Click to read the article
An American Haunting (2006)
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek, Rachel Hurd-Wood, James D'Arcy
DVD Info
Release:
Dec 10, 2007
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Closed Captioned - English
Additional Release Material:
- Bloopers
- Making of
- Deleted Scenes
- Production Interviews - 1. Sissy Spacek - Star
- 2. Courtney Solomon - Director
- Trailers - Internet Promos
Interactive Features:
- Interactive Menus
- Scene Access
Reviews
Unoriginal and unrelenting, this gothic ghost story invests too much time in banging doors and billowing drapes and not enough in its characters.
Disappointing horror film which fails to generate any suspense or horror and is occasionally downright laughable.
This allegedly true tale of demonic possession is weighed down by period detail and ponderous storytelling, which soon get the better of its Exorcist-inspired levitations, flying crucifixes and noisy poltergeist activity.
A collection of cheap jump-scares and tacky clichéd imagery that we've seen a million times before.
Writer-director Solomon simply can't generate any actual suspense. Although he certainly tries.
Despite flaws and compromises, it's ballsier than The Sixth Sense, less laboured than The Others ...
it becomes haunted by the unwelcome presence of heavy-handedness, making it seem more like a busy domestic melodrama (with a ghost) than a truly unnerving chiller.
Takes the most documented ghost story in history and doesn't create one truly scary moment.
This is proof that it doesn't take lots of bloody gore, big special effects or jump-at-you moments to scare jaded audiences.
Although [director Solomon] has some great ideas, they are limited, and we are therefore treated to repeats of the same basic scenario over and over again until the effect becomes tedious.
Director Courtney Solomon’s script is a catalogue of the standard Exorcist-style special effects, hammered home by Caine Davidson’s musical score, one of the most irritating and nerve-wracking assemblies of noise in movie history.
It really is fun to watch yet another oddball turn by Sutherland, and a marginally restrained one from Spacek. It's just not that fun.
An American Haunting utterly stultifies the thrilling Bell Witch legend on which the film is based; the most disturbing ghost here is the wraith of opportunity lost.
Labeled by some as 'America’s Greatest Ghost Story,' the legendary Bell Witch gets herself another movie and the result is far from America’s Greatest Ghost Movie.
Related Forums
by: jamiebobamie2003 12/22/07
Pictures
News
posted by Gitesh Pandya May 10, 2007
In what must be a first at the box office, an aerobics queen takes on killer zombies in a vicious battle for the silver...
posted by Scott Weinberg July 07, 2006
Are you between the ages of 13 and 19? Do you like ... stuff? Then click right here and cast your votes for the 329th annual...
posted by Gitesh Pandya May 29, 2006
Magneto and his fellow mutants attracted a record-breaking audience to theaters across North America as the super...
posted by Gitesh Pandya May 14, 2006
Tom Cruise's spy sequel Mission: Impossible III remained the most popular film in North America for the second...
Around the Network
An American Haunting at IGN
An American Haunting at AskMen


Top Critic