| VACANT POSSESSION : Courtney Solomon's 'An American Haunting' [2/10] |
|
|
| Wednesday, 25 January 2006 | |
|
Truly lousy, hamfisted attempt at a period horror film (Exorcism of Emily Rose meets Blair Witch meets Sleepy Hollow seems to have been the idea at some stage). Dramatisation (they wish) of real events in 1817 Tennessee: haunting? Possession? Squirrel infestation? You won't be any wiser by the end - provided you haven't sensibly headed for the exits long before the "denouement" denoues itself. The first few minutes - a prologue set in the present day - are an accurate guide of what's to follow: demented camerawork, overkill editing, deafening "shock" music. In fact, the ineptness is such that it seems delibrate: you expect a cut to a crowded cinema of teenagers watching a rubbish horror picture. This doesn't come. What does come is a howlingly badly-handled, long flashback to the main story: Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek find their comfortable rural existence shattered by spooky happenings. These seem to be somehow connected with their pre-pubescent daughter Rachel Hurd-Wood, who is the apple of her teacher James D'Arcy's eye. One imagines people hearing that Sutherland and Spacek head the cast and asking themselves "How bad can a film it possibly be?" Let's hope they never have to find out the terrible truth. I saw this picture with three other critics, and none of us could make head nor tail of the plot afterwards. It emerged that we would all have walked out after 20-30 minutes if we'd been on our own but had remained seated out of consideration to each other. Bad move. The press notes handed out at the screening didn't help: the synopsis provided bore only passing resemblance to the film itself, indicating the likelihood that severe recutting had taken place at a very late stage. The picture can't have been much worst before this hasty edit, so a "directors' cut" might be not quite so terrible. The press notes were oddly silent about Courtney Solomon, whose only previous directorial credit turns out to be the universally-panned Dungeons and Dragons (2000; with Jeremy Irons and Thora Birch). Reading between the lines, one can deduce that filming took place in Romania - perhaps Donald was induced to linger there after shooting Cold Mountain, though his long dark-grey locks and garb are closer to his Pride and Prejudice look. Sutherland and Spacek are (thankfully) as professional as ever, and at least try to salvage what they must have realised was going to be a total mess. They've both been enjoying welcome career revivals lately: hopefully An American Haunting is the last time they allow themselves to be suckered into such an embarrassingly poor enterprise. And how sad that cinematographer Adrian Biddle, who passed away very recently, should have this as one of his last credits: with the interiors looking as murky and foggy as the exteriors, this certainly doesn't count as his finest hour (V For Vendetta, his final project, will surely provide a more dignified epitaph). On a lighter note, at least the press notes were good for a laugh, with "poltergeist" being defined as "racquet-making [sic] ghost" and "notoriety" amusingly misused throughout ("Spacek first gained notoriety with her performance in 1973's Badlands..."). The film, sadly, fails even to raise that much of a chuckle: there are films so bad they're good. An American Haunting isn't one of them. Neil Young 25th January, 2005 AN AMERICAN HAUNTING : [2/10] : USA (US/Can/UK/Rom) 2005 : Courtney SOLOMON : 90 mins (BBFC timing) seen at Odeon West End, London (UK), 19th January 2006 - press show |
| < Prev |
|---|
