Set forty years after the infamous Amityville murder house was burned down, Amityville Apt. is often remembered as “the one about an apartment complex” and for its notable cameos from genre stars Brinke Stevens and Alan Maxson, but it does have a bit more to offer than that. It also is a meta-sequel that recontextualizes the Amityville in the Hood film as fiction. There’s even a moment when a character, played by Assaad Ghamlouche, watches the original Amityville in the Hood. All too real, though, are the DeFeo murders and their home in Amityville that burned down on 112 Ocean Avenue.

Thanks to playful dialogue, decent effects, and some expertly shot sequences that glues everything together, this entry in the Amityville franchise is at least on par with the direct-to-video sequels that came before it.

Amityville Apt. fared better with critics than many of the earlier sequels, but that doesn’t say much when it comes to the Amityville franchise. Even before the more recent deluge of knockoffs like Amityville Christmas Vacation and Amityville in Space, the Amityville canon is frustrating, bizarre, and quite often hilarious.