An American Haunting

There are countless scenes of poor Betsy being held up and pimp-slapped around by an invisible force. Perhaps it speaks to my own maturity, but it just kept getting funnier every time it happened.

That aside, this is overall a dull story. The framing device of a modern-day single mother moving into an old house and reading a letter is clunky, and the fact that the present day scenes only exist as bookends just makes them feel disconnected. Perhaps if the film had jumped back and forth between past and present it would have worked better? As it was, by the time it gets back to the present, I'd all but forgotten that I wasn't watching a period piece.

With the period piece, which makes up most of the run time, it feels like they didn't know quite where the story was going, and it drags on and on. The twist ending is pretty obvious, but the director chose to include a sequence of flashbacks to all the times it was foreshadowed, which frankly feels a bit insulting - "See, it's been happening all along under your nose, aren't I sneaky?"

I admit to being scared easily, but this film isn't scary. There's no tension built, nor really any scares throughout, it never seems to get going, and as I mentioned before, the dramatic scenes came across as comical. The soundtrack is melodramatic and the intricate sweeping camera work and shifts between colour and black and white don't serve any purpose.

All in all, this feels like a good idea that needed a lot of refinement and a better director. I will probably watch poor Betsy get smacked up again though, if only to cackle at it.

A divorced mother is living in the woods with her daughter suffering from nightmares. She finds a letter from 1848 by the previous occupant recounting the tale of the Bell Witch. It's 1817 Red River, Tennessee. The church finds John Bell (Donald Sutherland) of usury for charging 20% interest against rumored witch Kate Batts. However Batts doesn't get her expected reciprocity and vows revenge on him and his beloved daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood).

It looks good but there are few scares. The jump scares come with regularity which only makes it less scary. It's a lot of loud surprise noises and horror soundtrack. Sutherland and Sissy Spacek seem to be slumming it here in this one. This could work with Rachel Hurd-Wood front and center. Instead the movie starts with another girl in a different time period. It takes awhile to get to her and the movie keeps going back to the veterans. The reveal is problematic and a little bit confusing. This is a fair ghost story but it isn't scary.

I really don't have any major complaints about the film except it was more of a visual-audio experience than a memorable story. That makes me wonder how times I would watch this, since I already own a lot of great visual movies. Cinematography-wise, this film reminded me a bit of Sleepy Hollow, but not quite as dramatically filmed as that. There also is excellent 5.1surround sound in here. Being a ghost story, and one that is trying to scare the viewer here and there, sudden jolts of sound is important and utilized well here.

I also appreciated this was done without almost any profanity and with famous actors like Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek. I expected some Bible-bashing since that's normally the case in these ghost or witch stories, but it wasn't bad here. However, the "surprise" almost political-correctness ending didn't really surprise me, considering how films are these days.

A decent movie but 50-50 whether I would watch it again.

After finding a long-lost letter, a family finds that their ancestors living in the house where once the targets of a supposed haunting unleashed by a vengeful neighbor over land-rights issues and tried to find a way of stopping the haunting from continuing to strike the family.

There wasn't a whole lot here that works, but what does is of big importance. The main thing that this one does do well is force the viewer into accepting the distorted reality presented here, making it think that this is actually going on rather than being a simple curse. It starts as a series of inconsequential importance, from hallucinations written off as being tired or creaks and moans in the night before becoming full-blown supernatural plagues, all building up to the next encounter to make this more creepy and unexpected. This also makes the pacing seem incredibly quick and rapid, as this never once loses steam once the activity starts to affect them with the ghost visiting her in the bedroom or the school encounter on the swing, leaving it all the more enjoyable. That carries over into the later half where this is able to include some really spectacular set- pieces as the second bedroom encounter is a long, drawn-out and protracted torture sequence all done in a straightforward style that leaves all the dragging around and slapping thrown in. the vertical suspension gag works wonderfully and that it takes place in front of helpless witnesses makes this the greatest moment in the film. The later scenes are also quite fun, including a spectacular scene with all the characters in a central room as the presence circling about and a later scene where the various candles in the room immediately melt down to the wicks in an impressive visual, making this a quite impressive overall type of scene. The flash jumps with the little child are cliché but effective in the context of the film, and there's plenty to enjoy about it as well. This one isn't all that bad. This here doesn't have a whole lot of flaws, but they are pretty big ones. The most obvious one is the film's incredibly illogical and quite infuriating ending. This here was built up incredibly well as a supernatural entity being loosened upon the family, and instead of the majority of the time discovering who would be responsible for doing so the end thrusts this quite senseless storyline into view which is wrong on several levels. First, the nature of what the twist implies isn't even close to what happened historically, which is what the story concerns itself to be, and second is that the implication of this isn't handled all that well. There are several instances where what the twist shifts the story into contradicts what has happened to a degree that doesn't make sense since so many of those events feature the participant as a witness to the scene and couldn't have had it transpired through the motion the twist makes it out to be. The other big flaw is that this here tried to keep itself way too tame for no reason, alleviating the possibility of really tapping into the storyline because it's forced to keep it all vague and tame due to its rating despite the subject matter. These are the film's main drawbacks.

Rated PG-13: Mild Language, Mild Violence, Rape and strong themes of incest.

Acting. Thats the most noticeable thing you will find in this movie. All the characters have performed well and acted according to the period of the story. I haven't watched Bell Witch Haunting (2004) but I have read a lot about the original legend. Instead of retelling the actual event, this movie revolves around it, giving us an entirely different interpretation of the haunting. Also, it tells nothing about General Andrew Jackson who visited Bell's family during that time and later became the American President. Its worthy to note that he was once quoted as saying - "I'd rather face the whole British Army, than face the Bell Witch again".

Around 1818, a farming family living in Tennessee is haunted by a spirit, the most affected ones being the daughter Betsy and the father John Bell. While the father's health deteriorates, the daughter gets all poltergeistic treatment. Slowly, they suspect the woman (also witch?) Kate Batts who previously has some legal issues with John and curses him that he and his daughter will suffer for his deeds. The haunting gets worse and the family members try to fight back the ghost in their own ways. By the end, when they seem to have abandoned their faith, the spirit itself reveals the reason for its existence.

The scary scenes are predictable but good. The notable ones are the first major attack on Betsy, the swing encounter, Richard's questions, John's visions, the cave and the best of all is the chariot ride. Excellent cinematography. A few good things in this movie keep us on the edge and makes us wait for the best part. But that best part never comes.

The fictional ending, though unexpected and slightly shocking, is not conceived properly. The movie begins with a Night-Shyamalan-like atmosphere. Most of it feels like as if you are watching The Village. Later it goes on to remind us of The Poltergeist, The Exorcist, Child's Play and several others, even The Omen. The ending is tried in a Lynchian manner - just tried. Sadly, it doesn't register in us at all.

Overall, this movie has good acting, good cinematography, few honestly scaring scenes and a different interpretation to the original Bell Witch Haunting. Nevertheless, it has a confused screenplay, half-baked script and an overhasty direction. The slow scenes are empty and the fast scenes are packed. So the balance is knocked out and what results is boredom. Watch it for the good aspects but make sure to take lots of popcorn inside the theatre. You'll need them to stay awake.