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This was a ghost story that I have been fascinated in since I was a little girl. When the book came out I read it in one evening and loved it. When the movie was announced I was so thrilled. Then I heard the casting and was even more excited. I have to say its one of the biggest movie let downs for me since Interview with a Vampire. The book shows the ghost as more of a presence...much more of a everyday part of the family's lives. Malevolent and evil but also sympathetic to Mrs. Bell. I really wish they had made it more of the multi-layer story that the book was. If you want to enjoy this story....read the book and never see this movie!
Posted By: Protecious at 2:51pm, September 30, 2008
a handfull of half assed scares that dont deliever anything new in the ghost film genre, why donald sutherlund and sissy spasek thought this was a good film is beyond me.
Posted By: roostergore at 11:37am, September 28, 2008
This as a real downer to me in that it showed so much hope for a promising ghost flick and the final delivery was pretty much a swing a miss. The acting by Sutherland and Spacek was great as expected, just the sceenwriting/directing and overall implied arrogance of itself as a good film kinda ruined it. Not even for a rainy day.
"Since most of the movie was utterly disappointing, I will start with the only positive aspect, Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek. Both of these actors played their part well and if it weren't for such a terrible story and generic scare tactics, they may have been able to save the movie. Alas, like many of the PG-13 horror films of today not even good acting can make up for a shady plot, bad directing and terrible editing. The film is based on the poltergeist story involving a family in rural Tennessee in the early 1800's. The story is filled with the garbled and incoherent dreams of seemingly possessed Betsy Bell, played by Rachel Hurd-Wood. In a movie built around a ghost story it was disappointing to see cheap scare tactics instead of making the movie all around eerie. I am not sure what director Courtney Solomon was thinking when he chose to film the movie with a style similar to a low budget "hack 'em slash 'em" film from the 80's, but clearly there are better ways of scaring an audience. While the filming style could have used some work, the editing and special effects were a disaster. It mostly resembled a bad soap opera. It jumps around between dreams and reality faster than Ricky Williams' in a Marijuana haze. A movie like this doesn't need a whole lot of special effects but the few that it had were terrible and even ruined the scenes. The poltergeist was nothing more than Betsy with a slight hue around her.
The only scary thing about this film was how many 13-year-old girls turned up to the theater to watch this on opening night. As a fan of horror films I understand if you want to judge this for yourself, but listen to my words wisely; don't bother." --Josh Collins, imdb.com
I love this movie. I mean i love the story line. I just wish that crazier shit would have happened to the girl and that the ending with the modern people was clearer(i want to know if she go the car to stop).
Many films try to add a twist to the tale and the horror genre has really thrived upon that premise. American Haunting tried its hand at it but came out a failure and an embaressment for the mind.
AH tries to add in a twist to what otherwise would be an average ghost story by actually misleading its audience before they even lay their eyes on the title menu. If it hadn't have made the promises it made on the cover and back of the box then it could have gone 1 of 2 ways and stuck with it. Instead if pretends to be something that its not which ultimately leaves you feeling shocked at how they managed to ruin the actual story so badly. It is sad to say that the movie looked better before you paid for it.
One notably negative point was the rather poor use of lightning for mood and atmosphere. Sorry guys but editing in some flashes of inverted colours is not convincing!
Please don't subject yourself to this, even if you MUST know the unnecessary twist at the end.
