The Haunting in Connecticut

There is not anyone in this movie worth mentioning. This movie is about a family that is struggling to survive and the oldest boy is dying from cancer. They move closer to this cancer treatment center into a large home. The family of 6 is enamored with all of the room inside and out. But they sense there is something wrong with the home. They are right, it used to be a mortuary.

The mortician left all of his tools and devices in a locked room, in the mortuary, in the basement. The older boy chooses to sleep down there not knowing there is a lot of strange history 20 feet from where has chosen to sleep. He chose to sleep down there since the drugs he is on forces him to hurl on a regular basis and he does not want to do this in front or near the rest of his family. There is a bathroom down there.

The home is haunted and the spirits seem to go after him. They center on him. Perhaps because they know he is the weaker one or perhaps his vicinity makes it easier.

The older seems to be door to the other side, every time or almost every time he touches someone he seems bizaare and terrifying images.

The movie has been done before. Mirrors last year with the gorgeous Paula Patton and Kiefer Sutherland was more disturbing and action packed. But also more unrealistic. The Haunting was not as fantastical as other movies, there was not too many original scenes. The Skeleton Key actually comes to mind a little when watching this film.

This family is attacked because they have imposed on this spirit filled home. The homes needs to be blessed or burned down. The father chooses to get drunk and attack his family. His self pity and selfishness is damaging to the family when they need that masculine strength. Drinking oneself into a stupor is a terrible choice and in this situation, could prove fatal. The mother turns to a priest to help pinpoint the source of evil, to fight the possessed home. This man roots out the evil or believes he did. But in the movie, the only thing he does is upset the demon and force this evil to follow him as well as continue to target the older boy. Traumatic events continue. This holy many did not complete the job, perhaps he should have called a friend for assistance in fighting a source of evil this powerful.

Why would a mother or family buy a home before checking all of the rooms? Before ordering the previous owner to clean it out? Especially if it has weird objects like a tools from a mortician? That does not make a lot of sense, even if they were just renting the home.

This former mortician was a psychopath. He stole bodies from a nearby cemetary and buried them in between the walls of the home. The mortician also enlisted a teenage boy to allow spirits of the dead to travel and converse through his body. This seemed to be about 70 - 80 years ago. The bodies are finally discovered by the oldest boy in a climactic culmination that is befitting this movie. Is the evil rooted out though? It does not matter if there is a sequel, another movie with a different title will continue this type of genre. There is a market, certain people like horror movies.

Atleast the father comes back to offer some strength and solace. The nearby watering hole will miss him. Perhaps the oldest boy will see his cancer into remission. This movie was a far from one of the most frightening movies in my life time, Poltergeist.

I allocate one star for this movie.*