American Haunting

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.

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.

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.

Where are my series of emojis? I need "eh", "sigh" and finally, snooze.

Look, poltergeist/haunting/possession movies are old hat in my opinion. You'd have to be extremely creative to make something from that genre be fresh, new and compelling. "An American Haunting" was not.

The setting is Tennessee year 1817 and a teenage girl is being harassed by an entity. The family cannot rid themselves of this specter no matter what measures they take. The movie plays out as you would expect with slow build up and a plethora of jump scares (that were anything but--jump annoyances is more accurate).

I patiently suffered through this movie to await the big reveal. Yes, the movie had something of a twist in store but not the least bit satisfying. I will be haunted by this movie and the decision I made to watch it.

A decent movie with good performances by the always wonderful Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland, but one person that stuck out was Rachel Hurd-Wood. I was a little nervous because of the director (Courtney Solomon) last movie which was the terrible Dungeons and Dragons,and I was right... he was not fit for the role of Director. The thing is at some parts made me squeamish and you could actually feel the hair on the back ofyour neck in some parts(SOME IS THE KEY WORD). The cinematography by master Adrian Biddle and the score by Caine Davidson are first rate.The movie is a really clichéd, though and some of the camera angles gave me a headache.