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film
An American Haunting
by Ana Roman
Donald Sutherland sits down
tiredly, while sucking on a cough drop.
He is dressed immaculately in a dapper
black suit with a silk orange tie. He
looks frazzled, and confesses that he’s
been a little under the weather. When
asked if he enjoyed the process of
making Solomon Courtney’s gut
clenching psychological thriller, An
American Haunting, he sighs,
“Nooo...not one bit. I lived with a
ghost for years. It was up in my house
in Canada. This ghost was only in one
room, and whenever anyone went in
that room they would drop and break a
glass or spill something. We just could-
n’t get rid of the damn thing.”
Sutherland is no stranger to the
paranormal. If life imitates art, then it’s
quite evident within the roles that
Sutherland chooses for himself. There
is a special fascination that Sutherland
has for digging up the truth in his sub-
jects, ghosts or no ghosts. “Obsession
and redemption and guilt and self-chas-
tisement - they’re interesting things to
explore. And since they’re so much a
part of the secret lives of so many peo-
Friday, May 12, 2006
ple, particularly in this country, it’s
interesting to expose them,” says
Sutherland. Aside from An American
Haunting’s superb and complex charac-
ters featured in and out of the film,
audiences will grapple to make sense of
the film’s thick secret twists and turns
that Solomon Courtney conjures up
within the story.
What makes the film more of a
haunting than a good old-fashioned
scare is that the story is based on true
events that have been validated by the
state of Tennessee. This was the only
case in U.S. history where an entity or
spirit caused the death of a human
being. Over 20 books have been writ-
ten on the subject, and the town of Red
River, Tennessee sill lives in fear of the
return of the unseen spirit.
An American Haunting is set
between the years of 1818-1820, right
on the Bell Family land near Red River.
John Bell (Sutherland), along with his
daughter Betsey (Rachel Hurd-Wood)
and wife Lucy (Sissy Spacek), are vis-
ited by an unknown presence that
haunts the family and eventually ends
up causing the death of one of the
family members. Or does it? Audiences
will find a little surprise through the
maze of very shocking twists and turns
that peep in and out of the film.
Courtney Solomon explains, “I wanted
to make this film as modern as possi-
ble. I didn’t want to make a period
piece or just a regular horror film.”
Solomon has refused to make the stan-
dard “show the monster” film. “There
are many point of views with the cam-
era. You never see the presence. You
are viewing the film through the eyes of
the presence.”
The presence, or poltergeist, even-
tually graces itself on the Bell family by
directing its energy on their daughter,
Betsey. The Bell family fears that the
haunting is caused by a local woman, Rachel Hurd-Wood and Sissy Spacek
who most locals believe to be a witch.
The witch had put a curse on the fami- was to execute the choreography of her logical aspects of what a person might
ly as a result of a land dispute. The very physical sequences, she is surpris- go through if haunted by any presence,
Bells try desperately to get rid of the ingly nonchalant. “I felt comfortable despite the era. Audiences will be
woman’s curse, but nothing seems to with these scenes. We rehearsed them delighted, but may want to go see it
work. over and over again. But when I’m get- twice, not because it is so amazingly
The film is filled with painful ting dragged up the stairs, I really had good, but because of what it does to
sequences of Rachel Hurd-Wood get- to prepare myself for that. I knew that you just as you thought the film was
ting dragged up a huge flight of stairs was going to be a pain.” Wood under- putting the period at the end of its sen-
by her wrists, and being punched to went the pain, but the 14-year-old han- tence. “It’s the kind of film that actual-
near death on her bed by the polter- dled it in stride. ly does bear watching for a second
geist. Wood is also subjected to visions, This film unfolds itself in an time,” explains Solomon. But audi-
delusions, and all sorts of hallucina- uncanny way, which does not stick to ences will be the judge of that.
tions. When asked just how difficult it period times but more to the psycho-
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