An American Haunting

Tonight I went out and saw An American Haunting with my sister and two of her friends, for some unknown reason, at 8 o’clock at night, on a Monday. Guess I was just in the mood for some nachos and a ghost story.

And boy did I get one.

An American Haunting is based on the true life event validated by the State of Tennessee of the only case in US History where a spirit or entity caused the death of a man. The Bell family of Red River Tennessee was terrorized from approximately 1818-1820 by some unknown spirit. They tried communicating with it through logical means, but to no avail. All they knew was that is was there to kill one of the family members; in the end it gets its wish with the mysterious death and illness of the father John Bell.

The movie actually starts of extremely slow, and I was pretty much bored for the first good 15 minutes. But it worked itself out in the end. But being a Donald Sutherland fan [who plays John Bell] I held in my initial disappointment, but I was wrong, oh so wrong.

I will not say this is the best horror movie I have ever seen in my life, but I will say that it is one of the most intriguing ghost stories I have ever heard, and had me jumping a couple times.

The acting was top notch, which to me is amazing to find in a horror movie, of course most of it came from the two I knew would, Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek. Surprisingly James D’Arcy who played the school professor Richard Powell and Rachel Hurd-Wood, who played Betsy Bell, came in a close second, at least in my book. D’Arcy had redeemed himself in my eyes, from his performance as Father Francis in Exorcist: The Beginning.

The only part I really didn't understand was, the movie was essentially centered around a young girl and her mother in present time, who has found a letter written by Lucy Bell to Betsy about the Haunting, the movie starts off with the girl running through the forest to home from some unknown entity. When she gets home she sees a young girl [who we later find is Betsy Bell… how this is, is even too complicated for me to explain] in her mirror and starts to scream. Moments later she wakes up, it was just a dream. The movie switches back to the mother reading the letter about three times, during different stages of the story. At the end of the movie, the mother sends her daughter off with her father, obviously divorced. The mother then sees Betsy’s ghost and starts running after the car screaming her ex husbands name.

Then the movie ends.

Twist? I don’t think so. The girl and her mother are obviously living in the old Bell house, and young Betsy’s spirit [Betsy did not die mind you] is still roaming around.

Does that make sense to you? If it doesn't than I suggest you go see the movie, and take a gander for yourself. I give An American Haunting a HEAPING 8.5/10 because I’ll be damned if I didn't enjoy it.

[Many many many Spoilers in this review]

Oh and I finally watched From Hell, it was as good as I thought it would be, a little far fetched but still good. Here’s a real quick overview. Johnny Depp plays Inspector Fred Abberline, a somewhat psychic inspector with a opium habit. See what I said, a little far fetched. Inspector Abberline is assigned to the Jack the Ripper Case. If you’re familiar with the case you will remember, that Jack the Ripper was a serial killer that terrorized the Whitechapel district of London, killing only prostitutes in that area, he removed their organs with a surgeons precision and seemed to strike at random; the film says that’s not it, that he was trying to form a pentacle star, the sign of the *gasp* Free Masons!

The plot is horribly confusing, and involves the Free Masons, a deranged physician, the Royal Family, The prince and a prostitute named Ann and their legitimate child whom would become the heir to the royal crown, its all a big cover up, the prince has a taste for hookers, and falls in love with one, marries her, she has his baby, he contracts syphilis, she is called crazy, given a frontal lobotomy and the child is hidden away… see told you confusing. a beautiful prostitute by the name of Mary Kelly from Ireland, and of course our opium addicted friend Inspector Abberline, who decided to quit after taking the advice of the royal surgeon Sir William Gull [Ian Holm], who surprisingly turns out to be…Jack the Ripper! *gasp again*

And to tell you the truth, I didn't see that one coming, I mean sure, Abberline went back to Sir Gull many times asking for advice on the case, but it seemed like he was just a nice old man who was helping him out.

I will suggest this movie to anybody, who likes somewhat gory, somewhat psychic, extremely sexy, movies with a sexy Johnny Depp and a very sexy Heather Graham. It gets a 9.5/10. I just love it.

- Jess