'AMERICAN HAUNTING' SCARES UP SOME CREEPINESS.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic It's based on true events, ``validated by the State of Tennessee as the only case in U.S. history where a spirit or entity caused the death of a human being,'' as the movie's press materials so carefully phrase it. But ``An American Haunting'' - a handsome, often scary and finally jumbled ghost story - is also just one guy's idea of what might have really happened: novelist Brent Monahan, whose theories ``Haunting's'' writer-director Courtney Solomon (``Dungeons & Dragons'') says he supports. They seem as good as any others to me, by evidence of the film. But I still don't buy any of it, regardless of what the State of Tennessee says. Believe it or don't, Solomon has nonetheless made a pretty good, Hammer Studios-style 19th-century horror film. And, like the title says, there are some nicely observed American characteristics worked in (the director is from Canada, and most of this was shot in Romania), especially when it comes to how religion and frontier capitalism might have influenced the characters' pre-Freudian worldviews. The late Adrian Biddle's wintry cinematography cinematography: see motion picture photography. cinematography Art and technology of motion-picture photography. It involves the composition of a scene, lighting of the set and actors, choice of cameras, camera angle, and integration of special adds appropriately creepy and feral touches to the proceedings. But by the end I couldn't tell what was happening to whom, or if it happened at all - there are so many dream sequences, hallucinations Hallucinations Definition Hallucinations are false or distorted sensory experiences that appear to be real perceptions. These sensory impressions are generated by the mind rather than by any external stimuli, and may be seen, heard, felt, and even and repetitive fright cues that by the time the whole shebang is (dubiously) explained for us, logic seems beside the point. Anyway, what happened was that the happy family of John Bell (Donald Sutherland) suffered a poltergeist poltergeist (pōl`tərgīst) [Ger.,=knocking ghost], in spiritism, certain phenomena, such as rapping, movement of furniture, and breaking of crockery, for which there is no apparent scientific explanation. infestation infestation /in·fes·ta·tion/ (-fes-ta´shun) parasitic attack or subsistence on the skin and/or its appendages, as by insects, mites, or ticks; sometimes used to denote parasitic invasion of the organs and tissues, as by helminths. from 1818 to 1820, after he'd more or less swindled a neighbor, widely considered to be a witch, in a land deal. The main wrath of the spirit was directed at John's adolescent daughter Betsy (English actress Rachel Hurd-Wood). The invisible entity would slap her around, drag her by her hair and otherwise remorselessly molest mo·lest tr.v. mo·lest·ed, mo·lest·ing, mo·lests 1. To disturb, interfere with, or annoy. 2. To subject to unwanted or improper sexual activity. her. Some cadaverous ca·dav·er·ous adj. 1. Suggestive of death; corpselike. 2. Having a corpselike pallor. apparition apparition, spiritualistic manifestation of a person or object in which a form not actually present is seen with such intensity that belief in its reality is created. of a younger girl was also involved (the movie sort of explains that), and there appeared to be a werewolf on board, too (never explicated). Anyway, neither Christian exorcisms nor Enlightenment rationalism had any effect on the monster. The movie makes a case for a very extreme form of mother love, though. ``Carrie'' herself, Sissy Spacek, plays the intuitive Mrs. Bell. The main story is framed by modern-day antics involving Bell descendents. These suggest the real curse comes from genetic predisposition rather than a truly supernatural place. If the rest of ``An American Haunting'' hadn't been so set on acting like an otherworldly ghost movie, this may have been convincing. Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com AN AMERICAN HAUNTING - Two and one half stars (PG-13: violence, sex, children in jeopardy) Starring: Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek, Rachel Hurd-Wood, James D'Arcy. Director: Courtney Solomon. Running time: 1 hr. 24 min. In a nutshell: Period possession story, purportedly based on true events, has good production values, a classy cast and the same kind of narrative incoherence incoherence Not understandable; disordered; without logical connection. See Schizophrenia. that haunts cheap contemporary horror movies. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: ``An American Haunting,'' based on a purportedly true occurrence, stars Sissy Spacek as the wife of a man whose home is infested in·fest tr.v. in·fest·ed, in·fest·ing, in·fests 1. To inhabit or overrun in numbers or quantities large enough to be harmful, threatening, or obnoxious: by poltergeists in early-1800s Tennessee. |
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