Common Sense Note
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. Movie features 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.
Families can discuss 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.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
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 (including a documentary available on DVD). 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.
Take, for instance, the film's framing device: a 21st-century girl has nightmares (apparently a visit by a ghost). Her mother discovers she's been reading a diary (found in "the attic," where all bad things are stored over generations) and begins reading it herself. Here begin the flashbacks that form the bulk of the film's action: The writer is Lucy Bell (Sissy Spacek), who addresses her daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood) and she starts with her husband John (Donald Sutherland) in court, convicted of overcharging a neighbor for a loan.
This is only relevant because the unfortunately named neighbor, Kate Batts (Gaye Brown) is so angry that she curses the Bells, especially Betsy. (The family appears also to include two small children who never speak and the bumbling, teen-ish John Jr.) The film vaguely suggests that the ensuing trouble is related to Betsy's budding sexuality: She has a crush on her teacher Richard Powell (James D'Arcy) and a flirty classmate (Sam Alexander). But eventually this plotting seems a distraction, or a means to blame the victim.
Betsy's abuses are brutal and frequent. A mysterious force comes into her bedroom, locks the door, pulls off her covers, then drags her over the floor and along the walls, holds her above the floor and slaps her, throws her about on the bed, and causes bruising and cutting to her face. Her parents, Richard, John Jr., and a neighbor who tends to read out loud from the Bible excitedly, begin keeping watch, but otherwise don't do much to help her. And so the child is assaulted repeatedly, a pattern that makes the movie painful to watch.
Though John begs Kate Batts to lift the curse, and even to shoot him to save the girl (he attempts to shoot himself as well), 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 film here proposes -- SPOILER ALERT -- that the cause of all the ruckus has been his 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. This is a grim film.
Families who like this movie might also like The Exorcism of Emily Rose or Poltergeist, or an early, very effective scary movie featuring Donald Sutherland, Don't Look Now (1973).
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentMother and father discuss daughter's just-emerging sexuality; a boy kisses a girl at school; incest. |
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ViolenceScary 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. |
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Language19th-century style anguish: one use of the word "hell." |
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Social BehaviorIn 1817, father overcharges a woman for a loan; families own slaves; it appears at film's end that the 19th-century father and now a 21st-century father sexually abuse their daughters. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoJohn smokes a pipe; characters drink at a party and become visibly drunk; men drink while playing checkers. |
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