Source: Heather Newgen May 1, 2006
James D'Arcy may not be the biggest fan of horror movies but that didn't stop the popular British actor from starring in After Dark Film's American Haunting, the story of the Bell family that lived in Red River, Tennessee in 1818 and for two years was haunted by an unknown presence, which actually caused the death of one of its members.
"I'm not into the horror genre personally because I get too scared? I never ever go and watch horror movies? I do exactly what I'm suppose to do which I scream, I leap 10 feet in the air and then I can't sleep for four nights," D'Arcy told ComingSoon.net
The film is based on true events that start with documented accounts of strange noises happening around the Bell farm in the middle of the night. It is believed to have progressed to a creature being spotted and then it intensified to physical attacks on the youngest daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood). The entity would push, slap, drag and beat her, according to Brent Monahan's "The Bell Witch: An American Haunting."
In the beginning the Bells believed a local witch put a curse on them because John Bell (Donald Sutherland) made a bad deal with her that led to a falling out over a piece of land. However, Lucy Bell (Sissy Spacek) makes a shocking discovery, learning that the evil spirit has nothing to do with the witch at all, but with someone close to her.
D'Arcy plays Professor Richard Powell, who is resistant at first to believe the Bells' story, but once he sees the entity in action he tries to help the family. Check out his sideburns in the film.
"If you really pay attention, the sideburns start off really pretty small and delicate. By the end of the film they're these huge L's that hang on the side of my face," D'Arcy laughs.
There are about 20 different books on the "Bell Witch" with various reports of what actually took place and the film boldly takes a controversial look at what could have really happened.
So how did writer and director Courtney Solomon know what version to go with?
"I read [Brent Monahan's] book first so maybe I was a little jaded on it. But, also because I read a lot of poltergeists and poltergeist do stem in a lot of cases from the emotional and physical trauma of an adolescent girl. This particular inclusion made sense to me as a possible way a poltergeist could be created if it was really created. I just thought it was different and posed a more realistic suggestion as to how that might happen," Solomon explained.
And you'll never believe where he first heard about the story from.
"I found it. I found it on Amazon where you find all good things right? The Internet. I researched the story and found there was a town that lives around this and that they still believe it was there. There's a bellwitch.org Web site that has 11 million hits," he said.
If you can't get enough of this story, don't worry. There's a second version of the film that's out right now in Britain. Once the movie was finished, Solomon had critics and people at festivals watch his film. After hearing much of the same feedback about the film being too repetitious, he decided to reedit the entire movie, which also included sound, music and color design.
"You can look at the two beside each other and yeah you'll see similarities, but it's not the same movie. You all helped me to make the film better but you usually don't get that opportunity?Lionsgate UK already had a release date and I didn't have the film finished. We couldn't get them the new film in time. They had started their marketing and so they put that film up. It's done alright over there so it's not an issue," Solomon said.
Although D'Arcy was featured more in the first version, he likes the reedited film better.
"My character is the narrator [in the UK movie] which he isn't in this version. I infinitely prefer this version although I'm in it less? The first time I saw it I said 'I'm in the film less, but I like the film more.' I wonder if that's because I'm in the film less," he joked.
Parts of the film were shot in Romania and even though Spacek was brave enough to tour one of Dracula's castles, D'Arcy was not.
"I can't tell you enough how much I don't like horror films or the horror genre. So the idea of going to deliberately visit Dracula's castle is pretty inauspicious?[Horror films] are pretty well honed at this point and it does actually frighten me. I would rather laugh or be moved to tears than be frightened," D'Arcy admitted.
Even though the movie hasn't quite hit theatres yet, Solomon is already working on the DVD and marketing strategy for the film.
"Two weeks ago I sent a crew down to Adams [Tennessee] to interview all the people there? There's something that did happen there? I don't know what it was because there are a lot of possible endings and conclusions, but something. I didn't want America to think we were just doing another cheap marketing trick [by saying it's based on a true story]. We're putting this stuff out. Little two minute videos everyday this week on the Internet so that people can learn the history of what's behind the 'Bell Witch' legend," Solomon revealed.
And he's really excited about the people he interviewed for the DVD.
"You should see these people. There's one guy named Dewy the ghost hunter. He's got a whole ghost buster belt and everything going on. He's like you know 'ghosts aren't really bad. They don't want to hurt you.' And then they said what about the Bell Witch? He says 'well it wasn't very nice was it?' He's hilarious?It was always my intention to go down and interview the descendents of the Bells and we've got all that stuff so you can see what they say the story is and also what these people think happens now."
American Haunting hits theaters this Friday, May 5th.
