Customer Reviews

A Haunting in Connecticut

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

A Haunting in Connecticut and A Haunting in Georgia were the two pilot episodes which led to the Discovery Channel series "A Haunting". Don't let that scare you away though because A Haunting in Connecticut is the best of the series, bar none. It's a story about a family who's teenage son gets cancer and to get him closer to his doctors they move to a house in Connecticut. When arriving at the house the parents, and eventually the children, realize that the house is a former funeral home, in which the previous owners still lurk in the basement!

I also love this one, just as much as a Haunting in Ga. like my other review. This one is the scarier of the two, though they both are pretty scary. I actaully read the book it's based on (In a Dark Place) in H.S. needless to say, it scared the HELL out of me! So, I'll let you guess how scary the documentary is! This one like a Haunting in Ga., also has real characters and a great story line. A family moves into a house that used to be funeral home,and strange things start happening to the boys who sleep in the basement. This one is so scary! Also, you finally get to see what the investigator saw when he comes to the house. Unlike, the tv version where he just talks about what he saw. If you want a great ghost story, also order this one! Warning: Don't show this to kids under 12, it will scare them too much!

Anyone who has ever read "In a Dark Place" will recognize the story of the Parker family and their terrifying 3-month stint in a former funeral home/morgue. This video version is very good. As a person who actually grew up in former funeral home, I can testify truthfully that they are not all terrifying and infested with demons! (Ghosts, yes, but demons......no.)

As with the book, I have a hard time believing completely some of the details as being factual.

There are some things about the story that make me ask "huh?" For instance, even if you didn't believe in ghosts and spirits, would you really put your children down in the basement and expect them to sleep in what used to be a morgue? And when they began running up the stairs night after night, screaming and crying and reporting that they saw apparitions, wouldn't a parent feel enough sympathy to let them sleep on the pull-out sofa in the living room, instead of continuing to insist that they return to the basement aka morgue, to sleep?

I find it to be rather cruel myself. I mean, why didn't the parents take the basement bedroom and let the boys sleep upstairs? It is tantamount to abuse, in my opinion.

And no matter how much debt you had, would you still sleep in a place that molested its inhabitants? In a place that didn't allow you a simple nights rest? I mean, wouldn't Motel 6 look like a pretty good deal at some point? I wonder about those things.

So there are parts of the story that don't really add up. But overall, it's a great film based on a really scary book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who feels like being scared for a few hours!

To start with, I love all of the "A Haunting" shows shown on Discovery Channel. My only gripe with this one episode is the poor DVD transfer. The DVD is very dark in many areas when compared to the broadcast version shown on The Discovery Channel. They could have done a much better job in transfering the show onto DVD. The dark areas on the DVD are much brighter on the broadcast version of the show. Still worth getting. The Haunting shows look wonderful on Discovery Channel HD. I wish they would put them out on Blu-ray. Fat chance of that since the show was cancelled.

Though the DVD quality wasn't as good as the original Discovery Channel broadcast, this documentary was still good enough to make me keep the lights on for a few nights. I saw the original episode a few years back, just out of luck I happened to catch it in it's entirety. Now, I'm already a coward who jumps at my own shadow, but I can't help enjoying horror films and paranormal programs. Most scary movies today don't move me at all. There's a jump here or a gasp there, but nothing like what I experienced from this documentary. This was enough to scare me for a few days. I honestly slept with the lights on for about three nights straight, possibly longer! I don't think I've been that shaken from a film in my entire life. Coincidentally my best friend and I had been discussing the television show "A Haunting" a year or so later and it happens that he too had seen this documentary and found it just as disturbing as I did! We both still remembered the fine details, even though we both had only seen it once. That's unheard of for me. So of course, I had to buy the DVD. It's not as scary the second time around, but maybe that's because I know when to cover my eyes. Hahaha.
Even my parents enjoyed this DVD, and they usually can't stand the horror movies or paranormal programs I like.
I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good deep down scare that will stay with you for a while.

Thank you thank you thank you Amazon for making this DVD available for purchase. Ever since I first saw this on the discovery channel late one night I knew that I needed to own it. I haven't read the book as yet, but that's my next stop. They're even releasing this story as a full length movie into theaters. As soon as I saw the preview I knew that it was this same story. I rarely get scared to the point that I have to take a break from something, but this was one of the programs where I had to stop, put on the lights and take a break from the screen. This gave me goose-bumps. Take my advice, buy it and watch it. You'll love it. It's the best of the series!

I love the Haunting series produced by the Discovery Channel, and have all Seasons 1-4. The show is well-produced and most of the stories not only ring true but have the ability to really creep viewers out.

