The Haunting in Connecticut

Released: 2009
MPAA rating: PG-13
Run time: 1:42

First, I'll address the "Based on True Events" tagline: I don't buy any of it, even for a second. I actually dismissed that before I even dropped the DVD in. I approached this as a complete work of fiction. If I watched this with the "true story" mindset, this would be a very different review. Now, as a work of fiction, "The Haunting in Connecticut" works very well. The Campbell family is struggling with driving their son back and forth to a special hospital for cancer treatments. The mom, Sara Campbell (Virginia Madsen), decides they need to rent a home closer to the hospital because the long drive is just too much for their son. Of course, this poses a major financial hardship as they would now have to pay a mortgage and the rent. When looking for a home, she finds a large, beautiful home that's rent is surprisingly affordable. She decides she must take it, causing some tension between herself and her husband (Martin Donovan), who is already struggling to make ends meet. This first half of the movie which mostly deals with the emotional and financial struggles of dealing with a child with cancer is actually very well done. Unfortunately, having had experience in this area, I found the family's hardships rang very true. The loneliness, the conflict between keeping your job and taking care of your child, the "denial", the temptation to just descend into alcoholism to "get away from it all": It all hit very close to home. Once you get past that framework, you have Matt (Kyle Gallner), the son going through treatment, starts to see strange apparitions, which seem to be easily explained by his chemotherapy drugs. It is at this point that you get a pretty decent ghost story as they begin to find their house has secrets and some wayward spirits that need to be set free. As a work of fiction, I found this to be entertaining as the ghost story element was very suspenseful and creepy. The acting was good and the father's struggles with trying to keep it all together, sometimes unsuccessfully, hit the mark. While Virginia Madsen gets most of the screen time, with Kyle Gallner, Martin Donovan does a great job in his limited appearances. I definitely recommend this for fans of these haunting movies, just don't buy into the true story nonsense.


Grade: B

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