An.american Haunting

[Smacka Shock]

AnAmerican Haunting is a 2005 supernatural horror film written and directed by Courtney Solomon and starring Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek, James D'Arcy, and Rachel Hurd-Wood. The film was previewed at the AFI Film Festival on November 5, 2005 and was released in the UK on April 14, 2006 with follow-up in US theaters on May 5. The film is an international co-production between the United Kingdom, Canada, Romania, and the United States.[citation needed]It opened #2 in the US, staying in the top ten films for 6 weeks. This success resulted in a long-term distribution and co-production arrangement with Lionsgate Films.

The film is based on the novel The Bell Witch: An American Haunting by Brent Monahan. The events in the novel are based on the legend of the Bell Witch. The film switches from the 21st century to the 19th, and features a subplot about a recently divorced mother (Susan Almgren) whose daughter (Isabelle Almgren-Dor) is going through something like the same experience as Betsy Bell.

A terrified young girl runs through the forest and into her house to escape from an unseen threat. When she sees the Bell Witch, a ghost that takes the form of a girl, she awakens with a scream. Her mother dismisses it as a dream and reminds her that this is her week to visit her father. The mother goes to her desk and picks up a binder full of old letters, with a note from someone who claims to be an ancestor. The letters appear written in 19th-century script.

The story goes back to the early 19th-century to show the Bell Witch's story. John Bell is taken to church court and found guilty of the theft of a woman's land. The church releases him with the verdict that his loss of honor is sufficient punishment. The offended party, Kate Batts, is infamous in the village due to claims of witchcraft.

Strange events begin to occur and John believes that Batts cursed him. Betsy starts to look very sick and the haunting worsens. Her young teacher, Richard Powell, notices the change in Betsy's behavior. The Bell family tells him they fear that the cause is paranormal. Powell attempts to prove that this is impossible because spirits don't exist. It is implied that Richard is in love with Betsy.

Richard stays in the Bell home to observe Betsy's behavior. His theory is proven wrong when he witnesses Betsy dangling in the air, as if someone is holding her up by her hair. Betsy is sexually assaulted by the spirit. John loses his sanity and sees many forms of the Bell Witch. John asks Kate Batts to kill him and remove her curse. She refuses and tells him that he cursed himself. John tries to kill himself, but the spirit stops him.

Betsy is struck with a revelation that the attacks on her and her father are caused by a supernatural being who was born out of her innocence. She needed to "remember" that the true cause of her pain is her father's child sexual abuse of her. Lucy, Betsy's mother, has the same revelation because she witnessed the sexual assault, which she and Betsy repressed. Betsy poisons her now bed-ridden father with medicine while her mother watches. Betsy is then seen at her father's grave, and she is never haunted again.

In present day, the mother's daughter says her father has come to take her for their weekend stay. She sends her daughter to her ex-husband, who is waiting outside. Betsy's ghost suddenly appears and looks ominous. The mother realizes Betsy is trying to warn her that something is amiss between her daughter and her ex-husband.

She runs out of her house and catches a glimpse of her daughter's worried face peering out from the car window as it drives away; the implication is that the father is sexually abusing her. She runs after her ex-husband's car, frantically yelling his name.

An American Haunting was panned by critics, holding a 38/100 rating on Metacritic, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[2] Rotten Tomatoes reports a 14% rating from 71 reviews; the consensus states: "Well, it looks good. But wasn't it supposed to be scary?"[3]

The book claims to be an edited memoir of a man, a local school teacher, who married the daughter of the man whom the Bell witch wanted dead. His perspective on the events that transpired in the early 1820s is both that of an outsider and an insider. As the outsider, he retells the events that the local populace sees, hears, and talks about. The witch is a most interesting character, with four specific and distinct voices and not a few quirks and eccentricities. He tells this part of the story with a great deal of color and the lingering sense of dread that a continual haunting presents.

I found this novel on a Buzzfeed list of scary novels to read around Halloween. I had high hopes that it might be a historical account of the Bell family and the facts surrounding the numerous accounts of the Bell Witch. I was very, very wrong.

The Bell Witch is a short little novel, under two hundred pages. All I can say is thank goodness. By page one hundred, I was frustrated. Fifty pages later, I was getting ready to tear my hair out. I finally finished the book yesterday evening and actually gave a sigh of relief.

