Amityville Backpack (2024) by Evan Jacobs


Director: Evan Jacobs
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural

Plot:
After visiting a yard sale, a hapless loser tries to turn his life around by attaching his success to the purchase of a special backpack, but when the backpack seems to be the center of a series of strange deaths it’s grisly back to a fabled haunted house are revealed and force him to stop it.

Review:

This was a pretty disappointing if still watchable enough feature. One of the better features here is that this one manages to provide a worthwhile setup for the lifestyle he has. The idea of him being such a put-upon and hopeless loser, ridiculed at work, unskilled at life, and being so clueless at it all that he never gets out of the rut in his life to where the need for the backpack to fit his condition makes for a solid enough starting point. With the cheesiness of the situation enhanced by the presentation of the backpack being like the titular house, the psychological impact its presence has on him after getting together is decent enough that the series of deaths around him by those who mock or ridicule him offers up a cheesy sense of fun at points.

Outside of this, though, the film is quite as hapless as its titular hero. Rather than delve into any kind of action, the majority of this one is so completely overwhelmed with characters narrating everything to the point that it becomes more irritating than anything to listen to everything said it just becomes tiresome hearing what happens. This becomes even worse when it’s so unnatural and disinteresting with all the clunky dialog about how much of a loser his boss thinks he is or how much he wants to improve his life all thanks to the backpack as it’s just incredibly frustrating how everything piles on at such a ludicrous degree rather than building his case at improving himself. Coupled with the expected flimsy gore and production values found here, these all hold the film down.


Overview: 0.5/5
A disjointed mess without much going on, there’s little to this one that’s worthwhile beyond a few elements that are completely wiped out by the negatives anyway which leaves this one so disappointing. Really only give it a shot if you’re unbothered by these factors or are a fan of the creative crew while everyone else should heed extreme caution.

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