Watch An American Haunting For Free

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

The acting in this movie is not bad but what else would you expect with Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek in it? The real problem that I have with this film is it purports to be based on a real event. About the only things that are real here are the characters names. Some one decided to make John Bell the nasty rapist father. While common enough even back then I imagine, there is nothing to support this libelous assertion. In the actual legend the spirit is around for several years before Bell dies. This spirit becomes more and more understandable until it can be heard reciting sermons, scripture, bawdy songs, etc. It supposedly even carried on conversations with people. If that had occurred why wouldn't it have said something about the assaults? In this movie it is Betsy who is suppose to be projecting the spirit as a protest for the rapes. The end of the movie is a joke. As a later day relative reads the suddenly found letter about the events in 1817 her daughter is picked up by daddy for visitation. Then as they drive away the spirit appears and she goes running after the departing car. This is where this movie ends. If not for the really good acting I would have given it a three.

With a title like, "An American Haunting", many viewers won't be surprised that Canadians were involved with its production. And knowing that Canadians were involved, they will have probably concluded that the movie is bad. And they would be right. I guess the production values are okay for a movie without a Hollywood blockbuster budget, but there is pretty much nothing else positive I can find here. The main problem is that there is almost no plot - it's just one ghost attack after another, with little to nothing to advance the story between these attacks. And the ghost attacks themselves are not the least bit scary. The filmmakers try to juice things up with frenzied camera movements and screaming, but this fails to liven these parts of the movie. And what does the modern day prologue/ending have to do with the bulk of the movie? The only interesting thing the movie teaches us is that ghosts like to repeatedly slap people in the face.

It seems that quite a few people don't like "period pieces" unless they come wrapped in 21st century prejudices and simplistic 'plastic' packaging. American Haunting has an excellent cast, beautiful photography, skilled direction and a nice creepy feel. It's one of the lost "classics" in the genre. Unfortunately, the director and writers chose to use historically accurate language, scenery and behaviors. Viewing and enjoying this film requires enough artistic sensitivity to see and feel what's going on. Apparently, without an ax-murderer and spurting blood, relatively few viewers and reviewers can relate. The creators of the movie were doomed by over-estimating their audience. Also, despite the growing worldwide problem of child abuse, the current response is to censor and condemn even those who try to examine the issue. I wonder how many people completely miss the source and psychological depth of the "terror" in this movie.