Producer Michael Bay was one of the brains behind this hit remake of The Amityville Horror, which is "actually slightly better" than the 1979 original. Despite no prior experience, Englishman Andrew Douglas landed the job of directing this fictionalised account of a true haunted house story. Rising star Ryan Reynolds plays George Lutz - host to disruptive evil forces and disorderly facial hair...

Welcome To Enmityville

Supernatural Homicide attempts to provide a factual context for the events depicted but the opening disclaimer, "all photos, newspaper articles and news footage were recreated", doesn't inspire confidence in its veracity. Indeed, rather than offer a proper evaluation of the evidence, this featurette simply has ex-Chief Of Police Ken Greguski and "interpreter for the dead" Lorraine Warren calling each other sissy. Naturally Greguski is a man of science who doesn't believe in ghosts and stuff like that - despite the big gold crucifix hanging around his neck...

Cast and crew chat about their experiences on the set in The Source Of Evil featurette. Douglas talks about trying to avoid "boo-scares" in favour of slowly building a sense of dread while the kids complain that Reynolds ignored them when the cameras weren't rolling. He insists that this was part of his "method" although Melissa George (Kathy Lutz) has trouble keeping a straight face at the mere mention of the "m-word". Unless you're reading between the lines, don't expect anything too in-depth as the interviews are reduced to soundbites between clips of the film and behind-the-scenes footage. (You can also access nine "on-set peeks" while watching the film.)

High Spirits

Splashing on the Old Spice for that authentic 70s feeling was also part of Reynolds "method" for getting into character - at least that's what he claims in the audio commentary. Douglas is a no-show so it's up to him, plus producers Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller to guide us through the film. Fortunately they do a pretty good job with the later two emphasising their research and offering notes on casting etc while Reynolds lightens the mood with nonsense trivia like, "What I'm throwing up here is actually minestrone soup - it was quite tasty."

On the other hand, in commentary for eight deleted scenes, Reynolds is brilliantly incisive. Form and Fuller waffle endlessly about the reasons for cutting mundane scenes like the Lutzs eating pizza, Kathy buying groceries and giving one of the kids a bath, but it's nowhere near as edifying as the sound of Reynolds snoring in the background...

Hidden dead centre of the Special Features menu is an Easter egg portal. It takes you to a reel of "home video" footage showing the Lutz family in happier days (which exists in snippets in the film), plus a scare reel - basically all the gory bits cobbled together. It's a hit-and-miss batch of extras overall, but it's enough to while away the hours on a dark and stormy night.

EXTRA FEATURES