Betsy Pickle - Scripps Howard News Service

Before serial killers and psycho killers and killer dolls, movies depended on the quaint notion of the supernatural for chills. "An American Haunting" takes that retro approach and comes up with more scares than many a modern gore fest.

"An American Haunting" focuses on a famous, much-written-about case of a supernatural entity - the Bell Witch of Tennessee - and gives it a faithful, flavorful treatment. The subject matter may be historic, but the look and psychology of the film are contemporary enough to please sophisticated moviegoers who are predisposed to believe in forces beyond what can be seen.

In 1817, John Bell (Donald Sutherland) is a respected farmer in the Red River community of Tennessee. He and his wife, Lucy (Sissy Spacek), have several children, but he's most overprotective of Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood), a teenager on the verge of womanhood.

The family's world changes when neighbor Kate Batts (Gaye Brown) accuses John of cheating her out of land and a church tribunal finds him guilty of usury. Kate's threatening words seem to open the door to some kind of evil spirit who starts plaguing the Bells.

John sees vicious beasts that aren't there, while Betsy is tormented by a force that starts by pulling her quilt off as she sleeps and escalates to physically abusing the girl with full-on ghostly hands. Betsy's exhaustion leads to a slump that catches the attention of her teacher, Richard Powell (James D'Arcy). Richard is skeptical of the Bells' supernatural suspicions, but what he witnesses makes him change his mind.

Adapted from Brent Monahan's book by director Courtney Solomon, "An American Haunting" makes good use of the camera's perspective and movement to amp up the suspense. The cinematography (by the late Adrian Biddle) on the Romanian locations is beautiful and eerie. Caine Davidson's unsettling score hits the right notes.

The cast treats the material seriously and realistically. Hurd-Wood ("Peter Pan") is especially good as the increasingly fragile Betsy.

Solomon does a fine job of crafting a classic ghost story from a dossier that abounds with details and players. His only misstep is framing the historical story with a modern one that raises more questions than it answers. "An American Haunting" is the stuff real nightmares are made of, thanks to its old-school roots.

Rated PG-13 for intense terror sequences and thematic material.