An American Haunting begins with a scene that seems to be straight out of the Evil Dead series. A girl is running through the woods being chased by an unseen force. She runs, falls down, runs some more, falls down again, before finally getting inside a house and locking the door. The force makes the door shake before it breaks through and chases her upstairs. Just when you think she is going to "get it," she wakes up screaming. It was only a nightmare. That leads to mommy consoling her, then questioning her about some papers and a doll she finds on the floor. They were items from the off limits attic. Mommy takes them downstairs and proceeds to start reading them. The papers are a first person account of the haunting of the Bell family in the early 1800s, and the haunting is the main focus of this movie.

Let me be blunt, this movie is terrible. The acting is bland, with no real characters to care about that spout dialogue that goes nowhere. The movie is a good cure for insomnia, as I found myself nodding off a few times, only to be awoken by some lame jump scare. There is no tension built up, things just happen with no explanation.

The story boils down to John Bell who cheats a woman out of some land and money. He is found guilty of breaking church law, and is cursed by the victim. After the cursing takes place, strange things befall John and his daughter, Betsy. He sees a wolf attacking him a few times but the wolf isn't really there, he gets some unexplained sickness. Betsy, on the other hand, gets the brunt of the attack, being dragged around the room, pulled up by her hair and beaten. I have to ask, to what end? The crime seemed minor enough, and there was just no reason to really care.

I know that this was based on the "true" story of the Bell Witch. I also admit to knowing nothing of this most documented haunting and longest unsolved mystery. That said, I couldn't make any claim as to its authenticity with regards to what has been written. Perhaps, if I were familiar with the tale, the film would have been more interesting. I counter that by saying I should not have to know about previously released materials to "understand" the movie.

An American Haunting does not shed any light on what happened, it doesn't try to explain anything, and it doesn't give us any insight into the characters. Donald Sutherland seems lost as the Bell patriarch, and Sissy Spacek has nothing to do as his wife. Rachel Hurd-Wood gets the most action as Betsy; she gets to be dragged around and screams a lot. The cast is instantly forgettable, as well as all the events.