The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)

There was a documentary, A Haunting in Connecticut, that was on the Discovery channel in October 2002.  I say documentary lightly, as it was based on Ray Garton's novel, In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting.  That book, that Garton has since dismissed as being a work of pure fiction, was based on the "investigations" of known paranormal fraudsters Ed and Lorraine Warren.  Although this comes before the current Conjuring universe, it is not the first movie based on the Warrens' supernatural hucksterism; that was, of course, The Amityville Horror.  

For a documentary A Haunting in Connecticut followed a pretty clear-cut narrative, as many of the Warrens' cases conveniently do.  It's why, true or not, they often lend themselves making halfway decent movies.  The documentary itself, while of questionable scientific value (the Discovery channel was well on its way to giving up any pretense of having to do with education or science by this point) was entertaining, featuring blacked-out interviews with members of the Snedeker family, who were at the center of the haunting.  It had numerous reenactments showing what happened to them and their children after they had moved into an old funeral home in rural Connecticut.

The thing with the documentary, even though its narrative was close to that of Garton's book and the actual case, was that it was obviously hampered by its budget.  Found footage was all the rage at the time as an attempt to make completely made-up narratives look real, so, even though The Haunting in Connecticut didn't go that route, it still tried to play off the idea of the hauntings being a real event.  Even if the Snedekers' questionable claims had any validity, the movie version of the documentary of the book of the case had the quality one would expect after being adapted so many times.  Its original goal may have been to provide a bigger budgeted version of the story (it even starts with Virginia Madsen sitting in an interview with her face blacked out) but writers Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe couldn't help but go off in their own direction almost from the beginning.

Sara Campbell (Madsen) is facing a struggle taking her son Matt (Kyle Gallner) eight hours for his experimental cancer treatments.  Though it's a financial burden she and her husband Peter (Martin Donovan) agree it would be best to rent some place nearby to make it easier.  After almost giving up she decides to go with what appears to be a good deal - a large property that just happened to have been a funeral home.  

After they move in Matt almost immediately begins to experience strange events, seeing visions of a boy named Jonah (Erik Berg) who worked as a medium for the spiritualist side business of mortician Ramsey Aickman (John Bluethner), who had been doing experiments on corpses to enhance Jonah's powers.  As the spirits focus on Matt he finds an ally in Reverend Popescu (Elias Koteas), a fellow patient who has experience with the supernatural.  After the rest of the family starts experiencing the violent spirits in the house Sara agrees to let the reverend help end the haunting. 

I'm not going to really go into the differences between the movie and the actual case since both are, as stated before, works of fiction.  I will just say that, despite its lower budget and typical basic cable production values, the 2002 documentary was more effective as a horror film.  It concentrated on the effects the haunting had on the family as well as the investigation into the history of the house.  The movie, on the other hand, is little more than a cliched late-2000s horror film, featuring sudden images (accompanied by screeching violins in case the audience isn't paying attention) and tons of jump scares.  Out of the whole thing I found one to be effective, and even it was practically ruined by the usual music cue. 

Madsen is good as usual as the horror movie mom, although some of the dialogue she has is ridiculous.  Almost every Warren case has to have an alcoholic or down-on-his-luck father involved, and Martin Donovan gets to go on a rage about electricity at one point.  The subplot about his alcoholism really goes nowhere other than to set up this scene to make him look bad, although Peter is obviously working his butt off for his family to the point of selling his beloved classic truck to help make things easier.  As for Matt, the focus of the spiritual activity, he has cancer.  That's really the only development Matt is given.  Reverend Popescu seems to be a more solid character just from the hints of what his past may be.  

Once the reverend gets involved the movie does get better.  It also begins to veer further and further away from the actual case, but at least sets up some tension and attempts to do a bit more to creep the audience out rather than just pull out the usual funhouse tricks.  Things start to go over the top, but that is what was needed the whole time..  The attack on Matt's aunt Wendy (Amanda Crew) works in a tense way rather than as a jump scare (and without gratuitous nudity at that).  The final attacks on Matt and the final reveal of the house's secrets may seem outrageous but they are also a great departure from everything else in the film.  

Despite having a satisfying ending a good part of the buildup in The Haunting in Connecticut is tedious and, as it is with most Warren-related stuff, pseudo-Christian moralizing is thrown in to give everyone a redemption story or to make God a central character in what happened.  This just happily didn't have anyone portraying them in all their pious glory while they raked in cash that sometimes, if their marks were lucky, trickled down to them a bit. That was certainly the case with the Snedekers, who knew that the Lutz family had profited from the book and movie versions of The Amityville Horror.  Being a PG-13 movie a lot of the more lurid claims of the Snedekers were left out, even though in reality many of their more outrageous stories would have made for a much better movie.  As it is, if looking for entertainment value rather than any true investigation into the paranormal, it's best to stick with the documentary and give this movie a pass. 

The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)

Time: 92 minutes

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

Director: Peter Cornwell