The Haunting in Connecticut (2008)

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT follows a family who are forced to relocate near to a clinic where their teenage son Mat, is being treated for cancer. They manage to find a place that’s cheap to rent but little do they no that it was used in the past as a funeral home. Quickly Mat experiencing violent, supernatural events that his parents first blame on his medication but not long after they too begins to experience unexplainable events that have them thinking that the house is indeed haunted.

With it being one of those ‘Based on a True story’ movies that we see an abundance of these days, it was clear that it would inevitably gain interest and in the months leading up to it’s release it gained more followers with it’s trailer and poster, yes the one with the boy with ‘ectoplasm’ coming out of his mouth. On the flipside a lot of hardcore horror geeks had dismissed it as another feeble mainstream horror movie in the vein THE AMITYVILLE HORROR remake and indeed to a certain degree it has quite a few similarities.

When all is said and done THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT turns out to be a thoroughly watchable and at times enjoyable movie. Probably even more so if you go watch it with someone who is scared of their own shadow. Unfortunately it does suffer its flaws, the biggest being that it’s just too similar to THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and Nicole Kidman-led OTHERS. Having said that if the story is accurate and the events did really happen then these similarities were perhaps unavoidable.

Although it relies at times on the cliqued jump scares there are at a few moments that may make you cringe. The effects and make also play there part well in making the movie more believable. THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT holds it own well enough in a genre already swamped with poor remakes of classic or foreign movies.

Still , a long way off the better ghost stories like SESSION 9 and THE ORPHANGE but worth a watch if only to pass the time.

Date: 30/03/2009
Rating: 3/5
Copyright ©2009 Rough Cut Reviews.
Read this review and more on: http://www.roughcutreviews.com/