Review: The Haunting in Connecticut
by Christian TotoThe scariest part of the new thriller “The Haunting in Connecticut” comes during the opening credits.
“Based on the true story,” we’re told, and it’s hard not to giggle.
That’s not the kind of scary the film’s producers were gunning for. But it’s a good fright for horror fans hoping to trade their hard earned cash for some goosebumps. Sure enough, “Connecticut” can’t deliver on the scares, but at least it’s not as monumentally silly as the “true story” warning portends.
Horror movies can live or die in the casting. The recent “Last House on the Left” remake shouldn’t have been so effective, but all the key roles were fleshed out with alacrity. Same goes for “Connecticut,” which gives the unsung Virginia Madsen a rare lead role. She plays Sara, the mother of a cancer-stricken teen named Matt (Kyle Gallner). She moves the family to a wheezy old rental house that’s only a few miles from the boy’s hospital.
Sara scored a great deal on the property which could only mean one thing. There’s a catch, right? Turns out the home once served as a funeral parlor. That’s creepy, not as as creepy as the horrifying images Matt starts seeing as soon as they make themselves at home. His medication could be making him hallucinate, but the audience know better. This house … is haunted.
Cue the scary music!
Things start going bump in the night, and soon other family members can’t help but take notice.
The haunted house genre is exhausted at this point, and no amount of CGI trickery can undo that reality. The special effects, include the ectoplasm out of the orifice bit, are just good enough to flesh out the film’s trailer.
“Connecticut” trots out the standard combination of genuine and cheap scares, but the foreboding music and obvious staging means we see it all coming a block away. The introduction of Elias Koteas as a savvy pastor gives some juice to the story, but ultimately we’re left with more exposition than a horror film should have.
As good as Madsen is here, selling a stock role with maternal pride, Gallner is a few paces better. He immediately wins us over as a boy who won’t let self-pity get in the way of what could be his remaining months on Earth. He’s an actor to keep tabs on, to be sure.
The truth behind “Connecticut” is that it wouldn’t be worthy anyone’s time if neither Madsen nor Gallner were around to haunt it.
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31 Comments
This is disappointing. I'm somewhat familiar with the true story, and it's horrifying. I was hoping to see it get a decent big screen treatment. But it sounds like this turned out worse than the one-hour Discovery Channel special on it.
Madsen and Koteas also put in fine perfomances together in one of my favorite supernatural thrillers, The Prophesy, holding their own alongside Christopher Walken at his hammy best, and a truly disturbing bit part of Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer.
Christian I saw the actual show about the house on Discovery or which ever cable network it was on. The house was a mortuary. I have rented enough homes in my life before we bought to know if you walk into a basement and there is a morticians table and all the cool instruements……just don't rent. Easy peasy. Saves a lot of aggravation. And yes I do believe in spooks.
The trailers have me fairly convinced that this will suck.
Bad ghost movies are my least favorite type of bad movie, because I feel forced into a logical conundrum. On the one hand, the "ultimate test" of a horror film that's supposed to wipe out all other concerns is "is it scary?" Well, ghosts TERRIFY me. I firmly believe ("know" would be my prefered terminology, honestly) that I have encountered ghosts twice in my life. Scared me to death both times. 2nd encounter was physical (read: it touched me) and was enough to send me (literally) running screaming into the night. The damn things scare me, the IDEA of the damn things scare me, every ghost movie WILL scare me… even the ones that I can otherwise tell are awful. Hence the conundrum: I KNOW it's bad, but it's "working" on that level anyway. I hate that.
The trailers have me fairly convinced that this will suck.
Bad ghost movies are my least favorite type of bad movie, because I feel forced into a logical conundrum. On the one hand, the "ultimate test" of a horror film that's supposed to wipe out all other concerns is "is it scary?" Well, ghosts TERRIFY me. I firmly believe ("know" would be my prefered terminology, honestly) that I have encountered ghosts twice in my life. Scared me to death both times. 2nd encounter was physical (read: it touched me) and was enough to send me (literally) running screaming into the night. The damn things scare me, the IDEA of the damn things scare me, every ghost movie WILL scare me… even the ones that I can otherwise tell are awful. Hence the conundrum: I KNOW it's bad, but it's "working" on that level anyway. I hate that.
Yeah, I was going to say this sounds a lot like the show on the Discovery Channel. It started with Haunting in Connecticut, then Haunting in Georgia, and then just became Haunting. I've enjoyed the series, though it got really repetitive.
Yeah, I was going to say this sounds a lot like the show on the Discovery Channel. It started with Haunting in Connecticut, then Haunting in Georgia, and then just became Haunting. I've enjoyed the series, though it got really repetitive.
I've always wanted to write a SciFi parody with no connection to Earth or our time, and begin with the words: "Based on a true story."
The whole "Based on a True Story" bit is beyond bunk. Here's a link to where the author of the book talks about his experience with the Warrens and the Snedekers:
http://www.damnedct.com/damned-interview-ray-gart...
The whole "Based on a True Story" bit is beyond bunk. Here's a link to where the author of the book talks about his experience with the Warrens and the Snedekers:
http://www.damnedct.com/damned-interview-ray-gart...
I think the true classic horror film, capable of terrifying you for over an hour with shadows, sounds, and suspicions, is dead. Now it's shock and schlock, gore and bush. Start the body count, run it high, wait for the sequels.
