The Haunting in Connecticut

The Haunting in Connecticut is a thriller based on a true story about a dying boy and his family who move into an old home and encounter the undead. Going into this film I was only expected to be somewhat shaken and entertained, instead I walked out feeling bored and uninspired. I am one of the few however since the movie will inspire discussion on the supernatural and the reality (or not) of it all. There is no pretense on it being based off real events so that alone will be enough for people to buy it.

I truly believed that movies had rose above the need to rely on loud noises and moving shadows to scare people. The Haunting provided more than its fair share of cheap tricks to “thrill” the audience and unfortunately it seemed to work on the teenagers within our audience. If not for the moments of screaming instruments and glimpses of the ghosts, I think myself and most of the audience would have fallen asleep or dozed off a few times. It is a pretty slow one, and the pacing was less than ambitious.

The beautiful (Virginia Madsen) plays the mom Sara Campbell and was interesting in her portrayal until it came time for her to cry… needless to say we were not convinced. The family members came off as uninteresting and bland, to the point where the only person you cared for was Matt Campbell (Kyle Gallner) the victim of the hauntings. The almost non-existent score coupled with the obnoxious noises, the confusing story (can someone please explain ectoplasm to me) and the uninteresting characters made this movie forgettable.

If there is anything interesting about this film, it would be the portrayal of a struggling family when money isn’t enough to care for a dying family member. The ghosts and the monochrome flashbacks were a tad creepy but black and white film automatically does that (I think of Nosferatu). The special effects were good but not great (ectoplasm effects were cool) and the house looked like that of every other bad scary movie. I kept asking myself, why would anyone purposefully move into a house that looked like Amityville.

To sum it all up I can say that too many questions were left unanswered as I left the theater. My only true interest afterwards was to read about the real “haunting” and compare the reality to the fantasy. Would I reccommend this to anyone? No, not unless you are really interested in seeing another “haunting”. If you aim to be scared and thrilled, then its probably best to save your time and money.

Written by Greg Dragon – who has written 365 reviews on Spicy Movie Dogs.

Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.