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Based on "the only documented
case in US history of a spirit causing a person's death", the story of An American Haunting
revolves around Farmer John Bell (Donald Sutherland) and wife Lucy's (Sissy Spacek) otherwise quiet existence in Red River, Tennessee in year 1818. Bell gets into a dispute with a tenant, a woman he has overcharged, and is found to be guilty of usury by the Church council. The woman, who is believed to be a witch, curses Bell and soon several ghostly visitations take place nightly in the Bell residence, having as its main target the Bells' adolescent daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Ward). Betsy dozes off in school, having been kept awake by the nocturnal hauntings when she is dragged across the room, suspended in mid-air and is mercilessly slapped in the face by an unseen hand. Schoolmaster Richard Powell (James D'Arcy) is at first skeptical but his reason slowly gives way to belief as he experiences the phenomena which persists even after the Bells' family friend James Johnston (Matthew Marsh) tries to exorcise the house of demons.
Writer-director Courtney Solomon impresses the viewer with his expert build-up of tension.
The terror in An American Haunting
does not depend on bloody killings, House-of-Horror costumes, cinematic make up, and outlandish apparitions—it's all in the atmosphere. A door knob turning, windows shutting violently, the howling of a wolf, windblown curtains are all very ordinary horror-movie ingredients but in An American Haunting they take on a hair-raising character as they are masterfully mixed with perfectly timed sound effects and background music. The result is an atmosphere of eerie suspense that grips the audience to the end. Nowadays when horror movies are a dime a dozen, you seldom find one you can sit through without feeling you've been had with all that CGI (Computer Generated Images). An American Haunting is an exception: it permeates the story with evil that is almost palpable despite its invisibility.
Fear is the main emotion gripping the characters in An American Haunting. Fear
of witchcraft and curses. Fear of demons.
Fear of the unknown. Fear of an overpowering force. One may ask, "If the house is so possessed, why don't they just leave it after the second night or so?" Indeed, one may wonder why, in spite of their religious intonations the demons grow more destructive, and yet the Bell family does not think of moving out. Are they hoping the evil spirits would just one day change their mind and pack off? In the face of terrifying events, it seems no one in the story seems able to think clearly. But well towards the end of the film, it becomes apparent to the viewer that the poltergeist activity, now attacking even Betsy's father John Bell, is caused by something other than a witch's curse. Observant viewers would not fail to notice what director Solomon tries to say by symbolic elements and images—but like a good thriller that it is, An American Haunting leaves viewers to form their own conclusions that the writers of history may have chosen to be silent about.
(Date Reviewed: 16 June 2006)
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