Haunting In Connecticut, The

Haunting In Connecticut, The is rated PG-13: for some intense sequences of terror and disturbing images.

If anyone deserves an honorable mention in the credits of this movie, it would be the “foley” artists. These are the unsung heroes of audio production that use everyday materials to make all sorts of sounds… and this film is full of all sorts of spooky sounds. There isn’t a scene without squeaky floorboards, slamming doors, spirits whooshing overhead or unintelligible whisperings. Yes, it’s got every trick in the horror movie bag and, unless you’re 15, you’ll feel like you’ve seen (and heard) it all before.

The story opens with an introduction to the Campbell family and their teen son Matt (Kyle Gallner) who is battling cancer. Having to drive a long distance to Connecticut to participate in a new experimental treatment, his mother Sara (Virginia Madsen) decides they must rent a house closer to the clinic. This second home will stretch their already tight finances, but she and her recovering alcoholic husband Peter (Martin Donovan) want to do all they can to help their child.

Finding an inexpensive and spacious (but old) two-storey, Sara is thrilled at their good fortune. Yet no sooner do they get moved in when Matt begins having strange hallucinations. Believing the visions of a distraught boy and other ghastly beings are related to his medications, the family determines to continue as planned. However Matt’s cousin Wendy (Amanda Crew), who also lives with the Campbell’s, soon realizes that Matt is seeing the same young man she has found in old pictures of people conducting séances in the house. She begins to investigate the history of their residence at the local library and (are we surprised?) discovers the dwelling has a morbid past.

Full of all those iconic sounds, and a predictable plodding plot to go along with them, this movie gets less scary and more tedious as the minutes tick by. But parents of thrill-seeking youth should be aware that this teen-targeted house of horrors wanders into other areas that may be cause for greater concerns. Intense scenes involve occult themes, such as séances and paranormal visions, which result in some disconcerting changes to Matt’s personality. Other disturbing content includes a person mutilating various bodies, an attempted suicide, and depictions of decaying or severely burnt corpses that come to life. There are also portrayals of people vomiting up super-natural substances.

Thankfully sexual content is limited to the obligatory female in the shower who must deal with a curtain that attempts to suffocate her (no nudity is seen). Language is also sparse, consisting of four terms of Christian deity along with the use of a mild profanity and a scatological expletive.

Supposedly based “on a true story,” one thing is for certain… no matter how cheap the rent may be, this Connecticut haunted house is an unwise investment.

Studio: 2009 Lions Gate Films. Visit the official movie site.

This haunted house film has all the usual elements of the horror genre, but also serves up some disturbing visual images and themes. There are frequent depictions of a man mutilating corpses and a living teen is shown with graffiti carved all over his skin. Several scenes depict bodies (including children) in various states of decay and some that have been severely burnt. During séances, people are shown with “ectoplasm” coming out of their mouths. A man drives home late at night in a drunken state, and then verbally threatens his family while removing and breaking all the lights in the house. A young man pours flammable liquid on a pile of bodies in a home and then sets the place on fire, presumably with the intent of killing himself. A young woman is seen in a shower (no nudity is shown) and is “attacked” with the shower curtain by an unseen force. Frequent “jump scenes” are included. Language includes four terms of Christian deity along with a single mild profanity and a single scatological expletive.

How would you react if you saw someone who was deceased? Why don’t movies typically portray the positive feelings one may have after seeing visual proof of the continuance of life after death?

Another mother with sick children begins to suspect her family is being haunted in The Others.

Release Date: 14 July 2009

The Haunting In Connecticut is ready to spook on both DVD and Blu-ray disc. The DVD version is presented in widescreen, with audio tracks in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) and subtitles

The Haunting In Connecticut on Blu-ray comes in widescreen, with English audio tracks in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 7.1 HD. Subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish. Bonus Materials include:

- Featurettes (Two Dead Boys: The Making of The Haunting in Connecticut and Memento Mori: The History of Postmortem Photography).

- Documentary (The Fear Is Real: Reinvestigating the Haunting).

- Deleted Scenes (with optional commentary by director Peter Cornwell).

- Trailers

- Digital Copy of the movie.