‘The Haunting in Connecticut’ (2009) Movie Review
“The Haunting in Connecticut” is based on the supposedly true story of the Snedeker family who moved into a ghost infested house in Southington, Connecticut back in the 1970’s. I’m not really sure how true the story is, but the “movie” goes like this. The Campbell family move into the home when their son, Matt (Kyle Gallner) is dying of cancer so they don’t have to drive so far for him to get his treatments. Once they move into the house, strange things start to go wrong with Matt. He starts acting weird around his family. Almost as if he’s possessed by something or someone.
It turns out that there was a boy named Jacob who lived in the house ages before they moved in,and it was a funeral parlor. Jacob was used as the subject or medium for ghostly seances. They would do these for people wanting to talk with their loved ones are people who had died and passed over to the other side. Apparently,though they were into some really heavy seances because they would do them to the point where the ghost would create a substance called ectoplasm which looked to reveal itself in a physical form. It was really freaky.
The Campbells were constantly being haunted to no end while the kids were playing “Hid n Seek”,when Matt was by himself,or around other people. He was constantly being taken over by this so called spirit of Jacob, and seeing visions of the seances that were held there. Some of the frightening events that would occur in the house were :strange writings all over Matt’s body, rotten and molded food, Matt strangly stacking up a whole bunch of chairs and cutting himself,and lights flickering on and off.
At first they thought Matt was crazy, but as it started happening when they were around, that belief soon changed. They invited a priest (Elias Koteas) over to help out. At first he found the remains of Jacob who apparently was burned alive in the house, and got rid of them thinking that was the answer. But soon after realized that was a mistake as he was the only entity in the house keeping all the other spirit’s rage under control. Apparently there were many other souls who had been trapped in that house,and Jacob was the only soul trying to help.
In a very odd event or haunting , it was as if Jacob was able to communicate was he was trying to do to Matt. So Matt went to the house and locked everyone out. He got an ax and started tearing the walls down to reveal all the dead bodies of those souls that where still in the house from when it was a funeral parlor. He set them all on fire which supposedly in this movie, set all the souls free so they could finish crossing over to the other side,and not be trapped in the house anymore. Matt almost died of smoke inhalation, but was revived,and his cancer was miraculously cured.
My Take :Although, I’m not really sure how true the story was. The movie was one hell of an entertaing one. It had “edge of the seat” thrills with a bit of mystery as to what’s going on. No matter how similar these type of movies seem to one another, they always keep me intuned. I like how the storyline slowly built up from a few occurrences to “full blown out”, “in your face” hauntings.
Kyle Gallner, the one who plays Matt Campbell did an excellent job. I’ve seen him in some other stuff like “Smallville” and the now canceled “Veronica Mars” show. He’s very much an up and coming actor. I thought that when the whole family finally came together in the end, it was a major turning point of the film,and brought an end to these terrible events. If you like a good suspense thriller with the added spookiness that it really happened in the past, then you should check” The Haunting In Connecticut” out.
Grade : B +
Movie : The Haunting in Connecticut
Release Date : March 27, 2009
Studio : Lionsgate
Cast : Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner, Martin Donovan, Elias Koteas, Amanda Crew
