Product Details

• Actors: Virginia Madsen, Elias Koteas
• Directors: Peter Cornwell
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Lionsgate
• DVD Release Date: July 14, 2009
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0021L8UG2
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,726 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Haunting in Connecticut [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Based on a chilling true story, Lionsgate's The Haunting in Connecticut charts one family's terrifying, real-life encounter with the dark forces of the supernatural. When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner's clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to cross over. Now, unspeakable terror awaits when Jonah, the boy who communicated with the dead, returns to unleash a new kind of horror on the innocent and unsuspecting family.

Product Description

Based on a chilling true story, Lionsgate's THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT charts one family's terrifying, real-life encounter with the dark forces of the supernatural. When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner's clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to cross over. Now, unspeakable terror awaits when Jonah, the boy who communicated with the dead, returns to unleash a new kind of horror on the innocent and unsuspecting family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average horror flick reminiscent of earlier haunted house movies, July 15, 2009

By	z hayes (plano,texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Haunting in Connecticut (Single-Disc Edition) (DVD)

I was eager to check this movie out because I really liked the docudrama "A Haunting in Connecticut" which was part of a series titled "Haunting" by the Discovery Channel. This movie was supposedly inspired by those true events. In the docudrama, Karen and Ed Parker and their family move into an old home in Connecticut, not realising the house harbors entities that are far from benign.The most affected is the couple's 14-year-old son, Paul, who seems to be most susceptible to the hauntings. In desperation, the family contacts Edward and Lorraine Warren, the same people who investigated another famous haunted house that became known as "The Amityville Horror".

In the movie version, the story remains true to the original to some extent. Virginia Madsen plays Sara Campbell, whose teenage son Matt [Kyle Gallner] is suffering from some form of brain cancer. The treatment requires them to make a long commute and to cut on the travel time, Sara decides to lease a house close by to the hospital. She finds an old house for cheap [the family already has money problems] and finds out it used to serve a darker purpose than a residence. The family moves in anyway, and straight away Matt begins seeing things and hearing noises. He moves into the basement which has a sealed off room. Upon finally opening it, Matt discovers what the house used to be - a mortuary and funeral home. Soon, the rest of the family begins to see and hear strange things and Matt together with Wendy [Amanda Crew] investigate the history of the house, discovering some truly horrific facts about the house's dark past, having to do with death, necrophilia,missing bodies and a horrific tragedy.

The movie is actually well-paced - I did not find the pace plodding nor boring. There is no gore or over-the-top special effects here. In many ways, this movie reminded me of The Amityville Horror II with the son of the house being the focus of the hauntings. Some scenes were scary, especially the flashbacks to the past involving incidents of necrophilia. The acting was ok, not great, but Kyle Gallner was quite credible in his role.

What disappointed me was the omission of two central characters in the movie - they did not include the Warrens in the movie, who played a significant role in the actual case. Instead, the movie shows a priest, Reverend Popescu [Elias Koteas] as the person the family turns to for help. His acting was not very impressive in this movie. Once again, I felt the priest role here was reminiscent of the one portrayed in The Amityville Horror.

Conclusion - for those who love the horror genre, this movie does not really bring anything new to the table. The acting and effects are decent enough, and I did find myself entertained. Recommended as a rental.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Meh, July 13, 2009

By	C. Scheller (Louisiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

***May Contain Spoilers***

This movie felt unbelievably flat. Not enough to make us care about Matt. I wanted to know Jonah (the dude on the cover with ectoplasm streaming from his mouth). All I got was flashes of "scary" images with a promise of better things. What's great about scary movies regarding ghosts from the past isn't the paranormal, but rather the history. Give us more of the memento mori, more flashbacks of Jonah contacting spirits. It was never explained why the mortician used voodoo and dark magic. I would assume to make more money by having more ghosts around, but wasn't Jonah a true median anyway? He didn't need extra ghosts to give the clients what they needed. I felt totally cheated when it came to Jonah. The most interesting parts of the film were flashbacks to his life. He looked so scared and confused. I would have much rather watched him deal with his gift and his oppressor than watch Matt and his one-dimensional family interact.

Worth watching? Yeah. Sure. Rent it, though.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I've seen this formula before and before and before and before..., July 19, 2009

By	Paulo Leite (Lisbon, Portugal) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Haunting in Connecticut (Single-Disc Edition) (DVD)

A family moves into a creepy house in order to stay close to the hospital where one of their kids (a teenage boy) is being treated for Cancer. But the house used to be a funeral home/mortuary where its evil owner used to do some experimenting with the dead (who still are not ok with it).

What can I say... I've seen all of those things before in other films. I'm not saying this is a bad film. The cast is great (all the actors are great), the effects are great, cinematography is great... everything is great...

...EXCEPT for the script and the directing.

The script tries hard to mix two things that do not belong in the same film. First there is the story of the family living in a haunted house. Then there is this strange (and highly contrived/unbelievable) backstory of an old evil man who used to desecrate bodies in order to control ghosts (or something like that) that makes no sense whatsoever. The first story is a great film. The second element is straight-to-video material. Clearly it is just a weird thing cooked up in order to explain the haunting.

The directing is so annoying... it keeps flashing horror/weird imagery all the time in order to prevent the viewer from falling asleep. That is an idiotic trick directors and editors use nowadays to mask the fact that the film has nothing to offer.

That is the easy way. The hard way would be to get a REALLY GREAT script.

Too silly, formulaic and uninteresting.