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An American haunting
By FRANKLIN DAHTU KOLMA
Poltergeists, however, have been known to manifest physical
oddities that still remain unexplainable.
The most savage and relentless poltergeist on record must be the
'Bell Witch', whose systematic persecution of the Bell family of
Tennessee, USA, in the early 19th century, stopped only at murder.
'An American Haunting', is a film that was released in the hope of
recapturing the strange occurrences that unfolded between the
years 1818 and 1820, caused by an unknown oddity.
It is the story of one of the most unfortunate families of
American history, the Bell family.
Six members constituted the Bell family. The members of the family
who were more then merely taunted were; John Bell (father)
Elizabeth (mother), Richard (eldest son) and Betsy (2nd child and
only daughter).
John and Betsy, sadly, were the two members of the family that
felt the full wrath, of what I personally described after reading
the Bell accounts as, 'An evolved apparition.'
'An American Haunting' had a cast well acquainted with the setting
of the story, with Donald Sutherland played the father, Sissy
Spacek was cast as his wife Elizabeth and Rachel Hurd-Wood as
Betsy.
Richard was not emphasized in the movie even though he had written
his own account of what happened to him and his family.
Donald Sutherland plays his role as John Bell to the bone, showing
all the fatherly protective behavior that any family member would
come to expect from a father when in scary situations. Sissy
Specak leaves no gaps in her performance as the mother of the
house whose ever watchful eyes and caring acts create an
unparallel vortex between what would have been reality and the
movie recreation.
Rachel Hurd-Wood plays her role believably well, and has a strange
eerie smile that should be used more in movie thrillers; her
portraying of Betsy is exceptionally good in giving viewers a
picture of what must have happened in the Bell house those many
years ago.
The director of the movie, Courtney Soloman did well in keeping
viewers gripped to finishing the movie, but apart from that, the
direction was a mess: There were just, too many dreams to be able
to tell what was actually happening and what were being dreamed
up. There were also too many reoccurrences of the same scary
happenings caused by the oddity.
Camera effects were very good. The idea of showing what the ghost
sees had a certain uneasiness to it that really worked.
The using of shock effects worked as always. There were many tense
parts that I wanted to view in length that were diffused very
quickly.
Special effects though not so good on the wolf at night, the other
effects were very believable. I especially liked the one second
candle burnout and fire place fire, very scary effects.
Describing my emotions during the movie, I started tense, then
scared after getting acquainted with the evolved apparition, then
bored as the same things started happening over night and finally,
very confused towards the end when John Bell was poisoned. What
upsets me about this movie is the fact that, it could have been a
lot more scary then it has been made to be. There were many scary
events that weren't expressed in the movie, such as the
apparition's ability to: Quote full chapters in the Bible, create
odors bad enough to remove anyone within its range and control the
emotions of the Bell's effected. If all these occurrences were
added into the movie and the direction was slightly changed, it
would be an after math haunting, devil taunting thriller.
When I first heard of 'An American Haunting', I new that it was
the ultimate thriller, not only because of the exaggerated stories
about it that I was hearing from my friends but also because it
was a famous true story. However, even when I watched it with all
the outside factors that make scary movies tick like when lights
are off and sitting far enough from a family member to start
having familiar expectations of an unseen force touching you, I
still was disappointed.
Never the less, 'An American Haunting' is still very thrilling and
it wouldn't hurt to watch it for yourself. I found that when
putting yourself in the shoes of the person experiencing the
oddities, the situation becomes even more terrifying.
Have a good weekend and remember that things that go bump in the
night could be more than a rat looking for food scraps.
 
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