An American Haunting: The problem with a scary movie is that you have to make it scary at some point in the film. I thought this movie could not be as bad as I was led to believe by the various reviews available since the movie came out. Well, this time the reviews were right. Supposedly based on a true incident, where the death of a person was blamed on the supernatural, we’ve got a ghost story about a poltergeist of some sort that tortures a young girl in an early American settlement. The ghost beats her up, almost rapes her, and is just generally unpleasant. The problem is the film isn’t really scary (except for a little dead girl who shows up from time to time). We get over-use of the “camera monster” style filming (perfected by Sam Raimi in the “Evil Dead” films). And the explanation of the film is severely lacking (at just short of 90 minutes, it wraps up way too quickly to be any kind of satisfying). Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek play the parents of the girl tortured by the ghost, but Sutherland has such a ridiculous Southern accent I can’t bear to hear him speak. Spacek tries but isn’t given much to do except look frantic…all the time. This film isn’t worth your time. Woodchuck sez, “Skip it.”
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