|
 |
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
An American Haunting
Feature Film Review
by
Carlos R Savournin
The lights dim. We sink in our seats, and before the movie even begins, we are warned with a legend that reads: Based on the true events of the only documented case in US history in which a spirit killed a man. Just when we thought there was no such thing as a good horror movie anymore, we’re about to discover an actual haunting portrayed through the brilliant acting of the legendary Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek. What we don’t realize at the time, however, is that this so called documented case took place in the early 1800’s, a time where young girls were being accused of witchcraft and hanged – and it immediately ruins the credibility of the “based on true events” line.
John Bell (Sutherland) and his wife, Lucy (Spacek) are land owners in a rural Tennessee town. Their family is quaint, and the house in which they live is made up of nothing but love and caring. But when their daughter, Betsy (newcomer Rachel Hurd-Wood) begins to have violent nightmares, the Bells wonder if something sinister is at fault. Every night, as Betsy sleeps, her nightmares become more threatening, and an invisible visitor tears the sheets off her bed. It isn’t until the family witnesses Betsy dragged across the floor, lifted into the air and being physically slapped by their ghostly visitor that they realize a curse has been set upon their family. Exorcisms and prayers are no match for the angry spirit, and shortly after it is bored with Betsy, it begins to terrorize the rest of the family.
Courtney Solomon (Dungeons and Dragons) wrote, produced and directed the cast in what seems to be better off as a made-for-TV movie. The dialogue is weak, the plot itself is shady, and like all other PG-13 horror movies, the scariest thing about it was realizing how much one spent to watch it.
An American Haunting, the first of very few horror films to hit theaters this season, paints a dark picture for the genre and does nothing for fans of scare-fests. Save for the performances of Sutherland and Spacek, the movie would have been better off going straight to video and avoid the embarrassment of a short theater life.
This film is the quintessential reason why audiences flee from the horror genre. It just goes to prove that there really is no such thing as a good horror movie anymore. Directors and writers are seeking to remake classics such as last year’s The Amityville Horror and this summer’s The Omen (in which Spacek also stars) to try and resurrect the truly scary. Even the only original ideas aren’t even original at all. An American Haunting borrows from dozens of other ghost-in-the-house movies and it tries to justify its hour and a half bore fest by delivering a weak twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan turn in his grave…if he was dead. Even the opening warning blatantly lied; it might have been a documented case in the US about a ghost – but it certainly did not kill a man. It does, however, bore an audience to death.
With superior being a bright full moon, this movie rates:
TO COMMENT ON THS ARTICLE CLICK HERE
© Savournin, 2006
