A Mediocre Haunting

Caught the 9:55 showing of An American Haunting in Danville.

I didn't know all that much about the movie going in, other than it was supposedly inspired by Tennessee's "Bell Witch" legend. And if you ask me, I thought the movie was mediocre at best. It wasn't awful, but I've seen far better movies. The concept of the movie is this: a woman in 2006 discovers a diary from the 1800s, kept by a previous resident of her house. As she reads the diary, we see one of several viewpoints regarding the Bell Witch's origin. The scenes set in present day are useless and accomplish absolutely nothing outside of a predictable scare at the end of the movie.

Honestly, the movie seemed to bear too close of a resemblance to the far superior The Exorcism of Emily Rose, since An American Haunting's female lead occasionally suffered from what appeared to be supernaturally-influenced seizures. And if I wanted to watch The Exorcism of Emily Rose, I would do so. I did like Donald Sutherland's performance, and I thought Sissy Spacek was underused, but there's no reason for you to feel bad if you miss the movie. An American Haunting gets a disappointing two and a half stars. I didn't have any expectations at all, and it still let me down.

For shame, An American Haunting. For shame.