I was scared while watching most of An American Haunting, but this is because I’m a wimp and am scared by just about anything. After watching it, the more I think about the movie, the more the flaws make themselves obvious to me.
It’s a very flawed movie.

Bragging about the fact that it’s based on the only reported case in American history where a spirit caused the death of a human, the movie quickly shows us why we should expect things that go bump I the night. Sadly then the movie tries to out-twist Shaymalan, and fails. It could have been a semi-decent twist, if it only made a little more sense, and if the film then didn’t use what amounts to a disclaimer at the end.
And the modern day framing sequence was unnecessary, though without it the “twist” would be even more pointless.

The film stars Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek, and they are very good, but still not enough to help. This was definitely just a paycheck for them. Rachel Ann Hurd was pretty good as the victim of the vengeful spirit in the movie, but, I’m sorry, I didn’t even buy her much. I mean, she wasn’t terrible, but there was something off about her performance.

Like I said, I was scared during a lot of the movie, because I kept waiting for something to jump and go “boo”, and that sort of happened a lot, and that’s all I need to get scared because I am Wus, here me cry!
But all in all, it wasn’t scary enough, it wasn’t real enough to be disturbing, and you never really care. It’s just entertainment, and not the best entertainment, at that…