An American Haunting

source: An American Haunting

This is going to be a short review, because I can sum up pretty quickly what was bad about this movie: everything! From the performances (shame on you Mr. Sutherland and shame on you, Mrs. Spacek), to the super-confusing, ridiculous plot, to the tiresome, amateurish direction this American crapfest is a lesson in how to completely screw up. Whoever came up with such a crappy story in the first place needs to donate his paycheck to all the jobless screenwriters out there who have much better ideas that will never get made. The most offending thing is when a caption reads: "This movie is based on true events". Yeah, right. Reality sucks, but thank God it's nowhere near as awful as this movie.

I've been born and raised in Tennessee, only 172 miles away from Adams. I've always been interested in the paranormal, and of course I'm a fan of the infamous Bell Witch. When I was younger I did research on the topic, and was quite disappointed when I went to the movie. For one thing: Betsy Bell was never raped by her father, as the movie portrayed. If this was supposed to add drama, it didn't do a good job of it - it only added more confusion. And even my husband was disappointed. We both were - we love horror movies, especially paranormal thrillers. This just didn't cut it. I thought it looked great from the previews, but looks can be deceiving. The only good thing about the movie was James D'Arcy (who plays the schoolteacher, Richard Powell). At least he was something to look at...and that's sad if the movie was supposed to be great. In short: Save your money, or march your butt back to the theater and demand a refund.

An American Haunting is a very well made film.it boasts solid acting,good dialogue and is well paced. it also has some good special effects.there is also a very haunting musical score which elevates this movie.beyond that though this is a creepy film.there is one sequence in particular which made my blood run cold.overall,though,i wouldn't call it terrifying,but it make you uneasy.the movie presents a twist toward the latter half which carries over into the final scene.An American Haunting has the tag-line based on true events,and again what that means is anyone's guess.if you want a film that will give you the creeps,check this one out. 8/10

An American Haunting is a fantastic, fright-filled film. All the actors have done an amazing job, especially Rachel Hurd-Wood (Betsy Bell) who has given an outstanding performance. This movie made me jump from start till finish and thats really what i love about horror films. What makes it even better is that it's based on a true story. I cant think of one negative comment about this film, its one of my favorites and i urge anyone who might be reading this to go see it. Courtney Soloman has made a film for the ages and hasn't made one mistake in my view. I plan on seeing this film again and again (allready privileged enough to have seen it at the AFI festival in November). Its thrilling, will keep you at the edge of your seat, and definitely one of the most brilliant films announced for 2006.

Prior to seeing the film I read the book of the same title and thought it was one of the best ghost stories I had ever read. I also researched the bell witch legend. I couldn't wait for the movie expecting the talents of Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek to bring the story to life. I was to be very disappointed, finding the film left out almost all the aspects of the book that made the story suspenseful and "believable". Basically the film was a confusing mess and had I not read the book would have had no idea what was going on. I expected the film to follow the very intriguing bell witch legend but found it only did so loosely...a shame.

Darkness. The lights go out, I am prepared for the cinema about to be presented. Flash. The screen is lit, silver and glowing, I am slowly consuming my popped corn. Drawn. Into the movie, interested, interested. Intrigued. I keep watching, it makes me question, it makes me think. Haunted. I'm rather pleased, the acting of the stars, the stars in general. Frightening. They show you so little, but so much, it keeps you guessing, and builds suspense. Haunted. It left a mark, I do agree, this movie's done it's job. It informed me, but left me wanting more. Satisfied. It wasn't the greatest movie ever, but I definitely enjoyed myself. Intrigued. Research the history of the Bell Witch for myself?

I was really excited to see Sissy Spacek coming back to the genre for this one, and when has Donald Sutherland ever been bad, and they are both amazing in they're separate shining moments before they get thrown in the background. I love the old Bell Witch story and thought a retelling on a big budget would be awesome. But the story was jumbled ( the molestation thing was just dumb) the fact that the director relied on changing the color on screen to make things creepy annoyed me ( it seemed too digital) I felt like they were showing scenes over and over again. In summary: The movie didn't even scare my girlfriend, who got so scared during The Exorcism Of Emily Rose she started too cry. And they shouldn't call it an American haunting if most of it was filmed in romania

I love ghost stories but this was so disappointing. The acting was uniformly dire. Every-one involved was stilted ,wooden and one-dimensional. It was full of clichés and if you couldn't see the plot twist coming you seriously need to get your eyes tested. This had the effect that it was obvious what was behind it all, what needed to be done to solve the problem and identified who would get their comeuppance. The only mystery was why everyone else , apart from the suspected witch , was too dim to spot this. One of those movies where you come out thinking I've just wasted 90 minutes of my life which I'll never get back

An American Haunting is pretty good as far as horror films go, however that is mainly because the film is actually based on true events. I remembered that I read about the Bell ghost story in elementary school. This movie was not all blood and guts and scary monsters. It is the old style horror. Thriller and suspenseful horror. The story was decent and I also feel it was a scary movie, right up to the ending. The movie builds up this sense of horror inside this evil house, but then ends with a silly sequence that supposedly ties everything together. I'd give the movie a B- and Rachel an A+. Rachel really had me on edge with all the horrible stuff that she had going on.