There are many things in this world I will never understand, and one of them is how this movie's ratings can be so low. Simply put, An American Haunting is the best haunted house movie I have ever seen. I have to admit I did not like or approve of the way the story ended, and the modern-day intro and exit scenes were wholly unnecessary, but everything in between is pure haunted gold. I have to believe that some viewers' dissatisfaction comes from knowing what happens before they see the movie, as even the editorial review on this page reveals one of the film's core secrets. As much as I disapprove of its existence, that particular secret (which bears the unmistakable fingerprints of sleazy Hollywood) plays out beautifully in the film's presentation. Cut out the modern-day cinematic bookends, and this film has one of the most impressive scripts I've come across in some time. The much-ballyhooed cast play up to their potential and then some, the direction is flawless, and the special effects (including the POV scenes that some viewers ridicule) are, to my mind, incredibly effective. I absolutely love An American Haunting.

Basing itself on the only documented case in US history of a spirit causing someone's death, An American Haunting basically markets itself. Don't get too wrapped up in the historicity of this movie, though, as director Courtney Solomon plays fast and loose with the true story of the Bell Witch. The "based on true events" moniker is in fact quite disingenuous, as this movie is really based on Brent Monahan's purely fictional novel The Bell Witch: An American Haunting. Anyone who knows anything about hauntings knows the legend of the Bell Witch, an entity that no less a man than Andrew Jackson supposedly confronted (although there's no evidence to substantiate that claim), but this is not the real Bell Witch's story.

John Bell (Donald Sutherland) was a big man in his little Tennessee town - until the church fathers condemned him for charging Kate Batts too much interest on a loan. Batts, widely reputed to be a witch, openly threatens Bell and his innocent daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood), and it isn't long at all until strange things start happening in and around the Bell home. Bell starts seeing animal spirits that disappear in the wink of an eye, increasingly disturbing scratching and running sounds in the attic and roof begin disturbing the family's sleep, and all too soon young Betsy is targeted for physical abuse by an unseen spirit. John and his wife Lucy (Sissy Spacek) initially believe Betsy is having nightmares, but the sight of their daughter suspended in midair while being slapped around mercilessly by an unseen spirit pretty much puts an end to the nightmare theory. Now desperate, John calls in the local school teacher Richard Powell (James D'Arcy), who insists there is a natural explanation for what is happening - until he sees the entity's handiwork for himself. As the nightly attacks become increasingly violent and terrifying, we witness the toll it takes on everyone concerned, particularly John and Betsy. All the while, almost unnoticeably at times, important little puzzle pieces are being dropped along the way - and that is why the ending, as much as I disapprove of it, works so amazingly well.

I thought the way the director approached the presentation of the attacks was exceedingly effective, particularly the entity point-of-view shots. Some viewers apparently disagree with me on that, but I thought all of the unconventional camera work made the attacks all the more real and visceral - and ratcheted up the sense of helplessness and chaos in the house. This movie definitely has the potential to scare more than a few viewers. The casting director deserves a ton of credit, as well. The gorgeous Rachel Hurd-Wood truly brings Betsy to life, and I can't overstate just how challenging that role must have been. Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland are even more impressive as John and Lucy Bell. Sutherland was the perfect choice for John Bell, while Spacek works wonders in what I consider a somewhat understated role.

I know I'm repeating myself here, but I have to state once again that An American Haunting is the best haunted house (for want of a better term) movie I have ever seen. I can't for the life of me understand why some many critics and viewers have panned this film. Methinks the fact that a movie this riveting and impressive can be so disparaged does much to explain why Hollywood turns out so much brainless drivel these days.

I had really high expectations for this movie and maybe that's where it all went wrong. I'd heard about the legend of the Bell Witch and even reading about it on the internet was ridiculously scary so I was almost dreading watching the film. I needn't have bothered. This film is not scary at all and the shame of it is, they COULD have made it damn scary!This film takes as its premise the intensely spooky legend of the Bell Witch, which should instantly give it the xtra chill factor.Unfortunately Hollywood came along with an extremely poor script and ruined everything. The film is based on a supposed curse placed on the Bell family by another villager who had been wronged by head of the Bell family, John Bell. After the court case takes place a series of disturbing events start to plague the Bell family, in particular young, beautiful daughter Betsy. This should have made for a very spooky film however there are many major flaws in it which really distracted from the story adn from the atmosphere. Firstly, the modern day story could have been a really good twist, instead it is tacked on to the main part of the film like some last minute addendum and it seems to me to be rather pointless indeed. Secondly, the film seemed to rely rather heavily on showing the same or similar footage time and time again. Every 5 minutes they were putting Betsy to bed WHY did they NOT learn that this was a MASSIVE mistake? And literally every scene was putting Betsy to bed. The attacks followed pretty much the same sequence, covers on, covers off, growls, slapping, window popping, Betsy screams and screams, Sissy Spacek runs in says 'You're having a nightmare' and promptly puts Betsy back into the bed, to sleep and leaves her alone. I agree with the reviewer taht compared this to Groundhog Day, it was very repetitive and that took away from the scary atmosphere. In the end you learn to dread the night time activities because you've already seen them time and time again before. Another flaw was that the 'twist' makes a mockery of the entire film. If we are to believe the ending, the rest of teh film becomes entirely illogical adn raises far too many questions. I can't expand on that without ruining the film for those reading this that haven't seen it but I thought that the filmmakers had sold out of making a truly scary ending by playing it safe and giving it all a mickey mouse type explanation and a 'it's all better now' ending. That's what gives Japanese horrors the edge. They don't explain things because when it comes to the supernatural you just can't explain it somehow. The fact that their horrors don't have the typical 'and we killed it/exorcised it/laid it to rest and everything was ok' ending makes their films far more disturbing and horrific I think.

All in all, I found that this film was much more sad than frightening. I genuinely felt sorry for Betsy and her ordeal. If they were going to go for the sad angle, they should have done it but instead they tried to fit tragedy and horror into one and came up with this shambles. It's also a shame because it doesn't bear any relation to teh actual legend of the Bell Witch so is quite misleading in that respect.

It's a reasonable film, has some good performances in it from Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek and the girl but apart from that, there's too much illogical storytelling here for me to give it any more than a paltry 3 stars.

Recommended. Good acting, good story and quite chilling in parts. Best "spooky" movie I've seen in a while.

The acting in this movie is so wooden that I thought someone had just chucked a bunch of chairs on to the set. I had to literally have a drink to numb the face pain from all the cringing I was doing. The same things happened so many times I thought Bill Murray was going to appear. The "twist" is so telegraphed that a 10ft gay ape in a neon basque would be less obvious.

After reading the other reviews of this movie I ended up leaving it a year before watching it- but I was suprised and not disappointed! If you're looking for something scary this Halloween I'd say highly recommended- not since watching the BBC's "ghost watch" have I thought a film was so genuinely scary!