Customer Reviews

The Haunting in Connecticut (Unrated Special Edition)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

A decent horror plot combined with scares that try to get under your skin and stay there manage to make the Haunting in Connecticut one of the few buy-worthy horrors I've reviewed. Matt Campbell, a cancer patient, is struggling to cope with the constant rides to and from the hospital where he is receiving an experimental treatment. After seeing him suffer following a prolonged treatment, his mother buys a former funeral home for them to stay in during his hospital visits. What follows is a progressively aggressive assault from spirits within the home.

The storyline is another of those "based on a true story" pieces of nonsense, which really needs to stop unless they're honestly worried about being sued. While the plot overall is nothing new, it manages to throw in enough good renditions of overdone plot points to give it a feel of being new. A few points of humor, a few character sidebars that are just a hair short of being filler, and a few extremely well done hallucination scenes manage to round out the movie as a whole, rather than leave it as a grinding startle sequence. The explanation is especially well done, just believable enough to easily swallow, yet allowing for mistakes, interpretation, and managing to provide a good basis for "I see it! Why don't you see it!?!!"

The effects are surprisingly good, despite or in spite of their simplicity. The scares are also subtle, small things that build in the background. While theres the requisite number of startles, these're thankfully overshadowed by the creepy elements that know what they're doing. A few of the moments even managed to make me, a jaded and embittered veteran of gore, wince and cringe in my seat; though there's little, if any, actual blood.

The acting is also above average, While the whiny brats throw things off at a few moments, the main characters are truly well done. The lead manages to play a rarely used archetype; rather than being the one running around screaming and crying about why nobody believes poor widdle him, his reaction to the events is more "It's my problem, I'll handle it."

Though the ending is gaggingly honey sweet and sappy, the story is good, the scares quiet, cold things that'll slide into your veins, and the acting worthwhile. A truly rare buy recommendation. The only thing that prevented it from being five stars is its something you've seen over and over before. It make be a very good rehash, but thats a far cry from a masterpiece.

The film that is based on the true story of the haunting of a funeral home converted to a residence suffers from a lack of imagination and emphasis on visual effects, but then I could say that about most modern films. I found the Discovery Channel documentary on the haunting,A Haunting in Connecticut, to be much more interesting, and cheaper.

However, you can't beat this double disc editon for extra features, and interesting ones too. There is the featurette "Two Dead Boys: The Making of The Haunting in Connecticut" which talks with the cast and crew about the making of the film and the haunted hotel that they stayed in during filming. It runs about fifteen minutes.

"The Fear is Real: Reinvestigating the Haunting (41:03), gets away from the movie-making end of things and goes to the actual case that inspired all of this. Carmen Snedeker-Reed and two of her sons discuss the haunting. Also included are Carmen's neices, former neighbors, and some of the clairvoyants called in on the case at the time of the haunting. This mini-documentary is quite interesting if you enjoyed the original Discovery Channel documentary as I did and want more background both from news sources at the time and new developments and insights.

Anatomy of a Haunting (11:48) talks with parapsychologist Barry Taff and psychic Jack Rourke about the supernatural. They discuss the case that inspired the film The Entity, among other matters.

"Memento Mori: The History of Postmortem Photography" (10:26) has author Stanley B. Burns talking about this odd practice. If you have seen the film "The Others" this will be particularly interesting.

There are eight minutes worth of deleted scenes, with optional audio commentary by the director.

Finally, there are two audio commentaries for the film itself. One is provided by director Cornwell, producer Andrew Trapani, writer Adam Simon, and editor Tom Elkins. It mainly involves the technical aspects of the film, and it is well done and not at all dry.

The second commentary is provided by director Cornwell and actress Virginia Madsen (she plays the part of the mother in the film). This one gets more into human interest stories and the background of making the film. It veers a bit off-course but is entertaining enough.

The second disc is reserved for a digital copy of the film.

I'd recommend this two disc edition and not the single disc edition that apparently has no extras at all. My recommendation is for people interested in the case itself and familiar with its background. If you are looking for some kind of ground-breaking horror film, look elsewhere.

While the movie itself remains above average with a few stand out scenes and a few minor changes from the documentary film that was made about this story the real worthy of the purchase price of the dvd are the special features.

The special Features are scarier than the movie itself.
I admit when I saw the trailer for this movie the first time months before it hit theaters i was blown away and couldn't wait for it to come out I remember thinking oh man this looks so scary.

