The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013)

This is one of my top candidates for the all-time worst title of a movie.  It shouldn't be surprising that writer David Coggeshall had no intention of making this a sequel to The Haunting in Connecticut.  The only tenuous tie the two stories had was that A Haunting in Connecticut, a 2002 documentary on the Discovery channel, was followed up by A Haunting in Georgia for the same Halloween season.  Obviously Connecticut and Georgia also have nothing in common other than they are part of the United States, and all along this was meant to be a film based on the experiences of the Wyrick family in the late 1980s and not a continuation of the previous movie.

The two haunting cases couldn't be more different.  The Haunting in Connecticut is based on a book by Ray Garton, which itself is based on one of the cases of Ed and Lorraine Warren.  The very fact they were involved throws plenty of doubt on both their claims and those of the Snedeker family regarding a haunted funeral home.  Garton has since come out and said the whole thing was fiction, based on a few rather off-putting interviews with the Snedekers and the suggestion by Ed Warren that Garton just make up the rest and make it scary.  He succeeded at that, although the movie departed even further from even the claims and stories that were in the book.  

The Wyricks, on the other hand, were a completely different beast.  Heidi Wyrick, in 1989 at the age of three, began conversing with a man named Mr. Gordy, and later with another nicknamed "Con".  Both were friendly spirits, and both attached to the property on which the Wyricks were living; in fact, later confirmation was made of both men, both from people who knew them and from Heidi picking out J. S. Gordy's photo at random.  While there are certainly many explanations for what could have been happening, from Heidi overhearing information about the former owner of the house to an overactive imagination, the fact remains that Heidi, to this day, still claims to see and speak with numerous spirits and has stood by her story, pretty much consistently, her entire life.  

The problem with the Wyricks story is, since it doesn't seem designed to sensationalize Heidi's experiences, it doesn't lead to a clear narrative structure like the Snedekers or the Lutzes, the latter being the family from The Amityville Horror.  Instead, although she did encounter some spirits that weren't exactly friendly, she learned how to deal with them and went on to marry, have kids and live her life in relative peace.  It's interesting, it's uplifting to those who experience such things - whether supernatural in nature or not - but it's not all neat and tidy.  Therefore, although it is Golden Circle and their producers that are at fault for the ridiculous title, it is Coggeshall and director Tom Elkins that are responsible for turning the story into a lackluster film that has little to do with what actually happened. 

Lisa Wyrick (Abigail Spencer) is a woman haunted by visions of the dead.  Her husband Andy (Chad Michael Murray) and her daughter Heidi (Emily Alyn Lind) move out to a home in a rural part of Georgia, where they are joined by her sister Joyce (Katee Sackhoff).  Soon after arriving Heidi begins talking with a man named Mr. Gordy (Grant James).  Lisa is concerned that her daughter has inherited her abilities and tries to dissuade her, but it soon turns out that Mr. Gordy wants to warn the family of a darkness surrounding the property.

They learn from a local pastor (Lance E. Nichols) that the property was once used as a station in the Underground Railroad, and remained in the Gordy family until J. S. Gordy passed away in the 1970s.  Heidi is able to pick his picture out of a number of pictures, thus convincing Joyce that he is more than just an imaginary friend.  Soon other ghosts begin to appear, all seeming to do with the ancestral Gordy's murder at the hands of surrounding landowners.  However, the legacy of the property may be darker than anyone imagines.

The story for the movie, other than some of the names of the people involved, is made up of whole cloth.  In reality the family stayed in the home for five years.  Heidi reported seeing a dark figure, and at one time both she and her father were apparently attacked and left with scratches on their face, but that was the extent, although the girl's family having to deal with unwanted supernatural attention toward their daughter was stressful enough.  Everything else was made up by Coggeshall, and unfortunately what he added to the story did nothing to make it any better.  To make things worse it is filled with nothing but jump scares - I believe someone counted 32 - in lieu of even attempting to do anything to make the story interesting or even the least bit frightening.

Despite all that the cast - largely unknowns at the time except for Sackhoff - do their best with what they're given, although Spencer, born in Florida, is the only main cast member from the South.  It still feels like they knew they were largely there to collect a paycheck, safe in the knowledge that not a lot of people were going to see the movie.  It had limited theatrical release before going straight to DVD. 

For those with any curiosity about the whole story, A Haunting in Georgia is available on DVD and Joyce S. Cathey's 2007 book about the events, The Veil: Heidi Wyrick's Story would be better places to start than this movie.  Real or not, ghosts or hallucinations, the Wyricks' account of what happened certainly has to be more interested than this overlong mishmash of horror tropes. 

The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013)

Time: 100 minutes

Starring: Abigail Spencer, Emily Alyn Lind, Chad Michael Murray, Katee Sackhoff

Director: Tom Elkins