Director: Peter Cornwell
Cast: Virgina Madsen, Kyle Gallner, Elias Koteas, Martin Donovan, Amanda Crew
Summing Up, Up Front - The Haunting in Connecticut:
In this age of vampire fascination in film and television, the ghost movie is a difficult sub-genre to pull-off well but The Haunting in Connecticut does give the vampires a run for the money in terms of scares and creepiness. Because it is based on a true story, this movies stands out more than some of the other entries in the sub-genre because while this movie is about a haunting, it is also about a family that is in crisis. This added dimension elevates the this movie to a more substantial plane and helps create characters that have some tangibility and substance.
The story starts out as we see a family on the edge. Matt (Gallner) is deep in a battle with cancer. His mother, Sara (Madsen), is deeply devoted to her son's survival as she drives him long distance to his frequent treatments. The long drive back from the hospital where Matt is getting his treatment is a torturous trip. So, Sara proposes the idea that they rent a house closer to the hospital and after some considered thought, they decide it's the course of action despite the fact that it with stretch their already frayed finances. Another source of tension in the family is that the father (Donovan) is a recovering alcoholic.
Without too much deliberation, they end up in an older house without knowing anything about it's sinister background. This house has secrets.
Almost immediately strange things begin to happen. The primary conduit for these happenings is Matt who has one foot in the grave himself as it seems he is losing his battle with cancer. Matt is able to see things the others cannot, but that period only last for a brief while as the forces in the house start to plague the entire family.
While at one of his treatments, Matt encounters a priest (Koteas) who is also being treated for cancer. They form a bond and Matt calls on the priest for aid when the supernatural forces seems to about to tear the family apart.
The spectral incursions become more frequent and more intrusive the longer the family stays in the house and Matt just gets sicker and sicker. The family also starts to delve into the houses gruesome past. In the search, they learn more than they ever wanted and will ultimately have to face down the terrors that inhabit this house.
Madsen and Gallner have to carry this movie and both of them are up to the task and Gallner, who actually looks physically depleted during the movie, is very good in his part. Koteas brings a grim gravitas to his role that borderlines on being overbearing though.
One real challenge of the haunted house story is to overcome the fact that the family could move out at anytime. While vampire, werewolves, and other assorted monsters are portable, the haunted house is place bound. The screenwriter does an excellent job of maintaining the rationale of why this family doesn't just leave, but it does get stretched towards the end.
The scares start our small and gradually grow to epic proportion and this is where the film moves into more spectacle realm and loses it's footing. The filmmaker must have felt the need to have a bombastic ending and this is where the films comes off the track somewhat. Still there some decent scares in this movie and the family in crisis background provides some solid ground for the cast and crew to work with.
While it's not "The Haunting" (the 1963 version, not the dreadful 1999 remake), The Haunting in Connecticut is an effective haunted house movie.
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