A Haunting in Connecticut
by John Kavanaugh
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DVD details
Director: John KavanaughBrand: Echo
Narrator: Tony Call
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Surround Sound, THX, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 59129
Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Product features:
- The day Karen and Ed Parker move into their dream home, ominous clues of its chilling funeral parlor past greet them: crucifixes on doors, toe tags and coffin keys in the basement. Soon, the house is plagued by dark forces that torment the entire family, forcing Edward and Lorraine Warren - investigators of the Amityville haunting - to be called in. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR
DVD Reviews of A Haunting in Connecticut
DVD Review: Haunted by the fact I paid premium price to see it.
Summary: 3 Stars
This picture left me with a sense of being haunted but for reasons one might not suspect. First I paid threatre price to see it. Second I was told by the person who accompanied me that I dozed off for a few seconds while watching it. While I dont totally believe this it might be true as it lacked much to define it as frightening or scary.
Given this was passed off as horror (although it had PG13 rating) I was left haunted a little by my own mild embarrassment at being perhaps a tad rude perhaps to my theatre companion and the filmakers that there horror frightner could induce me to a state of negative consciousness for even a few seconds.
The basic premise is fine as far as premises go. Which with this film was pretty short. A son sticken with cancer and a family renting a house near a hospital while the eldest son gets chemotherapy. The home has a past. It is former mortuary where years of inconceivable acts occurred. Good start. Virgina Madsen, one my favorite actresss, was the stalwart mother holding the family togther in a role she has played so well before. However even her talent seems mostly wasted here. The opening was the most credible part for her.
The begining catches us for a few minutes. It is a teaser. It fools us into thinking heh this might be interesting. Madsen talks to the TV camera about the horror of her family story. At the end she comes back to do a wrap up and this is a nice way to tie everything into a package. Kudos to the filmakers doing this.
However, films are more than beginning and endings neatly tied. Because yes Virginia, films do have a middle and this picture has no Santa Clause. It was a shame to watch Madsen along with notables such as Elias Koteas (the priest) simply appear to be wasted talent going through the motions as opposed to acting. Kyle Gallner gives a fair performance, portraying his build to insanity. So the acting was not really the main problem. It is Hard to rise like an eagle for any of these actors when the script is basically a turkey.
After the initial interest of opening, things descend to the basement literally and figuratively. For some reason the son with cancer decides to reside in the cellar while getting his treament. What follows is a muddled nightmare of crashing banging,and jolting, in a filmic style best decribed as a train after it has left the rails but still tryinmg to stay upright. It bumps bangs, grinds, and crashes from scene to scene supported by an equlally jolting background cast replete with shreaking, wailing violins and other sounds designed to make you jump and of course appropriate visuals of barbecued corpses and other wrapped dead bodies that reminded me of footage from other films.
There were some interesting ectoplasmic effects and even a priest who reminded me vaguely of the Exorcist. Interesting scene near the end of a faded shot of the cancer son in a graveyard. Is he dead? It jolts back to a scene of firefighters doing CPR on sons chest. The films trys to attempt some climax as struggling to make us ask the big life question. Is this check out time? Will cancer son live or succumb to his illness and the demon house which is actually keeping him alive.
In this moment of attempted "climatic moment" we should feel something. Most would hope on some level he makes it but from a film perespective we are not given much to reason to care. Throughout cancer son's trial with chemotherapy the film provid little ffor us to hang on to. The son might as well have had the misery of psorsias. Even approrpriate horror film stock scenes of vomiting did not make us feel anymore empathy. Add to this a pseudo tragic picture of an alcoholic father in some rage to turn of lightbulbs and it the result had me thinking maybe he was in the wrong film trying to save the world from an energy crisis. The director seemed to forget we might want to care about the characters.
Insconstenecies in the story are for others to note. Why didnt the family just leave? Who knows. In fact, what this picture really needed to work for me was clowns. Clowns are scary. A large set of nasty clown figures in masks screaming and running wild would have topped things off. So that makes no sense? This assume the film itself makes sense overall.
Haunting uses a cliche hook in the credits saying it based on a true story. Yes it based on a real life family. So what. As one writer noted listening or watching the family who experienced the real terror might have been more interesting and apparently according to reviews the original story available on several big box sites as a bio documentrary is quite well done. Truth stranger than fiction perhaps? Well this film is high in the strange quotient.
Fright quotient of Haunting is mininmal. Music was maybe the sum total of films creep quotient. Although it was "startling" when a pile of dishes broke loudly, among other things banging around. However someone sitting in front of the theater was talking or arguing loudly on a cell phone jolted me more than the the picture. Maybe todays audience equates being jolted by loud banging and jumpy edits as the hallmarkmark of good horror.
My rating system gives it 3 stars. Two for Viginia Madsen doing well with what she had to work with and 1 for Gallner) and 2 yawns.
A haunting cinematic vista of schlock and jolt.
Tim M Smith.
Description of A Haunting in Connecticut
As Seen On The Discovery ChannelThe day Karen and Ed Parker move into their dream home, ominous clues of its chilling funeral parlor past greet them: crucifixes on doors, toe tags and coffin keys in the basement. Their 14-year-old son, Paul, claims he sees apparitions and hears voices. Soon, the house is plagued by dark forces that torment the entire family, and it will take a desperate call to Edward and Lorraine Warren--investigators of the Amityville haunting--to offer any hope of relief.
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