Opening Day: 9 July 2009

Synopsis:

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 crossover.

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.

Movie Review:

“The Haunting in Connecticut” claims to be based on a true story. You can figure how eager it is to assert its credibility when it tells you that right from the start. In case you’re wondering, the story it is purportedly based on is of a certain Snedeker family’s encounters with the paranormal upon moving into a house that used to be a funeral parlour.

Unfortunately, this adaptation of their haunting (with their name changed to Campbell) bears little hint of the real horror the Snedeker family must have gone through. Indeed, this is no more than a run-of-the-mill Hollywood affair- the kind that tries to scare you with sudden loud noises and rapid jump-cuts. Every time the camera lingers longer than usual on a bedroom, corridor, mirror, door, basement or attic, you can almost expect something to come “boo” right at you soon. And surprise, surprise, it does.

Yes, for almost an hour, director Peter Cornwell relies on almost every cheap scare tactic out of the Hollywood playbook to jolt you in your seat. Not that you can blame him- the script by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe gives him very little to work with, taking its own leisurely time to build up how unfortunate cancer patient Matt Campbell (Kyle Gallner), the eldest son of the Campbell family and the reason why they decide to move into said haunted house, starts seeing apparitions that he isn’t sure is real or as a result of the experimental treatment he is going through.

All that changes when Matt has a chance encounter with a Reverend Popescu (Elias Koteas) at the hospital. After a visit to the house, the good ol’ Reverend states the obvious- the spirits are there because they want to claim Matt’s soul. The hauntings will only grow worse, he warns. And just like that, strange things start happening to everyone else in the house- doors slamming, lights flickering and spirits appearing.

The real horror only kicks in after the first hour, including a most terrifying scene of a young psychic boy spouting ectoplasm after communicating with the dead. It was this scene that piqued audiences’ interests when the trailer was first launched and thankfully, director Cornwell doesn’t screw it up, delivering a riveting experience that is as terrifying as it is real. But a scene does not a movie make, and soon, Cornwell resorts to his earlier bag of “boo” tricks right up to its uninspired climax.

When it doesn’t know what else to do to make you scared, the film also delivers a more than generous dose of melodrama- courtesy of grief-stricken mom Sara (Virginia Madsen) and overworked dad Peter (Martin Donavan) trying to keep their family together. Certainly, their pain and sufferings should not be trivialised, but there is a fine line between empathy and sappiness, and “The Haunting in Connecticut” crosses that line once too often.

Whether its intention was to deliver a depiction of real horror or misfortune, this movie falls short either way. Our collective fears lie in the unknown and the unexplained- and hence our fears of ghosts, spirits and demons. But “The Haunting in Connecticut” eschews these fears and insists too much on doing what it can to make us jump in our seats. And for that very reason, it isn’t really based on a true story- it is at best inspired by one and told, to its own detriment, the Hollywood way.

Movie Rating:



(The haunting is real- but this movie is sadly all Hollywood and its usual bag of cheap scares)

Review by Gabriel Chong