The Haunting in Connecticut

The Haunting in Connecticut
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Peter Cornwell
Written by	Adam Simon Tim Metcalfe
Produced by	Scott Niemeyer Norm Waitt Steve Whitney Paul Brooks Daniel Farrands Phyllis Laing Wendy Rhoads Andrew Trapani
Starring	Virginia Madsen Kyle Gallner Elias Koteas Amanda Crew Martin Donovan Sophi Knight Ty Wood Erik J. Berg John Bluethner D.W. Brown John B. Lowe
Distributed by	Lionsgate, Gold Circle Films
Release date	March 27, 2009
Running time	102 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$23,000,000

The Haunting in Connecticut is a 2009 horror/thriller film based on the allegedly true story of the Snedeker family's encounter with the paranormal in Southington, Connecticut. The film was released on March 27, 2009.

Overview

The story was featured in the book In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting by Ray Garton, and an episode of the A Haunting series titled "A Haunting in Connecticut." The picture was filmed in Teulon and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Plot Summary

The story centers around Matt Campbell, who is being treated for cancer with a trial therapy in a remote hospital. After seeing the effect the long commute has on Matt, his mother rents a nearby house, which she learns was previously a funeral home. They discover a mortuary room in the basement that they are unable to enter initially, which severely burns Matt when he attempts to enter. The family begins experiencing violent, supernatural events that the parents first blame on stress and hallucinations from Matt's medications and treatment. Matt also experiences several disturbing visions, including an intense séance from the point of view of a young man named Jonah, and a doctor inscribing runes on a corpse.

After a game of hide and seek, during which Matt's younger brother encounters a badly burned ghost in a dumbwaiter, Matt discovers a box containing a number of photographs from the séance, and spots the boy Jonah he believed he had been hallucinating, as well as a box of human eyelids. They investigate the house's past, and discover the previous owner, Doctor Aickman, conducted séances in the house, using his assistant Jonah as a medium, who convinced many skeptics of his abilities. During one of the séances, Doctor Aickman and his guests all died and Jonah went missing. Matt then contacts a minister he meets at the hospital, Nicholas, to ask for his help. Nicholas hypothesizes that Aickman was performing necromancy on the bodies that he was meant to inter to enhance Jonah's abilities as a medium, and buried coffins filled with sandbags.

Nicholas Wofford, after initially being driven out by the mother, is called back after the entire family encounters ghosts in a single night, including an electrical storm that takes place throughout the house. After searching the house, Nicholas discovers ashes and a portion of a skull in the mortuary oven. While removing it, the doors and windows begin to slam violently, which abruptly ceases after Nicholas is outside. The same night, the family wakes to find strange markings carved into Matt's body, and he is rushed to the hospital. Nicholas runs off the road after seeing the burned ghost in his rear view mirror. Both he and Matt have a similar vision, revealing that the burned ghost is Jonah, who was killed after the séance by the spirits, who used his abilities as a medium to burn the other guests alive.

Matt, after encountering Jonah and learning that he has days to live, breaks out of the hospital and rushes home. After breaking into the house with a fire axe, he rushes his siblings outside, and barricades himself in the house. He then smashes the interior walls of the living room, revealing dozens of embalmed corpses. After setting the house ablaze, his mother then comes in to save him, and firemen pull them both out of the burning house, and Matt is revived. Jonah is shown one last time, unharmed, before vanishing. After credits indicate that Matt's cancer went into total remission, and that the Aickman house was rebuilt and resold, with no further incidents reported.

“True Story” claims

Promotional material for the movie claims that it is based on the "true story" of paranormal activities experienced by the Snedeker family in the 1980s. The Snedekers moved into a house in Southington, Connecticut, and would later claim that it was plagued by some manner of demonic presence. Carmen Snedeker described the demons; "One of the demons was very thin, with high cheekbones, long black hair and pitch black eyes. Another had white hair and eyes, wore a pinstriped tuxedo, and his feet were constantly in motion. Also one had a very big smile that on each side touched his eyes, and he was very short." The house was examined by Ed and Lorraine Warren. The story follows that mortuary equipment was discovered in the basement, and Lorraine Warren would later state, "In the master bedroom, there was a trap door where the coffins were brought up, and during the night, you would hear that chain hoist, as if a coffin were being brought up. But when Ed went to check, there was nobody down there." Lorraine Warren has told the Associated Press that the house was cleared of any presence after a séance conducted in 1988.

Criticisms

Naturally, much criticism of the 'true' story has come up and are largely based on what the writer of the book that the film was based on (Ray Garton's "In A Dark Place") had to say about the inconsistencies between the various stories of the family members.

"Elements of Carmen Snedeker's story clashed with elements of Al Snedeker's story, and it seemed everyone was having a problem keeping their stories straight. Frankly, I didn't notice until I had nearly finished all my interviews and began going over my notes, then I started having trouble matching up the details."

According to him, the 'psychic' investigators on the case, Ed and Lorraine Warren, told him to “to just make up the story and make it scary”.

Critical reception

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes rated the film as "rotten", with an 19% positive rating based on 38 reviews. Metacritic found the film had received "mainly negative reviews", scoring 31 out of 100 based on 20 reviews.

Cast

Actor/Actress	Role
Virginia Madsen	Sara Campbell
Kyle Gallner	Matt Campbell
Martin Donovan	Peter Campbell
Amanda Crew	Wendy
Elias Koteas	Reverend Nicholas Popescu

Box Office

In the US, the film openened ranked #2, averaging $8,420 at 2,732 sites for a gross of $23,004,765. This was way over the expectations. It is predicted to have a final US gross of $50 million finish

External links

• The Haunting in Connecticut at IMDb
• The Haunting in Connecticut Official Site
• The Haunting in Connecticut at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lionsgate Publicity: The Haunting in Connecticut
• Gold Circle Films: The Haunting in Connecticut
• The Haunting in Connecticut at Box Office Mojo