The Haunting in Connecticut

Following the likes of previous based-on-a-true-story, haunted-house flicks like The Amityville Horror (2005), The Haunting in Connecticut has all the classic makings - the average American family moves into a new house in a new town. Things appear well at first until strange events start happening and, curious to get to the root of the problem, the protagonist does some poking around and discovers that yes -- the house is indeed haunted! However, the only difference between this and its other predecessors is that it wasn't so much as scary as it was irritating to sit through.

In Connecticut, teenager Matt Campbell (Kyle Gallner) is undergoing a series of painful, experimental cancer treatments at a remote clinic in upstate Connecticut, but the long commutes have him feeling nauseous after every visit. Not wanting to see her sick son suffer any more than he has to, his mother, Sara (Virginia Madsen) decides to rent a house nearer to the clinic, and finds a deal on an old Victorian house too good to pass up. As the family settles in, Matt chooses the spacious but eerie-looking basement as his bedroom, and soon starts having disturbing hallucinations of strange figures (like, obviously). However, thinking that these visions are merely unfortunate side effects of his experimental treatments, he decides to keep them to himself, until some further sleuthing reveals that the house was once a funeral home where séances were held in the 1920s by a mortician whose dealings in the dark arts have left some restless spirits wandering the house...

While I must admit that some scenes were a little jolting (due in large part to the ear-splitting sound effects that accompanied them), director Peter Cornwell didn't do much to sustain the level of creepiness, and whatever chills I managed to feel were immediately wiped away by the movie's cheesy ending. As for the cast, no one really stood out except Kyle Gallner, but only because his pale features and overall broodiness made him look like a second-rate Edward Cullen. The inclusion of the dad's battle with alcoholism into the plot seemed rather pointless as it didn't have any bearing on the plot, and with very little (if any) room for character development, it's a wonder why they even bothered to give him a proper role at all.

Overall, The Haunting in Connecticut is the same old horror movie about the same old family without enough sense to just take off and run, run like the wind, at the first sign of paranormal activity. Should you decide to watch it, expect to see the usual string of clichés (including the ubiquitous shower scene!) and dysfunctional family drama, but just don't expect to be actually scared.

Director Peter Cornwell Cast Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner, Elias Koteas, Amanda Crew, Martin Donovan, Sophi Knight, Ty Wood Runtime 103 minutes Opens 18 March