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Let’s face it: this year’s movie releases have generally been pretty scary—but not really in a good way. In fact, I’m still having nightmares about Miss March. So, after watching so many unintentionally horrifying movies, it’s rather refreshing to watch one that was actually supposed to be scary.
Based on actual events, The Haunting in Connecticut tells the creepy but cliché (and not necessarily well-developed) story of the Campbell family and their haunted house in Connecticut.
In order to be closer to the hospital where teenage son Matt (Kyle Gallner) is undergoing an experimental cancer treatment, the family moves into an old rental house. When they first move in, mom Sara (Virginia Madsen) is already aware that the house has a past: it was once a funeral home (and, for some reason, all of the mortuary equipment is still locked away in the basement). But she has no idea of the horrors that once took place there.
From the very beginning, Matt starts having strange and terrifying visions of the house’s history—visions that often involve a young boy. Afraid that they’re visions brought about by his treatment, he doesn’t say anything. But when the rest of the family starts seeing things, too, Matt goes to a fellow cancer patient, Reverend Popescu (Elias Koteas), for help.
The Haunting in Connecticut has everything you’d expect from a creepy ghost story. It’s dark and eerie. It has suspenseful moments that will have you holding your breath and bracing yourself for what’s around the next corner. And it’s filled with cheap scares that are guaranteed to make you jump out of your seat (or, in the case of one of the women in the theater when I saw it, scream at the top of your lungs). There’s even a shower scene. Yet, despite all those horror clichés, it still works. It doesn’t feel cheesy or overdone or ridiculous; it just feels creepy. And though it’s not necessarily terrifying—nor is it especially gory—it’s sure to get your adrenaline pumping. It might even give you a nightmare or two. So, in that way, I’d say it’s done its job quite well.
When it comes to the story, though, Haunting could have been better. It tends to gloss over the details of what really happened in exchange for a few more scary images of the menacing ghosts that lurk around the house. And when it was all over, I still wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened—or what it all meant.
If you’re like me—and you prefer a creepy story to some cheap scares—you might be slightly disappointed by the story’s lack of development. Still, it’s all in good fun. You won’t find anything new or surprising from The Haunting in Connecticut, but you’re looking for a good scare, it’s still worth the trip.
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