An American Haunting

Did anyone really think writer-director Courtney Solomon deserved a second chance after bringing us 2000's laughable fantasy flick, Dungeons & Dragons? And did anyone really think he was the right person to helm a horror movie? Whoever was behind this "bright" idea will have to live with the shame of An American Haunting for the rest of their lives. This "based on a true story" recounting of the infamous Bell Witch legend that happened in the early 1800s is a repetitive, monotonous, completely ridiculous film that would be hilarious if it didn't take itself so seriously. It's a movie that hits the exact same notes over and over again until the audience just plain gets sick of seeing the ghost doing literally the same thing literally ever 50-70 seconds. Eventually, the movie just stops trying to make any form of sense whatsoever, and turns into a poorly edited parade of flashbacks, dream sequences, nightmares, and other such supernatural schlock. In a year already full of bad horror films, An American Haunting stands head and shoulders above the rest, and is easily one of the worst films of the year.

Set mainly in the year 1818 (except for an extremely pointless bookend sequence set in the present day that opens and closes the story), the film follows the Bell family as they are suddenly attacked by vicious night hauntings, most of them surrounding their teenage daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood from 2003's live action Peter Pan film) who is awakened in the middle of the night by violent visits by an unseen assailant. The head of the family, John Bell (Donald Sutherland), thinks it has to do with a curse that was supposedly placed on him by a local witch whom he cheated in a land deal. His loving wife Lucy (Sissy Spacek) is not sure what to think, and only wishes for the safety of her family. Priests and scholars are called to try to make sense out of the madness, but the paranormal attacks only grow stronger, driving John to the point of near-insanity, and Lucy to ultimately discover the terrifying truth behind the ghostly visits.

Even with a running time that barely stretches past 80 minutes, An American Haunting is one of the most padded and pointless excuses for a horror movie I have ever seen in my life. It's almost as if writer-director Solomon had no idea what he wanted to do with his movie about this supposedly true ghost story, so he simply decided to throw one "ghost attack" scene after another. After a shallow 10 minutes or so of set up, the movie sets into a pattern from which it never escapes. Eerie creaking or moaning or whisperings are heard from somewhere in the house, the adults tip toe about, trying to find the source of the sound, and then suddenly all chaos breaks loose, and teenage daughter Betsy is attacked in her sleep. She's either grabbed by her hair, lifted up into the air, and slapped repeatedly across the face by an unseen presence, or she's literally dragged around the house, up the stairs and even up the walls in sequences that end up resembling less moments of horror and more like slapstick parodies of scenes from The Exorcist. As soon as one ghost attack scene is over, another is ready to start less than a minute later, and that's not an exaggeration. I once decided to check my watch, and counted a good 20 or 30 seconds between the evil ghost's exit and its next appearance. The movie keeps on hitting the same notes and doing the same thing that we just want the movie to be over with before the film hits the 40 minute mark.

The film only becomes worse as it wobbles on to its shaky conclusion, as it completely stops even trying to make the least bit of sense. There is no sense of time, the movie jumping from one scene to another without any rhyme or reason. The entire production looks like it was edited with a chainsaw wielded by a drunk man wearing a blindfold. The movie keeps on throwing ghostly attacks, mysterious wolves that attack in the woods for no reason whatsoever, and filling the soundtrack with ominous music and "creepy" sound effects that sound like they were swiped from a local carnival Spook House. This makes the film's final twist not only completely and absolutely baffling, but also just plain awkward. Things simply happen with no explanation, so there is just no sense in trying to make sense of this jumbled mess of a plot the filmmakers have given us. The movie isn't even interesting to look at in a visual sense. The settings are constantly dark, murky, foggy, or muddied. It's kind of like trying to watch a movie through a dirty window. I can understand that the filmmakers were trying to go for a "drab" look to give the film an ominous tone, but here it backfires and simply makes the movie look ugly. There is not one single moment that works in the entire movie, and not one solitary instance that can convince me anyone involved in this production knew what they were doing.

The real mystery of An American Haunting is just how did a schlocky piece of straight to video-quality horror junk attract such a talented cast? Were their loved ones held at gunpoint? Was blackmail involved? I kept on trying to rationalize Donald Sutherland's presence in this movie. It looks like he's just miserable being in this movie, as does the rest of the cast. Everyone's so down and depressed, even when they're supposed to be celebrating Christmas. Sutherland and Spacek both look lost, as they're given absolutely nothing to do but creep around in the dark, and look in horror as their teenage daughter is beat up by an invisible attacker. The script gives us no insight into the Bell family, so we feel nothing when John starts to feel defeated as the haunting wears on. All I can say is I hope the paycheck was good, because no one involved with this movie is going to be able to live this one down for a long time.

It simply boggles my mind that one single horror movie can find a way to go wrong in so many ways, and yet, An American Haunting continued to surprise me with each passing scene in its total ineptness. I have no real knowledge about the actual Bell Witch legend, so I don't know if it could have been made into a decent movie. All I know is that just about anyone else who tried to tackle this project could have come up with a better final result than this. The fact that this film actually managed to score a full-scale release and is stinking up your local cineplex is all the more terrifying. An American Haunting is junky, pointless, repetitive, and holds absolutely no entertainment value whatsoever. It takes a special kind of bad movie to make me hate it this much. An American Haunting is a very, very special movie indeed in this regard.

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