Starring Academy Award® winner Sissy Spacek ("Carrie"
, Golden Globe winner
Donald Sutherland ("Don't Look Now"), Rachel Hurd-Wood (Wendy
Darling in P.J. Hogan's "Peter Pan" and the upcoming "Perfume: The
Story of a Murderer"), and James D'Arcy ("Master and Commander: The
Far Side of the World"), this story is based on true events
validated by the State of Tennessee as the only case in U.S.
history where a spirit or entity caused the death of a human
being. With over 20 books written on the subject, and a
town that still lives in fear of the return of the unseen spirit,
the story of AN AMERICAN HAUNTING is terrifying.
Between the years 1818-1820, the Bell Family of Red River,
Tennessee was visited by an unknown presence that haunted the
family and eventually ended up causing the death of one its
members. Starting with small sounds around the farm, and the
sighting of a strange creature with piercing yellow eyes, the
sounds escalated into full brutal contact with certain family
members, causing psychological and physical torment. The attacks
grew in strength, with the spirit slapping, pulling, dragging, and
beating the Bell's youngest daughter, Betsy. The Bells searched for
rational explanations and ways to rid their house of this entity,
but to no avail as the spirit began to communicate with them
through sounds, and eventually multiple voices that sounded like
the wind.
Fearing that the haunting was caused by a local woman -- branded a
witch -- who had put a curse upon the family as a result of a land
dispute, the Bells tried desperately to find ways of getting rid of
the woman's curse, yet the attacks and disturbances only
escalated.
It was not until a personal journal of the matriarch of the Bell
family, Lucy, was inadvertently discovered -- along with Betsy's
doll -- generations later in the attic of one of their descendants
that the horrifying and shocking answer to what caused the haunting
would finally be unveiled ... along with the realization that the
horror was still being visited on the family heirs.