American Haunting

Out of sheer curiosity I was offered to attend a screening of the world premier of 'American Haunting" -- so I went assuming it was going to be just another kind of scary -- kind of twisted -- kind of blasphemous -- kind of whatever -- kind of films -- WoW I was completely wrong in more ways than I can possible say! WOW! That is the best I can muster! This film kicked my butt up down and sideways. From the moment it starts up until the very last breath it toys with you, teases you, and never prepares you for something so intelligent at the climax that its hard to guess why someone hasn't done this kind of film before. My guess, is they don't have the talent or the guts that the filmmaker had -- not to mention the cast; or the composer for that matter. My god it rocked me and I'm betting it will definitely rock a hell of a lot of people who dare go see it. WoW! Count the days til this comes out -- you wont regret it -- seriously. Its one of a kind on all fronts. I decided to write this because I cant stop telling every single person I know how freaking scary the damn thing was. WOW!

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.

Let's say it flat out, An American Haunting is the scariest, most intelligent ghost story to hit the screen in two decades. More original than The Others (which was a watered down cocktail of The Innocents and The Sixth Sense), and ten times more effective than the pallid The Exorcism of Emily Rose, An American Haunting wastes no time in setting itself up as a thriller with something more on its mind than just simply rehashing the same old grab bag scare tactics that every 'Exorcist' remake/rehash resorts to. Based on The Bell Witch, an apparently true account of demonic possession that resulted in the first recorded case of a ghost actually killing a human being over a hundred and fifty years ago in Tennessee, the film elevates itself by not wallowing in cheap tricks to scare you, and by always taking the high road. And, by doing so it creates it's very own world, a unnerving mood and an a undercurrent that prevails throughout until, when you least expect it - it strikes out, grabs you by the throat, and doesn't let go until the very last frame. The sheer terror of waiting and watching until the entire story unfolds (in a way you least expect) is so original and surprising, that by the time the finale hits you, it shatters you like no other horror film you've ever seen . The performances by Donald Sutherland and Rachel Hurd-Wood are first rate. It's their story all the way, and the beauty and generosity of the other actors subtle, effective performance (especially Sissy Spacek) is a testament to their respect of the material. But the real star of this film is director/writer Courtney Solomon. After having recovered from the bollocking he took for the impossible task of bringing Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie, to the screen Mr Solomon has rebounded with a story he was born to tell, and the result is an assured, first rate thriller, told with intelligence, force, style and wit. It's a roller coaster ride all the way, so fasten your seat belts. The audience I saw it with at the AFI Film Festival could not have been more responsive. You could actually feel the hair on the back of your neck standing up. The cinematography by master Adrian Biddle and the score by Caine Davidson are first rate, and help propel you into an unforgettable ghost story that will linger in your memory and haunt your dreams/nightmares for months after.

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.