I wasn’t sure if I’d get credentialed for this, but all the publicists and volunteers here were very accomodating, even though one did have some harsh words for CityBeat (which plugged the fest HERE.)
Anyway, I have my pass, so now I have to earn it. I’ll be attending the fest all week, reviewing new films you’ll probably be hearing about for the first time. And drinking free vodka.
AN AMERICAN HAUNTING (note: this movie screens again today, Sunday, at 12:30 p.m. at the Arclight)
A documentary crew actually interviewed me on the way into this screening, probably using the logic that a guy with blue hair will look interesting in a montage. And what I told them may not have been the kindest thing, but it’s true — this movie is writer-director Courtney Solomon’s follow-up to DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS. He may not want to be remembered that way — I travel in geek circles wherein virtually any horror/fantasy/sci-fi flick will be defended by someone, but nobody steps up on D&D’s behalf — but fortunately for him and his rep, this new movie’s quite a bit better. And totally different.
It begins with a young girl running through the woods, as an invisible something chases her up to her room, where she sees a vision of the stereotypical J-horror gray-faced girl with black hair hanging in her face. This is appropos of nothing, and doesn’t relate to any subsequent events, and of course it’s just a dream. But we find out that the girl has been up in the basement and brought down some creepy old letters and a doll with a cracked face. RRRReeeal smart move there, girlie.
Anyway, mom gives Absolut vodka some gratuitous product placement (smart move, Courtney, as most film fests do indeed have major vodka sponsors) starts reading the creepy old letters, and the rest of the movie is the story she reads, set in 1815. Initially, it seems not unlike that BLAIR WITCH prequel which never got made.
So, the 1815 story takes place in the same house, inhabited back then by a family called the Bells, headed up by Donald Sutherland (John) and Sissy Spacek (Lucy), both actors whom I like a lot better as old people than I did as youngsters. First, they hear some bumping around up in the attic. Then John goes to court and is judged guilty of charging excessive interest to a rumored witch woman (can’t find the actress’ name right now, but maybe my readers know). The witch is pissed that she doesn’t get as much of a settlement as she’d hoped, and threatens John and his daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood, who really does look like she could be Sissy Spacek’s kin). Then the shit hits the fan.
Mysterious wolves attack, then disappear. Doors slam. Betsy is raised into the air and slapped around by invisible hands. Stuff falls and burns. Betsy also starts to hang out with a weird little girl who no-one else can see. John starts coughing blood and hallucinating deformities on his tongue.
Courtney Solomon knows how to yell “Boo” at an audience. His scares are old-fashioned, but definitely effective. That’s no small thing, so take it into account when I say that unfortunately he comes up a bit shorter in other areas.
The story structure needs work. Essentially, Betsy has haunted nights over and over again, until suddenly the “entity” eventually sees fit to tell her why it’s so pissed off. And I won’t spoil that, but it doesn’t make much sense — the entity is really into blaming the victim, it seems.
The cinematography, by Adrian Biddle (THE MUMMY) is inconsistent: at times, notably when Sutherland is out in the woods hunting, it looks great. Other times, it looks like a cheap TV special. Occasionally we go into ghost POV shots — at their best, as when the ghost leaves the house to chase a carriage, one is reminded of EVIL DEAD. At worst, there are lots of unmotivated back-and-forths between color and B/W. I blame the Oliver Stone influence.
Production values: Meh. Low-budget films must be careful about period stuff. At one point, a Bible is torn page by page by the entity, and the paper is very clearly modern stuff. On the other hand, Solomon does make the 19th century pastime of playing checkers while drinking whiskey look like the coolest thing in the world.
I don’t wanna be hard on the guy, because this is so much better than his first film, and he has a sense of scares. But I really do think he’d be better off dropping the “writer” part of his “writer-director” label. And I do expect this film will get a distribution deal, if it hasn’t already. It’s certainly better than THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE.
