Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely above average, July 13, 2009
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.
|
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth it for the extra features, July 19, 2009
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.
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unrated Special Edition, July 20, 2009
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.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
DVD ~ Garret Dillahunt
DVD ~ Norman Reedus
DVD ~ Dennis Quaid
DVD ~ Emily Browning
DVD ~ Alison Lohman