I didn't get to see it until it hit Dvd and was a little dissapointed and felt even the unrated version seems to be missing something that would have turned into a 5 star flick instead of a 4 star flick.

Still entertaining,and the special features are even more entertaining than the movie so 4 stars for that reason.

I did not like this movie at all.The documentary is 10 times
better than the movie,And alot diffrent. I didn't think
the movie was scary at all if anything it was boring.

Another chapter in the book of disappointing recent so-called horror movies, "A Haunting in Connecticut", unequivocally fails to separate itself from the rest of the commonplace and dreary contemporary rubbish.

The story deals with a cancer-ridden boy, Matt, who has to be transported long distances from his home to a hospital where he is treated. Matt's parents decided to purchase an old house in Connecticut to make it easier on him. At this point, the boy begins to experience strange things. The question appears to be whether Matt is encountering ghosts or is he just experiencing hallucinations as a result of his treatment. As the movie goes on, the boy's experiences get worse, and the rest of his family begin to have similar experiences to the point where the family's lives are supposedly threatened.

Aside from the fact that I believe this so-called "true story" to be complete garbage, the movie, as far as entertainment value goes, isn't any better than the rubbish it's based on. Problems abound in "The Haunting in Connecticut". It seems that the creators of this movie just did not know what to do except to throw a few "jump at ya" scenes that were no more effective at being scary than anyone's "boo". The movie completely fails to establish any kind of mood or horror movie-like atmosphere. Likewise, the movie fails to build any suspense or tension. Instead, the makers of this flick rely on a lousy script and a completely boring story riddled by stupid repetitious flashbacks that are more embarrassing to the horror genre rather than scary. The result is a movie that is completely lacking in substance, style and imagination. "A Haunting in Connecticut" just never seems to get anywhere. Basically, there just is not anything to this flick at all aside from the forced climax (if you can even call it that). It's not scary, it's not clever and it's not believable.

Quite frankly, the acting is not very good for a movie as highly publicized as this movie was. Madsen does an adequate job, and the man who played the minister was pretty good, but the rest of the cast was rather poor. Not much I can really say that I liked about this movie. Usually, a movie such as this has at the very least an intriguing story-line, but while "A Haunting in Connecticut" appears to be interesting on the surface, it simply does not deliver the goods in substance. I came away very disappointed, but I can't say that I was surprised. If you are looking for a scary haunted house movie, it is best to look elsewhere. In fact, if you're really wanting a good haunted house movie, you're going to have to go back to the gems of the 1970s and early 80s to find it. One thing is for sure, you will not find it here. Good thing I just rented this trash. At least "A Haunting in Connecticut" won't be haunting any good space on my DVD shelf...EVER.

Don't know how much of it is actually true or exaggerated for the movie but it's a pretty good Haunting film in my opinion,If It would have been me that found out the house was haunted I would have left immediately but then Again Im Cuban and A Cuban would have not stayed in that house,being American they thought hey it's okay it's just a bunch of evil spirits. I could understand a Harmless one but a recurring one or in this case disturbing No Thanks, I don't like homes with history, it's the mom's fault for getting the home and then according to the true story lived there for two years. Pretty Interesting story(If true,and yes I believe there are such things that can happen like this) and well executed movie.

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT has the Campbell family taking up residence in a former funeral home in order to live closer to their terminally ill son's doctor. Unbeknownst to them, their new home was once the site of unspeakable acts of necromancy, involving much violation of the dead! Now, the victims of these atrocities are out to make their group-presense known. I wasn't overly excited about seeing THIC, but was pleased to see that it far surpassed my lowered expectations. The story is engaging, the characters are believable, and the ghouls are original. Virginia Madsen (CANDYMAN) is perfectly cast as Mrs. Campbell, as is Kyle Gallner as her oldest son. Definitely worth a look this halloween...

And i loved every minute of it. this was one horror film that made me jump over about 60 times!one of the best and scariest films ever!oh, and don't let the 1 star and 2 or 3 star reviews for this. give it a chance and trust me you will be afraid to sleep after you wath it!out-

This movie actually scared the heck out of me! The Haunting in Connecticut is based on a true story and that's why it scared me. But other then that I don't know why this movie got bad reviews, I think is it worth seeing.

This movie gave me chills. If you like movies about the super natural, this one is for you. I love the fact it is based on a true story witch I have watched the documentary on as well. They did a wonderful job telling this families story. Loved it.