Of all the stories portrayed in the series, I'd have to say "A Haunting in Connecticut" stands out as one of the scariest stories. In this story, the Parker family moves into their supposedly dream home, a break they desperately need considering one of their children, a son, suffers from cancer. Instead, the family is beset by spooky goings-on, and discover to their horror certain strange artifacts in the house such as coffin keys and a huge freezer in the cellar. They realise that the house used to be a funeral home, and have to cope with the hauntings. They finally seek the help of Edward and Lorraine Warren, the same couple that investigated another haunted house that came to be known as the Amityville horror.

The docu-drama is credibly done with effects that are average, yet manage to creep out viewers. The story is also something that doesn't seem unbelievable, there is a ring of truth to it, and though the movie version seems to sensationalize the story, this docu-drama effectively captures the family's nightmare and plight. The viewer comes to sympathize with the family, especially given that they already have enough on their plate - a sick son and added on to that, a house that is inhabited by supernatural entities. Highly recommended, and while you're at it, I'd recommend getting Haunting Seasons 1-4, especially since it is currently being heavily discounted here on Amazon.

I love this series very much but must say that this episode is the best one ever made. Discovery never reruns this episode but does all the others. I guess this was the first for the series so that is why it was never rerun. 6 years after seeing it I still remembered it and when I found it here I got it. Just this year they made a full movie based on this story. Not sure how the movie was but this episode is great!

This documentary was the first one I watched in "A Haunting" series from the Discovery Network. I remember I caught it by accident years ago and after being pulled into it by the narrator's creepy voice and captivating true story along every twist and turn, I was actually creeped out in my own house to walk down the hall, go into the basement and turn off the lights for the rest of the night. And I don't get scared that easily! The second one in the series wasn't nearly as good, but "A Haunting In Connecticut" is absolutely a must-see. It's better than the movie in my opinion. It has interviews with the people who actually endured the events. This documentary shows that the truth is usually scary enough on its own without having to go 'Hollywood'. Plus, the younger actors in the dramatizations are actually pretty good. Don't miss it. I own "A Haunting: Season 3" now, there are some episodes in there that rival this one, but this one is one of the best.

A Haunting in Connecticut was the first of two pilot episodes for Discovery Channel's A Haunting - Seasons 1-4, one of the best paranormal television series of all time. The story documented herein is perhaps more fascinating now than it was when the program first aired back in 2002, as the story - and the controversy surrounding it - has received renewed attention coinciding with the release of the film The Haunting in Connecticut (Unrated Special Edition) based on the same story of ghostly infestation. While I have not yet seen the new feature film, a quick perusal of the plot summary makes it quite clear that it differs significantly from original eyewitness accounts - in other words, this program is well worth watching even if you've seen the 2009 horror film. On the other hand, this documentary actually tells a significantly watered-down version of the original story. I find that disappointing yet understandable given the deeply personal nature of some of the reported events and the fact that the credibility of the entire story had come strongly in to question by 1999, when Ray Garton, the man contracted to write the story of the haunting in the book In a Dark Place, publicly impugned the integrity of the family as well as world-famous investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Whether the whole story is truth or fiction, though, I think all would agree that it makes a hell of a good story.

This particular haunting is particularly troubling because it involves the demonic targeting of a young teenager battling cancer. The Parker family (as it is referred to here) moved from New York to Connecticut so that their cancer-stricken son Paul would be close to his doctors; desperate to find some place for their fairly large family to stay, they jumped at the chance to land this large and relatively inexpensive home. Only when they moved in did they discover that the place used to be a funeral parlour. The parents really aren't concerned about this, though - even when three of their children begin reporting frightening sights and sounds. It's bad enough that both parents refuse to believe their children's stories, but it's frustrating to say the least to watch them blame Paul for putting the idea of ghosts in his siblings' heads. Whether they believed him or not, I can't understand why they would force an obviously-frightened young man fighting a life-and-death struggle with cancer to stay in a room that scares him so much; the father even removes the light bulbs from the room. This sets Paul up for great suffering indeed. Of course, once the parents finally get a sample of what has been tormenting all of their children, they race to find a solution to the problem, eventually turning to demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren for help. The Warrens and their research team are soon treated to a range of evidence that convinces them that a strong demonic presence abides in the ill-fated house.

The truth of this haunting is very much in doubt, but the events recreated in this program are pretty extraordinary and, in some cases, quite distinct and unusual. This isn't a program you would want to let your kids watch just before going to bed, as bad dreams are made of the phenomena on display here. A Haunting in Connecticut is the equivalent of a regular A Haunting episode on steroids, making full use of its extended running time of 94 minutes. You won't find this or A Haunting in Georgia included in any of the season DVD sets of A Haunting, so be sure and pick these up separately.