'An American Haunting' (PG-13)(out of four)

One of these days a horror filmmaker will finally have the decency to stop pretending, and give up on character development completely.

When you break things down, the endless parade of horror films rotating through theaters in recent years all operate with a predefined formula that doesn't even require human interaction. There are loud noises, crashes, squeaks and howls, all of which fade to silence as the camera zooms in on a wide-eyed damsel in distress, her breathing growing louder. Then silence, and a sudden scream or ghastly image to make us jump.

This year we've had more than our fair share of these mediocre formulas that seek to shock, rather than scare. This week is "An American Haunting." A few weeks ago was "Silent Hill." A few weeks before that was "Slither"; a few weeks earlier "The Hills Have Eyes."

But all these films suffer from a crucial flaw that is leaving modern horror films, particularly stories about hauntings, feeling stale and flaccid.

Wes Craven was on the news show "Nightline" a few weeks ago, and he said that the difference between many of his horror films and those made today is that his characters and situations mattered more than the blood he showed. And he's right. It is situations, built around characters, which engage our minds.

The rest is just shock value.

Which brings us to "An American Haunting," a flat and, worse, lazy thriller that can't quite master shocks, much less situations.

The film's hook -- I wouldn't really call it a story -- is its structure, jumping between present-day Tennessee and those oh-so-exotic days of 1818, when families had slaves, girls married young and the supernatural was seen as just another facet of religion. When in the past, the film focuses on a rural country house and an innocent young girl, Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood), who finds herself at the mercy of a violent spirit haunting their house.

Forced to watch this nightly abuse are her terrified mother (Sissy Spacek), who is horrified by her child's screams, and her father (Donald Sutherland), who seeks help from the same church that cast him out for breaking church law.

The nightly attacks occur in predictable fashion. Floors creak under the weight of mysterious footsteps, candles blow out, strange visions and voices horrify the family before dissolving into the night. It's a cycle of teasing the audience without really delivering, and the repetitive episodes grow old quickly.

Presumably, "Haunting" hopes to maximize the mileage out of the fact that it is based on a true story -- the story behind the only death ever been attributed to a spirit. But its delivery prevents us from ever getting close to this "true story." This is a period piece, complete with colloquial dialogue and 19th-century science, intercut with a jerky, stylized modern horror film.

It's a one-two punch that fails horribly, almost like they're trying to mix Bach with Metallica.

One of these days people will realize that "The Exorcist," the best of all films about hauntings, was great because it spent more time creating its characters than in revealing its grotesque effects. Sure, a little girl growling and vomiting is a creepy sight, but watching a girl we care about as she deteriorates is even more horrifying.

And it is in regards to characters where "An American Haunting" literally has nothing to offer. It throws around Betsy as ruthlessly and callously as this supposed ghost does, and exploits her sexuality in its offensive push to eek out one last good scare. And if we can't care about the person being beaten down by the ghost, why would we ever be scared of it ourselves?

It's like paying $10 to watch an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries."