An American Haunting (2005) is a fairly weak film. The acting is pretty mediocre, even laughable at certain moments. Sissy Spacek was really the only actor that I thought did a pretty good job. Donald Sutherland was surprisingly weak and seemed kinda lazy in this film, which is surprising, he usually does a pretty good job in his movies, but not this one. This movie isn't all that scary really, some of the sequences are actually more funny than scary, which is always bad for a horror movie. There is one sequence in particular where a character is slapped around, and it just looks so horribly cheesy and fake that it kinda makes you laugh. The child actors just aren't good either, they're acting is wooden and completely Fake. The effects are just alright, honestly nothing dazzling. This films plot is very very unoriginal and cliché. There really isn't anything new to see here that you haven't already seen before, and there definitely isn't anything of any good quality. The "scary" scenes that are supposed to scare you do nothing whatsoever, they just leave you scratching your head and wanting a whole lot more. An American Haunting could've been so much better, I mean so much better, it wasted its potential. The writing and directing were also pretty weak, the dialogue was cheesy and very cliché. Do yourself a favor and don't see this poor horror film, there are much better horrors to enjoy that are higher quality. 1/10 for An American Haunting.

Ran into this while looking for a horror movie to watch on a Saturday evening. I'm not really into gory horror, but this kind of psychological and maybe supernatural is more my cup of tea. It looked like an atmospheric piece with foggy scenery, old houses, churches, autumnal feel with some candles and fireplaces etc. Cast looked good, I'm a fan of Donald Sutherland and why not Sissy Spacek too. Only I was a bit suspicious since this had flown under my radar. Out of all the many many "haunting" movies to come out during this millennium, I didn't recall this one.If only I had realized the movie was directed by the same guy who did the infamous Dungeon's and Dragons back in the day. The director is not a very well known "bad director", because he only has a few movies under his resume, but none of them seem to have a very good reputation. Had I known this, I would surely have passed this.The movie is never very engaging. The atmosphere and scenery is OK, but the camera work is not. The camera moves in a very distracting manner and the shots are not very well framed in my opinion. The sets look OK, but details fail like a fireplace looks like a few fake logs on a gas fire. So much for the genuine 1800's feel. The acting is everything from downright bad to mediocre. Even Sutherland doesn't nail it, there are a few scenes that are rather cringe worthy. Rachel Hurd-Wood is OK tho, I think she does quite well and is never as lost or overacting as the others.The movie isn't very scary and since the outcome is obviously non-supernatural, it's difficult to digest all the supernatural stuff. There are cheapish tricks like the image changing from black and white to color. The sound fx were not that good, listening with headphones. The title graphics uses a typeface that is probably called "The horror movie font" on a site providing royalty free fonts. The overall feel was quite cheap and lacks any sense of style. The framing story of a single mother and a daughter living in a modern world is quite tacky too.This could've been passable as a shorter episode of Masters of Horror style series, as it's got that cheap TV feel, but even then it would've been a disappointment. Avoid.

Based on the Brent Monahan novel about the true life haunting of John & Lucy Bell(played by Donald Sutherland & Sissy Spacek) in 1818 Tennessee. After a land dispute goes against her, neighbor Kate Batts was reported to have cursed the Bell family, and soon after, the family(and daughter Betsy in particular) were terrorized by an unseen entity who both physically and psychologically tormented them. A local schoolteacher named Richard Powell documented the supernatural events, and that became the manuscript that was used by the author. The film has a fictional framing device of a modern girl who learns of these events from an old letter.Though the novel is an engrossing read, and the film filled with potential, it was sadly squandered in this woefully inept, turgid version with wrongheaded embellishments and over reliance in visual effects. Cast tries their best, but poorly directed and adapted film is dreadful. Deserves a proper re-filming of this most compelling story.

An American Haunting is set in Red River in Tennessee in 2006 where a teenage girl named Jane (Isabelle Almgren-Doré) has been having violent nightmares, her mother Elizabeth (Susan Almgren) sits down to read a diary found in their attic. The diary dates from 1817 & was written by a woman named Lucy Bell (Sissy Spacek) who lived in the house with her husband John Bell (Donald Sutherland) & their two teenage children Betsy (Rachel Hurd Wood) & John Jr. (Thom Fell). The diary tells of the terrible events which have become known as the 'The Bell Witch Haunting' & begins as John Bell is excommunicated from the local Church after being found guilty of breaking Church law by charging 20% interest on a small loan to a woman named Kathe Batts (gaye Brown) who is known to be a witch & who places a curse upon John Bell & his entire family. Soon after John's daughter Betsy is attacked at night in her bedroom by an evil ghost, the attacks continue which threaten the whole family...This British, Romanian, Canadian & American co-production was written, produced & directed by Courtney Solomon whose only other directorial credit is the much derided board game adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons (2000), An American haunting is supposedly based on a true story which this film apparently represents reasonably well but there's very little evidence to support anything in this film or the events it's based upon being true. In fact the main inspiration for An American Haunting was the novel 'The Bell Witch: An American Haunting' by Brett Monahan first published in 1995 & was clearly written & sold as a work of fiction, not fact so that just about says all you need to know how historically factual this is. To be fair to An American Haunting it's not the worst film I have ever seen, generally speaking I don't like haunted house horror flicks that much as I find they are all the same with doors opening & closing on their own, light turning on & off & loud noises coming from dark corners that usually turn out to be Cat's or windows banging & offer little variety but An American Haunting is well made & I liked the 19th Century period setting. There's a sudden twist ending which is actually a little difficult to understand as it is in the film & I admit I had to look on the IMDb's FAQ page & have it laid out for me but it does actually make sense to me now I have had it explained, it's not the greatest twist ending & it comes from nowhere as there's no real reference or hint to it anytime before but the effort is appreciated anyway. Unfortunately the script is rather bare, it goes from one loud ghostly attack to another in quick succession without really stopping to let the story develop, the character's to react to what's going on & besides the ghostly encounters there's very little else to the film beside the final twist.Available in a theatrical PG version an an Unrated cut that significantly alters the plot, much of the text from the start & end of the film is removed distancing itself from the true story claims & there are lots of changes throughout although there is no extra violence or gore, I have based my review on the Unrated version which appears to the the most widely available. The film looks nice with impressive production design, apparently the house where the film is set is an almost identical replica of the actual Bell residence recreated from historic photo's. There's lots of CGI here, shots of Betsy being dragged across her room, lifted up & slapped around with ridiculously overdone sound effects set the tone for the entire style of the film as director Solomon has no idea how to build suspense or tension & he has never heard of the word subtle either. Every other scene seems to be an attack or a cheap scare or an encounter with a ghost.With a supposed budget of about $14,000,000 this looks nice, the production design reminded me of a cheaper Sleepy Hollow (1999) with it's woods, old wooden houses & gloomy colour palette. Filmed in Bucharest in Romania & Québec in Canada despite being set entirely in the US. The acting is fine, veterans Donald Sutherland & Sissy Spacek provide decent performances while the rest of the cast are alright.An American haunting isn't as bad as I thought it would be without exactly being great either, it's an OK haunted house horror with the advantage of a good cast, nice production values & a memorable twist ending that doesn't make perfect sense but I'll take it none the less. An American Haunting could have been better sure but it could also have been a lot worse.