Written and directed by William Mark McCullough, ‘A Savannah Haunting’ is a supernatural horror film that deals with a family in a haunted house. A theme, that has been done to death in the Horror genre, this film also uses the haunted house as a setting for the family to work over their past traumas. The film believes in a supposition that such activities do exist and these appearances are in fact real. That is what makes the movie a conventional viewing in this genre where we are told to believe what is happening. The belief should ideally come from the artistic capabilities of the work itself, but the note shared by the makers just uses the cliché route.
A Savannah Haunting (2022) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis
The film begins with footage of the director’s family members speaking directly to the camera, saying that the story, in fact, is true – that they went through these scenarios as a family that is being shown in the following film. Then the film shifts to its fictional side where a family of four drives in a car to their new house in Savannah. Rachel (Gena Shaw) is engulfed in her thoughts, and her husband – Eric (Dean J. West) is worried for her. Their children – Andrew (Nico Tirozzi) and April (Anna Harriette Pittman) travel along with them.
When this family of Rancourt’s reaches the house, they try to make it their own right away. The place is filled with several covered boxes and the place is quite cold for Rachel’s liking. Eric mentions it being in their budget and needing to work on developing it for their suitability now that they have moved in. Afterward, while unpacking their stuff, Rachel finds a doll in one of the storage boxes, while she was unloading its contents. Since she gets spooked by it, she takes it out of their house and throws it into the trash bin in their garden.
The kids are not happy with the change, especially their daughter, who hates moving to this new place. While Rachel is still trying to process her difficult emotions, Eric makes friends with James (Moses Jones), who mentions their house being uninhabited for a while. At home, Rachel has a nightmare of her lost daughter, screaming. The next day, she finds Andrew sleeping with the doll she found in the storage boxes – the same one she remembered throwing in the garbage. She scolds him for taking it out. While later, she apologizes to him for yelling at him, and he innocently mentions that ‘she’ doesn’t like the dark.
Later, Rachel gets a call from Eric, who mentions that James and his wife – Vanessa (Brittney Level) will be joining them for dinner. While that invitation comes as a surprise to her, she goes to visit a mental health professional to talk her feelings out. She speaks about her grief for their daughter’s death and the way the family was managing and coping with this loss. Later, during their dinner together, Vanessa brings up the subject of her grandmother – Josephine (Simbi Kali), who understands voodoo rituals. That’s when she sees Andrew’s nose bleeding. When Rachel takes him to wash it out, he mentions that ‘she’ is angry.
When the couple was living, Vanessa warns Eric to not enter the basement out of safety concerns. Both he and James do not take it seriously, but while leaving, Vanessa tells James that she does not want to visit this house, ever again. At night, Rachel sees a nightmare with both the twins – Andrew & Alice (the lost daughter) with black eyes, sitting in a burning house. The next day, Lilath (Tommi Rose) from April’s new school, tries getting closer to her. In the coming time, the doll keeps reappearing in their house despite being thrown out in the dustbin. And while Rachel tries to talk sense into Andrew about his claims about Alice, she starts losing her mind because of the things she keeps seeing herself. Meanwhile, Vanessa warns Eric yet again to be careful. The reason this time is her conversation with her grandmother, who shared troubling history about the place.
In the coming days, on her drive for work, Rachel comes across a creepy neighborhood repairman – William (played by William Mark McCullough). The next time she meets her therapist, she speaks about Alice drowning in the water, when she was supposed to watch and take care of her. The therapist comforts her and tells her not to feel guilty about the incident. Later at home, she gets a call where a child who tells her that she should not be sleeping and that, bad things happen when she sleeps. She also hears a recording where both Andrew and Alice were singing. That night, Andrew jumps into their swimming pool and luckily she and Eric manage to help him get out. However, this series of incidents unsettles her mental state, more and more.
Sometime later, Josephine shows up at her house and tries to warn her about the rumors about their basement and the dark past associated with the past. They have a charged argument, which also goes on the racial aspect of who believes in such strange, magical aspects. Rachel keeps shutting her claims down, noting she does not want her children getting affected by them. But while she was angry earlier, while leaving, Josephine urges her not to go to the basement. A few days later, William shows up at her doorstep and gets a good look at the interior of their house with an excuse of repairing some parts.
Meanwhile, Lilath tries getting sexually closer to April and she pushes her way. She later tries the same with Eric and also kisses him even if he finds it absolutely wrong. At home, being increasingly drawn to the darker side of the haunted house, Rachel starts cradling the doll as if it is Alice herself. She later hallucinates Andrew pushing her into the waters and scolds him. The grief-struck state of hers resurfaces over and over and she imagines several scenarios involving her, Alice and Andrew along with the damaged doll.
A Savannah Haunting Movie Ending, Explained:
Rachel’s therapist calls Eric to his office to warn him about her fragile mental state. Eric feels worried that she might be dangerous for his family and for herself – considering some of the things he witnesses at home, involving her. The therapist notes that her acting strange might be because of grief about Alice. Eric storms out, worried, unsure which Alice-related story Rachel had cooked up. He denies the existence of a daughter of theirs named Alice. While driving, he calls James and speaks with Vanessa about why the previous owners left the house unfinished. He learned that the daughter of previous owners drowned in the pool and Rachel is haunted by those memories, which are not theirs.
When he reaches home, he sees that the lights were out and his phone battery has also died. Rachel was sitting in her chair, cradling the doll on her lap. When he asks about the kids, she tells him that they are playing with their friends from the basement. He looks around the house with his torch, which is when Alice’s ghost spooks him. He also sees a portrait of Lilath, done in the Victorian style. Finally, when he opens a door, he sees a bunch of white people dressed in old-timey apparel. The gathering is led by William and he thanks his daughter Lilath. Both the characters that were in their present, appear in these traditional outfits, in the spooky lighting.
All these people see him as the odd one out and stare at him. William calls him a trespasser and everyone starts walking toward him. He gets panicked since this is the first time he comes to the basement. While he tries to escape, he gets visited by black-eyes William in his regular outfit. He runs away, frightened by his sermon – and ends up meeting blood-soaked Lilath, who scares him to death. He opens a wooden box nearby to find Alice lying there. She says to him that Mommy’s fragile and that he shouldn’t do bad things behind her back.
When he runs out, he finds the doll staring right at him. William shows up and drags him into a room. One year later, Rachel shows up in front of her therapist. He asks her to speak up about what she did to the bodies of her family members, and it won’t be held against her. She keeps humming the same song that the kid used to hum and keeps up with her creepy smile. While it is open to interpretation of what could have caused the occurrences of these paranormal activities, A Savannah Haunting puts a lid on any suspicion about whether it happened or not, by stating with several accounts that it certainly did.
Read More: Feed Me (2022) Movie Ending, Explained
Trailer
A Savannah Haunting (2022) Movie Links: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes
A Savannah Haunting (2022) Movie Cast: GENA SHAW, DEAN J. WEST, SIMBI CALI, NICO TIROZZI, ANNA HARIETTE PITTMAN, TOMMI ROSE
