A Maniac takes on the iconic haunted house.

When word of a new take on the Amityville franchise first broke we got the same ol’ reaction these franchises tend to get—leave it alone already!? I felt the same way, honestly, because this iconic series has been more bad than good over the years, and the last thing we needed was another mediocre take on the “true story”. Enter Maniac director Franck Khalfoun and you’ve got entirely different beast, however. His latest horror outing, the remake of  William Lustig’s 1980 cult slasher, proved that Khalfoun knows how to unravel a tale of suspense that is both bloody as hell and just as disturbing. Essentially, he’s the kind of director you want steering a franchise like this one. Now, we have a trailer for Amityville: The Awakening, giving us our very first look at what Khalfoun has in store. How does it look? I’ll get to that.

The film is about exactly what you would expect it to be about as it follows a single mother who moves her three children into the haunted house not knowing of its terrifying backstory. Maybe, you know, do a little research next time? There is a twist in here, though, as they have come up with a new angle on the classic story by having the son—who is in a coma—slowly transform into something monstrous. That’s what it looks like to me at least. Could this simple change-up in the story be enough to put the genre’s most haunted house back on the right track?

So how does the trailer look? A little disappointing, actually. I’m not writing this thing off just yet, simply because I think Khalfoun is one of the genres most exciting directors right now, so I’m definitely going to give it a shot. The trailer pulls on the strings of some typical jump scares, but at the same time offer couple of shots that tickle the nerves. The monster in the trailer, for example, looks pretty wicked and will no doubt be the one element that makes or breaks the movie.