It's time for something truly creepy, unraveling slowly, paranoia rising, eyelids sore from trying to close yet you can't look away, scenes so tense you'll leap from your seat if someone touches you.
Start simple. The remains of a slaughtering of goats, a sacrificial ceremony to summon the demonic destroyer of worlds, performed by a tribal witch doctor from Kenya, outside a Hawaiian home…
"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, this really happened."
It's time for something truly creepy, unraveling slowly, paranoia rising, eyelids sore from trying to close yet you can't look away, scenes so tense you'll leap from your seat if someone touches you.
Sadly, the only guy who makes movies like that anymore is David friggin' Lynch.
Maybe it's because I really haven't seen too many of them, but I still haven't grown tired of the ghostly kind of horror movies, howver cliched, and I saw nothing in this review that turned me off of this one – though, okay, I'll probably wait for DVD. I prefer spooky over gory, creepiness over scares. When it comes to ghosts, I'm pretty easy to please. Geez, I even liked Blair Witch!
I'm pretty sure I've only seen Kyle Gallner in one-episode guest roles on several TV shows, but he stood out enough that I already knew him by name when I saw him in the previews. Great to hear he's impressive in this!
Virginia Madsen has never been in a hit movie where she didn't show some skin… and now it's way too late.
The words "in Connecticut" in the title convinced me this will suck.
That was a good flick. I liked how angels would sit on the edge of chairs like European cathedral sculptures.
I grew up 15min from this house and have driven by it many times, so i went to see the movie tonite, the opening scene was great but like most movies that are scary, dark and gruesome were the main story. My parents said the street in southington Ct off meriden rd to go to this house is insane , everyone is trying to get a look at this house.
You're kidding me! My husband and in-laws used to live right off Meriden Rd for many years, right on the edge of Southington! Oh, $#^%!
It's possible that my husband and I (while dating and during our first three years of marriage) might have passed by that house many times and not even realized it! And yes, I've seen the Discovery Channel special!
That thing is, well, too close for comfort. I guess I should thank the Good Lord and Savior God for taking us far away from that place! And I mean, waaaaay far away from that place!
It's horror and it's got Virginia Madsen, so it's a given that i'll watch it.
[...] WWTW visits Big Hollywood to review “The Haunting in Connecticut.“ [...]
Moviebob, I have the same absolute terror of ghosts. I refuse to even watch trailers for most ghost movies (and don't even get me started on exorcism movies). After I saw Sixth Sense I walked around terrified for about three days. I agree it's terrible to be "gotten" by an objectively bad ghost movie. On one level I'm like, "oh, come on, this sucks." and on another level I'm cowering in fear saying "…ghosts… please don't touch me ghosts…"
I thought this was going to be about that chick who stalked Letterman.
I liked the movie better when it was called Amityville Horror.
Using sudden loud noises to scare people is lazy film making.
I'd love to see Lynch do a Call of Cthulu movie. Because there's no way, no how, that it wouldn't capture what Lovecraft wrote by the simple fact Lynch would be directing it. I love some of his work, but sometimes I get smacked full in the face with a huge bag of "Huh?" With the Mythos that would work out just fine I figure.
Saw tonight. Effing AWFUL. Every twist predictable, awful performances, same basic "ghost stuff" thats been in-use since the late-90s, every scare telegraphed a mile in advance (all movie ghosts have the power to mute ambient-noise approximately five beats before they manifest) and features possibly the most random and moronic plot-device for "get all the lights offline" that I think I've ever seen.
Interestingly, the end credits (this is not a plot spoiler) play over what I can only assume are staged or photoshopped "ghost photographs" that are genuinely CHILLING, much moreso than anything in the film.
I saw the movie on Friday….two words; don't bother.
I too was familiar with the original story and to say the flick is even loosely based on it is a strectch. That in itself is not a reason not to go, but it was just awfully done. I thought Madsen's performance was wooden and not believable at all. Koteas, whom I generally like was given crap dialogue to work with was not convincing. The Gallner kid was good…but it was not a movie-saving performance.
The best scary movies are where the atmosphere and the mood are set, but where the intense moments are left open, at least in part, to the viewers imagination a la the original The Haunting.
This movie reveals too much, too soon and with very cheesy CGI effects. The story gets just more implausible along the way. The reveal of the reason for the haunting is done in a quick and perfuctory manner so there is no suspense build up.
I saw the movie as an afternoon matinee with maybe 12-15 people in the audience. Four walked out about an hour into it. I love a good scary movie, but I actually nodded off a few times.
Huge disappointment!!!
The Discovery segment still gives me the creeps. I have a feeling the movie would be a let-down.
May I recommend a Spanish film on DVD caledl the Orphanage? I believe it is by the same director that did The Others a few years back (Although I cannot be sure). Very creepy and atmospheric. No blood or violence just a real good ghost thriller that relies on your own imagination to scare the bejesus out of you. It is in Spanish, but if you can put up with subtitles it is well worth your valuable time.
"The Discovery segment still gives me the creeps"
Oh, I totally agree! To think this happened in real life is scary enough, but to know it happened close enough, in an area where people you know live… sends chills down my spine.
Never been a fan of horror films, anyway. (I watched The Exorcist with my eyes closed most of the time.) Wouldn't be surprised if the filmmakers botched this story, too.
I'll have to keep an eye out for that one. Sounds like a good one. Blood and violence was never a turn-on for me. But that seems to be what passes for "horror", these days.
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