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Starring
Virginia Madsen
Kyle Gallner
Elias Koteas
Amanda Crew
Martin Donovan
Directed by
Peter Cornwell
Final Grade:
B-Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of terror and disturbing images
a review by Heith Carnahan
The Rundown
Matt Campbell (Kyle Gallner), eldest son in this Campbell family, is thought to be dying of cancer. His mother (Virginia Madsen) makes an executive decision to rent an old house (with a history, of course) much closer to the hospital at which Matt is receiving free experimental cancer treatments and radiation.
At first, Matt believes the horrific hallucinations he experiences are just that -- hallucinations brought on by his cancer treatment. As time goes on, however, he learns that his ailing condition has brought him close enough to death to 'see' the true nature of the goings-on in what used to literally be a house of horror, torture, and pain.
The Good and the Bad
It's gotten really easy, over the last several years, to become numbed to the onslaught of ghostly haunting movies that are allegedly "based on a true story." Personally, I became disillusioned long ago when I found out The Amityville Horror, one of the finest haunted house films ever made, was based on a cockamamie story quickly debunked by a phone call to the National Weather Service, of all places. And for every high-quality horror endeavor like The Exorcism of Emily Rose that wows audiences, there are at least two like 2008's The Haunting of Molly Hartley, which no one even remembers, and for good reason. Still, The Haunting in Connecticut is probably worth a look for anyone interested, if for no other reason than because it probably deserved an R rating instead of the inexplicable PG-13 it got slapped with.
There are no outstanding individual performances here; the real star of the show is just how creepily the story is executed. The film, thankfully, does not rely too heavily on cheap scares or fast-forward motion jolts, as seen in many of the Saw sequels, but instead employs genuine atmosphere, minor but unexpected twists in plot, and profoundly disturbing imagery to accomplish its goal of making your skin crawl. It's not all entirely original, particularly the drab, nightmarish colors and blurry, occasionally negative-color images of the supernatural presences lurking in the house, but they are delivered with a grave (tee hee) mentality and an ominous air that takes itself just seriously enough to be believed.
It's hard not to like Virginia Madsen and Martin Donovan in particular, reliable supporting-cast mainstays as they've become over the past few years. Amanda Crew has some growing up to do, but she's likely to become a mainstay herself if she chooses her roles more carefully than she has recently (did anyone see Sex Drive?). I was only slightly perplexed by Elias Koteas as the reverend receiving cancer treatment himself; he just didn't seem to believe any of his own lines in the film, which is a rarity, convincing as he almost always is.
The Bottom Line
It's a good, if not great, horror story that employs the true classic elements of horror, not the buckets of blood and guts that pass for horror these days.
-- Heith Carnahan, heith @ movie-popcorn.com