amityville: The Evil Escapes''
| image                = Amityville IV.jpg
| caption              = Release poster
| genre                = [[Horror film|Horror]]
| director             = Sandor Stern
| executive_producer   = Steve White
| producer             = Barry Bernardi<br />[[Kenneth Atchity]] {{small|(NBC)}}
| writer               = [[Sandor Stern]]
| based_on             = ''[[Amityville: The Evil Escapes (book)|Amityville: The Evil Escapes]]'' by John G. Jones
| starring             = {{Plainlist|
* [[Patty Duke]]
* [[Jane Wyatt]]
* [[Fredric Lehne]]
* [[Norman Lloyd]]
}}
| music                = Rick Conrad
| cinematography       = [[Tom Richmond (cinematographer)|Tom Richmond]]
| editor               = [[Skip Schoolnik]]
| company              = Steve White Productions<br />[[Spectacor Films]]
| network              = [[NBC]]
| released             = {{start date|1989|5|12}}
| runtime              = 95 minutes
| country              = United States
| language             = English
}}
'''''Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes''''' (also known on screen as '''''Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes''''') is a 1989 American [[television film|made-for-television]] [[supernatural horror film]] written and directed by [[Sandor Stern]], and starring [[Patty Duke]], [[Jane Wyatt]] and [[Fredric Lehne]]. The [[Works based on the Amityville haunting|fourth film based on ''The Amityville Horror'']], it premiered on [[NBC]] on May 12, 1989. This was the only ''Amityville'' sequel to be based on a book in the main book series. A film adaptation for ''[[Amityville: The Horror Returns]]'' was to air on NBC but the film was never made. 

==Plot==
On a rainy night, six priests, led by Father Manfred, enter the infamous [[Amityville, New York]] house and start to exorcise it. One of the priests, Father Dennis Kibbler, is in an upstairs bedroom and begins to bless it when he sees a glowing brass [[Light fixture|floor lamp]]. As he begins to chant, a burst of energy emerges from the outlet, through the cord, and into the lamp. A demonic face appears in the large round bulb. Kibbler is knocked across the room and is rendered unconscious.

A few days later, a real estate agency decides to have a yard sale by selling the previous owners' items left in the house. Father Manfred believes that the evil spirits are finally gone from the house. Meanwhile, at the yard sale, a woman named Helen Royce and her friend Rhona are looking through the items when Helen finds the lamp. At only $100.00, Helen decides to buy the lamp as a birthday present for her sister Alice Leacock, explaining that she and Alice send each other rather ugly gifts as a long-running joke. While checking the lamp, Helen cuts her finger on a brass collar around the bulb. Ignoring the cut on her finger, Helen buys the lamp. Helen's finger begins to get infected and discolored as the day goes on. Helen later dies of [[Tetanus]].

One week later, the lamp arrives at Alice's house, a large, three-story home over a beach in a small town called Dancott, California. That day, Alice's daughter, Nancy Evans, and her three children, Amanda, Brian, and the youngest child, quiet, mysterious Jessica, move in with Alice. Once they arrive, Alice decides to open the package containing the lamp. Nancy thinks the lamp is hideous, while Alice finds it interesting. Once the lamp is turned on, Alice's parrot, Fred, begins to act crazy, and her cat, Pepper, scratches Amanda. While the rest of the family pays little to no attention to the lamp, Jessica seems to be drawn toward it.

The lamp then begins to manipulate electrical devices around the house or perform seemingly impossible feats, such as killing the parrot and putting it in the toaster oven, turning on the kitchen sink's garbage disposal, and cutting off the hand of Danny, the son and apprentice of electrician Reade, and vandalizing Jessica's room.

When Nancy calls Jake, a plumber, to fix the pipes, the lamp murders him by drowning him in sewage and then makes his van leave on its own, making it seem like he left. Jessica is drawn to the lamp and starts to believe her dead father Frank's spirit is inside it. Meanwhile, Father Kibbler, while staying at Father Manfred's place, gets a call from the lamp, which makes smoke come out of the phone and melts the speaker. Worried, he travels to Dancott to investigate. When most of the family is away, Jessica is entranced by the lamp, which then uses its extension cord to murder their housekeeper Peggy.

The police investigate though they do not find Jake's body. Father Kibbler contacts Nancy and tries to convince her that the evil has taken possession of an object from the Amityville house. They rush home only to find that the lamp used a window to knock out Amanda and has brainwashed Jessica, who stabs Father Kibbler in the shoulder while the lamp's extension cord tries to stop him from exorcising it. Alice saves the day by grabbing the lamp and throwing it out of the window, shattering it on the rocky shoreline below. The movie ends with the family thinking their ordeal is over, not realizing that Jake's body is still inside their house. The camera pans to the remains of the lamp, showing the evil within has now possessed the family's cat Pepper.

==Cast==
* [[Patty Duke]] as Nancy Evans
* [[Jane Wyatt]] as Alice Leacock
* [[Fredric Lehne]] as Father Kibbler
* Lou Hancock as Peggy
* Brandy Gold as Jessica Evans
* Geri Betzler as Amanda Evans
* [[Aron Eisenberg]] as Brian Evans
* [[Norman Lloyd]] as Father Manfred
* [[Robert Alan Browne]] as Donald McTear
* Gloria Cromwell as Rhona
* James Stern as Danny Read
* [[Peggy McCay]] as Helen Royce
* [[Warren Munson]] as Doctor
* David Elliott as New York Doctor
* Gary Davies as Jake
* Jon Rice as Frank Evans

==Production==
The replica of the original [[Amityville, New York|Amityville]] house was located at 402 East M St., [[Wilmington, Los Angeles|Wilmington, California]]. A facade was added to the side of the house to give it the Amityville appearance. The interiors of this house were filmed there as well.

