19th century ghost story turns the volume to ‘11’

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, May 4, 2006

The spirits make way too much noise in “An American Haunting,” a supernatural tale whose overbearing clamor is redeemed somewhat by engaging performances and fine 19th century period detail. Things don’t go bump in the night – they go shrieking and caterwauling.

Director Courtney Solomon, who made 2000’s ludicrous “Dungeons &Dragons,” takes a big step upward here, though subtlety seemingly remains a foreign concept to him.

Creepy as it is at times, “American Haunting” loses much of its fright potential amid the frenzied visuals and screeching vocalizations Solomon employs to re-create the horrors wrought by an unworldly presence tormenting a Tennessee farm family in the early 1800s.

Thank the spirits for the divine presence of Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland as Lucy and John Bell, the earthy souls whose family is haunted, and Rachel Hurd-Wood as their daughter, Betsy Bell, the focus of the phantom’s wrath.

The Red River, Tenn., family’s unexplained haunting has fascinated ghost-hunters for almost 200 years. The film begins with a notation that the Bell haunting was the only documented case in American history in which a spirit caused a person’s death.

Solomon adapted his screenplay from Brent Monahan’s novel “The Bell Witch: An American Haunting,” which posits one possible source of the violent manifestations visited on Betsy Bell.

As the specter carries out classic poltergeist tricks, the Bells, their Bible-thumping friend (Matthew Marsh) and Betsy’s skeptical teacher (James D’Arcy) speculate futilely on the spirit’s nature. A departed soul? The work of the devil? A curse by a supposed witch bearing a grudge against John Bell?

The film tosses out its explanation almost as an afterthought.

Compounding the hubbub is Caine Davidson’s blaring score, which like Solomon’s visual and aural excesses, desensitizes viewers to the scares the story holds.

Production designer Humphrey Jaeger and costume designer Jane Petrie bring stark authenticity to the preindustrial trappings of the film, shot largely in Romania, while Adrian Biddle’s cinematography is wonderfully dark and claustrophobic.

The actors are the saving grace. Their impassioned performances make you really care what happens to these people, even when Solomon’s noisy overindulgence makes you almost wish their home would collapse in on itself.

Sissy Spacek and Rachel Hurd-Wood in “An American Haunting.”