A unique experience

Rating: 9/10 (14 June 2006)

This is only the second review I have written on this site and for good reason, I haven't felt strongly enough about the majority of films in recent months (strong enough one way or the other). It was only after watching An American Haunting that I registered with IMDb as i felt it my duty to tell the world how breath takingly awful it was! In fact, it was so bad it almost knocked D-Tox of the top of my list of worse films ever made. Thankfully, I find myself returning to the key board... and IMDb to tell you that YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should watch this film to be entertained because that certainly isn't the feeling i had when watching it. To be honest I was nervous and anxious throughout the film, my palms were sweating, an occasional tear would swell in my eye and found it hard to watch in places. I was going through a whole spectrum of emotions that I haven't experienced through film since my first viewing of E.T when I was six years old, but this time there was no orchestra guiding me through the scenes, no patriotic cigar chomping heroes saluting the star spangled banner, no slow motion action and thank god not an a-list celeb in sight.
I believe this is as close to real film has ever come. You get a true sense of 'this is how things were'. It's obvious to point out that it has been shot in a documentary style to put you in the centre of the story and involve the audience in the 'action' but never before has it worked with such a degree of success. I felt emotional because for that 90 minutes I was in the plane and just like the passengers I felt there was a chance we'd make it right up to the point the plane crashes (which of course is ridiculous but never the less true).
The film triumphs in avoiding all the usual Hollywood b****cks. No Political agendas or meaning are attached to the film, just objective viewing (true fly-on-the-wall style).
A lot of people are going to hate the film because they feel studios are capitalising on such a terrible tragedy but I can't see that in this film. It hasn't been made to turn a huge profit but to show the world what happened without bias and it does this very well.
I said in the summary that this is a unique experience, by this I mean that never before have I been so compelled to watch something I didn't feel comfortable watching or wasn't entertained by. It is so hard to describe exactly what the feeling is you get from the film so I think it is important that you see for yourself. Don't be put off seeing it because you don't want to contribute to the studios money pot, this has to be viewed in a cinema. I challenge anyone not to be totally gripped.
9/11 is fresh in everyones minds and maybe thats why there's such an up roar but personally I think it has been timed perfectly. Yes it is going to open the flood gates to countless, tasteless copies but I urge you not to bundle this one into that category. You're going to be hard pushed to ever find a film so tastefully done on this subject.