The exteriors for Alice Leacock (Jane Wyatt)'s house were filmed at the James Sharp House, 11840 W. Telegraph Rd, [[Santa Paula, California]]. The house is an historical Italian Villa style home built in 1890. In reality, it does not back out onto an oceanside cliff as depicted in the movie. Instead, it backs out onto the [[Santa Paula Freeway]], about a quarter of a mile behind the house. For a second, there is a tower of the house in the distance while driving on the Freeway. The interiors of Alice's house were filmed at the [[Woodbury-Story House]] in [[Altadena, California]].

Hospital scenes were filmed at the [[California Hospital Medical Center]] in [[Los Angeles]]. An exterior shot of the [[John Marshall High School (Los Angeles, California)|John Marshall High School]] in Los Angeles was also used.

==Continuity==
Despite the destruction of the house in the conclusion of the previous film ''[[Amityville 3-D]]'', it manages to make an appearance in this film. The films after ''3-D'' usually do not pick up where the previous film left off, so no explanation has ever been given as to how the house is still standing. It is possible this film may take place before ''Amityville 3-D'' due to the house already being empty in that film and after the yard sale in this one, which was later explained in ''[[Amityville: It's About Time]]''. The furniture that was left in the house in the beginning of the film is believed to be owned by the Lutz family in the first film ''[[The Amityville Horror (1979 film)|The Amityville Horror]]''. The film also makes a reference to ''[[Amityville II: The Possession]]''.

==Release==
''Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes'' was distributed on home video by Medusa in the United Kingdom in April 1990.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hayward |first=Anthony   |year=1990  |chapter=Video Releases  |title=Film Review 1990-1  |publisher=Columbus Books Limited |isbn=0-86369-374-1|page=142}}</ref> It was released on DVD twice by Allumination Filmworks in 2003 and 2007. In 2019, [[Vinegar Syndrome]] released the film on Blu-ray in the US which was included in the boxset "Amityville: The Cursed Collection". In 2022, the film was released on Blu-ray in the UK courtesy of Screenbound Pictures Ltd.

==Reception==
{{expand section|date=July 2016}}
On [[The A.V. Club|''The A.V. Club's'']] web site, ''Amityville 4'' is one movie listed in the article "Night of the Killer Lamp: 23 Ridiculous Horror-Movie Adversaries". The article states the film's efforts to make a possessed lamp seem scary "border on [[Camp (style)|camp]]".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://origin.avclub.com/articles/night-of-the-killer-lamp-23-ridiculous-horrormovie,2071/ |title=The A.V. Club - "Night Of The Killer Lamp: 23 Ridiculous Horror-Movie Adversaries" |access-date=2009-06-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707203126/http://origin.avclub.com/articles/night-of-the-killer-lamp-23-ridiculous-horrormovie,2071/ |archive-date=2011-07-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0096808}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090609214515/http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/Rick/liz_aee.htm And You Call Yourself A Scientist - Amityville 4 extensive plot summary and review]

{{The Amityville Horror}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Amityville 1989}}
[[Category:1989 drama films]]
[[Category:1989 films]]
[[Category:1989 horror films]]
[[Category:1989 independent films]]
[[Category:1989 television films]]
[[Category:1989 American films]]
[[Category:1989 English-language films]]
[[Category:1980s horror drama films]]
[[Category:1980s psychological drama films]]
[[Category:1980s psychological horror films]]
[[Category:1980s supernatural horror films]]
[[Category:American drama television films]]
[[Category:American haunted house films]]
[[Category:American horror drama films]]
[[Category:American horror television films]]
[[Category:American independent films]]
[[Category:American psychological drama films]]
[[Category:American psychological horror films]]
[[Category:American sequel films]]
[[Category:American supernatural drama films]]
[[Category:American supernatural horror films]]
[[Category:Amityville Horror films]]
[[Category:Demons in film]]
[[Category:Films about animal cruelty]]
[[Category:Films about Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Films about dysfunctional families]]
[[Category:Films about exorcism]]
[[Category:Films about grief]]
[[Category:Films about murder]]
[[Category:Films about single parent families]]
[[Category:Films about widowhood in the United States]]
[[Category:Films based on American horror novels]]
[[Category:Films directed by Sandor Stern]]
[[Category:Films set in California]]
[[Category:Films set in hospitals]]
[[Category:Films set on Long Island]]
[[Category:Films set in religious buildings and structures]]
[[Category:Films about shapeshifting]]
[[Category:Films about spirit possession]]
[[Category:Films shot in California]]
[[Category:Films shot in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Films about maids]]
[[Category:NBC original films]]
[[Category:Religious drama films]]
[[Category:American religious horror films]]
[[Category:Fiction about sentient objects]]
[[Category:Interquel films]]
[[Category:Television films based on American novels]]
[[Category:Television sequel films]]
[[Category:Television prequel films]]
[[Category:English-language horror drama films]]
[[Category:English-language independent films]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes|access_date=2026-02-25}}