The Haunting in Connecticut

Based on a chilling true story, Lionsgate’s The Haunting in Connecticut charts one family’s terrifying, real-life encounter with the dark forces of the supernatural. When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner’s clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to cross over. Now, unspeakable terror awaits when Jonah, the boy who communicated with the dead, returns to unleash a new kind of horror on the innocent and unsuspecting family.

Based on a "true" story. (Basically that means it’s all fake…)

Here’s how you build a horror movie. Take a kid and give him cancer (always fashionable and gives you so many possibilities). Load him up with drugs that may or may not be causing hallucinations (again, you can get away with a look of cool crap when you do it this way). Make him weak and scrawny due to the weight loss (the sympathy ploy and the walking dead are cool). And finally, get the family to move into a house where the rent is an unbelievable deal and they can’t figure out why no one else wants the place (self explanatory). And just to add to the excitement make it an old funeral home (everybody loves a story with a funeral home in it).

Actually, the first part of this movie is really good. Lots of things happen in the background, with quick glimpses of something in the mirror or walking past a door. Things move along quite well until they try to explain why all the "activity" is happening. Then things go off the rails. In a big way.

The movie takes a lot of liberties with the funeral home aspect. They make it out that the previous owners took liberties with their customers, experimented on the bodies, and used them for necromancy (the diabolical angle, always a good choice). There is even a mysterious boy who seems to be able to communicate with the dead which Matt can see and seems to be channeling. Jonah is used in séances as a conduit into the spirit world. His crazed funeral home patriarchs keep him around for abilities.

It’s an interesting idea but they go so far over the top the whole movie becomes moronic. Bodies are stuffed into every cranny and nook of the house. Jonah is spewing ectoplasm like pea soup – which looks stupid as hell by the way. Bodies are literally dropping from the ceiling in the big climactic, fiery showdown. And once we get to this point everything looks fake as hell.

It started off strong, but in the end it’s just a steamy pile. It might not be bad as a rental, if nothing else is on the shelves, but holy hell at $20 to buy it you’re getting ripped off!

I still think this story is a complete farce and can’t be taken seriously. There are so many holes in the tale it makes Amityville look realistic.

Other Articles of Interest:

• The Conjuring – A Film About Ed and Lorraine Warren
• American Horror Story
• Dreams in the Witch House – Masters of Horror – Rating 3 out of 5
• Wicked Little Things – After Dark Horror Fest – 8 Films To Die For
• The Possession
• The Gravedancers – After Dark Horror Fest – 8 Films To Die For
• An American Haunting – Rating 2 out of 5
• The Hamiltons – After Dark Horror Fest – 8 Films To Die For
• Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus
• Reincarnation – After Dark Horror Fest – 8 Films To Die For