I’m not sure why, but I love the story of the Bell Witch. The fact that American folklore starts with a lady who lives in a cave getting mad at people who slighted her is just so patriotic. Tennessee wasn’t exactly teeming with opportunities in the 1810’s, so you got to admire the perseverance of one entity to make a family feel terrified for years. Commitment to the opportunities at hand is the benchmark of success.

This movie, much to my disappointment, is not about the Bell Witch. The names and location are the same, but the story is very different, and in a way more disturbing.

The film starts in modern day, with a teenage girl waking up terrified from dream of her running through the woods being chased by an invisible entity. Her mother dismisses it, and scolds her daughter for going into the attic of her own house (the mother is an alcoholic, but that seems to be washed over). This is to establish the fact that the world never believes teenage girls. I kept expecting the story to go back and forth between modern day and the 1800’s but it never happens. Which is a very impressive story-telling technique, because you keep trying to parallel the stories in your brain.

We switch to the 1810’s where the entertainment people benefited most from was binging local church court proceedings. I get it. It always seems to be cold in the mountains of Tennessee and there isn’t much else to do. Might as well mosey over to the court house to see who’s around to call a witch.

In this case, it’s John Bell Sr. versus a neighbor, Kate Batts. Kate says John gave her a loan and also cut down her trees. Environmental destruction aside, the church accuses John Bell Sr. of usury since he was charging her 20%. John sounds like Sallie Mae, so already I don’t like this dude. Kate is pissed the church let John go with “loss of honor” and let’s him know. Kate, of course, is rumored to dabble in witchcraft, so of course she’s suspect number one when strange things start happening soon after.

Very quickly, the Bell’s teenage daughter, Betsy, starts to be assaulted violently by a spirit. A large black wolf-dog begins to prowl the property. A local drunk tries to read from the Bible to protect the family (it backfires; he doesn’t know what he’s doing). The father starts to become ill and loses his vision.

The suspicion that all of this is caused by Kate Batts is amplified when she has her slave drop off some “laundry” she found in the woods. The laundry is the clothes of Betsy and John Bell Sr. covered in blood. The Bell’s slaves warn them that once a witch puts blood on your clothes, you are marked for death. Technically with the alcoholism and Appalachian winters in the early 1800’s, everyone is marked for death. Weak prophesy. Do better.

The Bell mother, played by Sissy Spacek, is scared for her family but not very helpful. In this very unrealistically large house, there are at least four or five bedrooms. Maybe don’t let your daughter keep sleeping in the one that drags her across the floor every night. But I can’t judge moms, especially when a poltergeist is present. She’s busy. She has three other kids, including a son who keeps accidentally shooting at the house. She is also busy trying to play matchmaker with her teenage daughter Betsy, and her much older schoolteacher. Which goes to prove that Tennessee was always a little fucked up.

The movie is PG-13, which is good, because there’s nothing gory in this film at all. However, the ending is extremely disturbing if you don’t see it coming (I did, but it didn’t make it any less messed up). And technically there are two endings, which doubles down on the disturbing factor.

This film is one of those where I imagine there are loads of footage on the cutting room floor that tells a better story, especially since it is based on a novel. Not that I will go looking for those deleted scenes or the book. I’m interested, but not “send myself down a rabbit hole of damaging, nightmare inducing scenes” interested. I have enough to worry about. Like making sure Tennessee isn’t still letting children marry their teachers.