An American Haunting

[Disney Wrassler]

Has anyone seen this movie?

I have not seen it yet but I think it looks pretty good, and hopefully, really scary.

Supposedly it is suppost to be the true story of the Bell Witch experience a family went through in Adams Tennessee.

[kelly]

Re: An American Haunting

no i havent but want to when it comes out on dvd.. wanted to see it in theatres just never got around to it

[ALIASd]

Re: An American Haunting

Yes, hope this helps, I wrote about it here:

'An American Haunting' premiere at AFI FEST - 11/4/05
http://www.micechat.com/forums/showt...rican+haunting

and here:

'An American Haunting' opens 5/5 - 4/25/06
http://www.micechat.com/forums/showt...rican+haunting

[RooBear]

Re: An American Haunting

Yeah, it was pretty bad, and I bought a ticket to see it in the theatres.

That's two hours of my life..gone.

I read books about the case, and in that respect, I thought it would be interesting. I'm afraid not. Most of the creepiest elements were missing. I cannot explain, too, why big names signed on for such a bad script. Where were their agents doing this?

I don't really have time to elaborate this morning, but if you want me to, let me know.

I recommend picking up the book instead.

Peace!
Roo

[FrumiousBoojum]

Re: An American Haunting

I actually liked it. But, I have a thing for period horrors. I wasn't too crazy about the modern day sequences and didn't quite like the ending explanation(suggestion) of the events... but overall, decent enough.

I saw it at the dollar theater (which is now $2.50). Weird thing was, halfway through the movie, the theater started smelling like an 1817 era house -- a bit musty and dusty, topped with a very strong wood burning smell. Very bizarre.

Anyway, if you go to Adams, TN today, you can visit the place where the events happened at the Bell Witch Cave. The movie fails to mention the cave....

I haven't been able to visit, but from what I understand, they have a recreation of the original Bell family house, but pieces of the original Bell house are still standing, but very inaccessable because of it being deep in the woods, blocked by all kinds of overgrowth.

[Disney Wrassler]

Re: An American Haunting

Anyway, if you go to Adams, TN today, you can visit the place where the events happened at the Bell Witch Cave. The movie fails to mention the cave....

True. They also say that the Bell Witch still haunts the place.

[Cinderelluh]

Re: An American Haunting

That's interesting that the movie doesn't mention the cave since it is a big icon surrounding the whole story.

I've heard that a majority of the original story is not implicated in the movie.

I was intrigued to see it. I have it in my Netflix Queue for when it is released.

If you want real hauntings, there is a show on Discovery called A Haunting that depicts real life events surrounding families who are terrorized by entities. I have watched a few and I have to admit that some of these stories have spooked me quite a bit.

Question for those who have seen An American Haunting - does the movie include a scene where John Bell is poisoned by the Bell Witch? If I remember correctly, the family or someone associated with the family gave a certain substance to their cat and it was killed instantly.

[Disney Wrassler]

Re: An American Haunting

I watch "Haunting" on Discovery too every Thursday night. My one complaint is that they don't show any of the actual evidence these people claim to have captured.

[FrumiousBoojum]

Re: An American Haunting

Question for those who have seen An American Haunting - does the movie include a scene where John Bell is poisoned by the Bell Witch? If I remember correctly, the family or someone associated with the family gave a certain substance to their cat and it was killed instantly.

I don't remember anything like that in the movie. It was mostly in the house, very little outside of the house, and the woman that was the witch barely made an appearance.

[RooBear]

Re: An American Haunting

The mere fact that FB can't remember segments says something.

The film isn't that much worth remembering. Yes, the poisoning is in there, but not when they fed it to the cat. When the president came to visit? Not in there at all. The cave where things supposedly originated? Not in there either.

Then, to make matters worse, the filmmakers tacked on (I say tacked on, because it's presense is wholly out of place) a modern day spook tale that has a girl being scared, running around, and being scared again, while mom takes a full two hours to read a journal that is somehow discovered in a throughly modern home!

It needed to be respectful to the audience. The feeling I got was that teens were planning on seeing this movie, so let's add on a spooky beginning and ending, ya know, just-in-case.

Why not trust the material and go from there?

It actually got me so riled I picked up some old books I had and began working on an outline to rework and retool a different storyline, one that fit better.

I'm fully aware of changing reality for dramatic intent. And I don't mind it, frankly, it's sometimes necessary with the medium of film.

I am with FB, however, about liking period horrors--it really needs to happen more often. I keep thinking it's time to do some kind of gothic "London After Dark" about the Jack slayings. "From Hell" was so good.

Peace!
Roo