I can sum up my problem with The Bell Witch in one short sentence. It is boring. Presented in its book jacket as nonfiction, this is instead a fictionalized account masquerading as a recovered letter. This letter, which drags on with no chapter breaks, chronicles in agonizing detail the account of the least frightening spirit ever recorded. An unnecessarily racist spirit too, as the author insists on dropping the n-word around like bigoted breadcrumbs. If this was supposed to add historical accuracy it was a horrid misstep, as it simply upped my lack of sympathy for any of the idiots that were supposedly involved in the haunting.

Scary movie violence and jump scenes; magical ferocious wolves attack John; an invisible force pulls off Betsy's blanket, drags her, holds her above floor and slaps her, spins her, causes bleeding around her crotch; speeding carriage hits a tree and flips over suddenly; men use guns to shoot at deer and a wolf; man invites "witch" to shoot him (she holds pistol to his head but won't shot); man then tries to shoot himself but the gun won't fire; mother poisons her husband.

Parents need to know that the movie, which claims to be inspired by a true case, involves two levels of evil curse: The first is apparently cast by an irate neighbor (here called a witch); the second is more dreadful, covered up by the first: The father sexually abuses his daughter, and she retaliates. There's loud, frightening music, several jump scenes, and spooky handheld camerawork through dark stairwells, hallways, and woods. The evil force abuses the little girl mercilessly: it drags her, rips her blanket off, slaps her, throws her against walls, appears to molest her, makes her scream repeatedly. (It also scares her little girlfriend, who sleeps over one night.) Force also attacks the father, in the form of a wolf, visible to him, invisible to everyone else. Early party scene features drunken characters. A mother poisons a father, and a 21st-century mom realizes too late that her daughter is also being abused. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.

When a 21st-century girl begins to suffer from nightmares, her mother discovers she's been reading a diary and begins reading it herself. Here begin the flashbacks about Lucy Bell (Sissy Spacek), whose family is cursed by neighbor Kate Batts (Gaye Brown) over a loan dispute. The curse shows itself as an evil force that brutally, and frequently, attacks young Betsy Bell (Rachel Hurd-Wood). Betsy's mom and dad, John (Donald Sutherland), try to help, but they're no match for the evil force. John eventually begs Kate Batts to lift the curse, and even to shoot him to save the girl (he also attempts to shoot himself), but he is soon afflicted by the force as well -- in the form of a wolf only he sees, and in convulsions, illness, and eventually, death.

The overwrought, disjointed AN AMERICAN HAUNTING reportedly draws from a real life "documented" haunting in 1817 Tennessee, the "Bell Witch Haunting." This same case has inspired books (including the source for this script, a novel by Brent Monahan) and films. But while Courtney Solomon's movie is aesthetically intelligent, it does appear that something was lost in the editing: Scenes appear without clear connections or order, character motivations are lost, and logic (granted, not crucial in a scary movie) seems an afterthought.

The film proposes -- SPOILER ALERT -- that the cause of all the ruckus is John's sexual abuse of Betsy. Lucy writes, "In some way, it was a part of something that you created to protect yourself." But this "protection" is horrifically self-ravaging, and leaves Betsy damaged for life... and death. It appears that her haunting of the present-day girl is an effort to warn the mother that this daughter is also abused by her father. Be forewarned: This is a grim film. Betsy is assaulted repeatedly and viciously, a pattern that makes the movie painful to watch.

Families can talk about the film's elusive scares. Aside from the conventional cues (loud music, dark spaces, handheld camera, jump scenes), the movie uses implied threats and unseen forces: What are the effects of these strategies? You might also want to talk about ghosts and witches' curses, and the idea that the "true story" assumes their existence and effects.

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John Bell is the main antagonist of the film An American Haunting. He is a fictionalized version of the real-life historical figure who family was part of the Bell Witch haunting from 1817-1820.

Kate Batts, who had a reputation of being a witch, in which he gave her the use of a slave and a loan of $100 in return for the right to use a plot of her land. When Batts did not repay the loan within two years, Bell seized the land. Bell charged her 20% interest. According to church canon, 20% interest was considered usury (lending money and charging the borrower interest at an exorbitant or illegally high rate). Consequently, the church court decided that ownership of the land was to be returned to Batts but that the profit drawn from the land by Bell remained with him. As for the charge of usury, the court ruled that the loss of Bell's good name was remuneration enough. Batts was not happy with the decision and, as Bell left the church, Batts confronted Bell and told him to treasure what he has for a darkness will fall upon him and his daughter Betsy.

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