A Haunting in Connecticut (2009)

The Haunting in Connecticut

2009

Starring: Virginia Madson, Kyle Gallner, Elias Koteas, Amanda Crew, and Martin Donovan

Directed By: Peter Cornwell

The year is 1987 and a young mid-teenage boy, Matt Campbell (Kyle Gallner) is slowly dying from cancer. His mother Sara (Virginia Madson), has to make frequent trips from New York to Connecticut for him to seek cancer treatment. With the frequent cancer treatments and trips to New York, the Campbell family is put under a severe financial strain, so Matt's parents suggest they get a "rental" home near the doctor. Sara finds a cheap enough house and the dad, Peter (Martin Donovan) says he can't afford to take another job, so they put out a third mortgage on the house and he stays at their New York home and visits on weekends.

From the first night staying in the house, Matt starts seeing crazy things: people cutting on corpses and pulling their eyelids off, a mortician carving crazy words onto corpses, and other creepy things. After what seems like weeks of the visions and strange occurrances, Matt starts talking to an older guy who's having the same cancer treatments. The guy turns out to be Reverend Popescu (Elias Koteas), and it seems his philosophy is that the closer to death you are, the more likely you'll be able to see the dead. Since he and Matt are dying from cancer, they appear to be able to see spirits. From that point on, the good Reverend seems to be the only one sympathetic to Matt's visions, so he decides to help him through the ordeal and aid the Campbell family.

Now, in all honesty, The Haunting in Connecticut isn't a bad movie, but suffers from some of the same Hollywood horror gags that plague every horror flick nowadays. For instance, when you see something scary, the music "pops" in that scary tone, which after about the third time in the same movie can be quite distracting. But, that's not to say the movie is bad, it's just suffers from the average Hollywood input. It seems that the best horror flicks are the ones made outside the "system".

The story is actually quite entertaining and not overly contrived or trite. For the PG-13 rating, the film actually pushes what I would consider the limit for that MPAA rating. It's not gorey, but instead more macabre and eerie and I believe that it actually might terrify a 13 year old kid. If not the frightening imagery, the whole cancer plotline might be a bit much for someone that age. But, back to the story...

The script is solid and isn't weighted down with typical Hollywood ignorance. It's paced well overall but seems to stutter and stall out in a few minor scenes, but nothing enough to ruin the film for you. Pretty much from minute one it's a well paced film that will definately keep you watching. The last 30 minutes are hit and miss until about the final 15, where everything finally falls into place and the puzzle pieces fit. Overall, not a bad script considering both screenwriter's shadey film career. About the best from either one was Fright Night Part 2, and that's not an award winner in itself but simply... OK.

The acting is where this movie actually shines. Kyle Gallner, Virginia Madsen, and Elias Koteas (best recognized as "Hey! It's Casey Jones from the Ninja Turtles movies!") really steal the show. Kyle Gallner really makes you believe he's truly dying from cancer and sometimes he doesn't even speak, but instead lets his eyes tell the story. This kid WILL go places if he plays his cards right. Virginia Madsen does good as the mom, but she really doesn't bring anything new to the table, but instead delivers a solid performance. The scene stealer though is Elias Koteas, who is probably one of the most underrated actors alive today besides Crispin Glover and a handful of others.

The direction seems to suffer from typical horror film syndrome that's plaguing Hollywood flicks nowadays. Flash cuts, slow-mo's, and quick pops seem to dominate the second half of the movie, but did a decent job setting it up in the first half. When you get to the second half, you wonder if Peter Cornwell has anymore tricks up his sleeve because you can almost call what the next shot will look like. If I were directing this flick, I would have went back to the original Amittyville, The Shining, and Exorcist for editing and directing ideas. The simpler the better in horror movies, and it seems to me that directors now seem to underestimate the audience and feel that flashier is better. Truly, that's not the case as I'd take The Thing or one of the 3 "old-school" horror flicks I just mentioned over about anything coming out now.

The editing and special fx are good, but the editing suffers from to much flash and style to be taken serious at times. The fx are great, but again, sometimes less can be more. Instead of flashy CGI and computer fx, building suspense with more payoff would have worked better. The buildup at the beginning was great, but moneyshot after moneyshot, the film leaves you wondering why they just didn't go for scares instead of showing you everything. However, what you see is really great, it just seems to get somewhat old about half-way through the film.

Overall, the movie was good. A solid PG-13 horror flick amidst the cornball shitfest we get constantly every other month now at the theaters. I'd really like to check out the Blu-Ray for additional content (ie-deleted scenes, fact from fiction vignettes, etc...) and see the film and what the filmmakers can bring to the home theater. It's definately worth a watch, but I feel the horror enthusiasts will think it's decent and should give it a chance.

Rating: