The Bell family were better off than many of their neighbors along the along the Red River, but nobody in that hardscrabble area was rich in the 1810s and Breedlove’s local experts suggest that is still true today. While Breedlove combines talking head analysis with black-and-white re-enactments in the style of supernatural “reality” TV shows, the focus on folklore and archetypes sets it apart from its less reputable cousins.
Bell Witch lore does indeed include plenty of classic tropes, including shape-shifting, desecrated native burial grounds, devil dogs, and Evil Dead-style things literally going bump in the night. Supposedly, the “Witch” was the ghost of Kate Batts, a deceased neighbor, whose family had a rather complicated relationship with the Bells. For some reason, she really had it in for John Bell, Sr. and his daughter Elizabeth, yet she treated his wife Lucy with perverse affection. Yet, Breedlove and his chief folklorist, Dr. Brandon Barker also give viewers a wider perspective, placing the legend in a historical context, following shortly in the wake of the Second Great Awakening and grounding it in the culture and traditions of rural Tennessee.
