Haunted house

An American Haunting features what may be the only 360-degree horse-drawn carriage aerial flip you'll ever see on film. This ludicrous stunt is the only original or surprising element in an otherwise exceedingly dull, confused mess—an upscale horror film supposedly based on the only verified account of a spirit causing a death.

The film opens in the present day, barely giving lip service to a framing device for the "historic" tale. With her daughter experiencing nasty nightmares in a large Tennessee home, a woman reads the account of a local mother and daughter facing a similar problem 185 years earlier, recorded in a dusty, yellowed letter. The film quickly transports the audience back to that previous time, leaving the modern story dangling until a tacked-on, mirrored finale.