Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

A Haunting in Connecticut

Sara Campbell’s (Virginia Madsen) world fell apart when she learns her son Matt (Kyle Gallner) has a life-threatening illness. The long drive between their home and the hospital in Connecticut where he is receiving treatment is hard on everyone and taking a toll on Sara’s marriage to Peter (Martin Donovan). Sara copes with her faith, while Peter copes with the bottle. At the end of her rope, Sara decides they need to get a home in Connecticut, at least for now, to spare Matt the agony of the long rides to and from the hospital, and having to make multiple stops for him to be ill, wearing him out even more.

One day, after Matt was sick again on the way home, Sarah impulsive returns to the town she has just left

and spots a man hammering a For Rent sign in his yard. He jokes with her that if she keeps him from hammering the last night, she can have the first month free. She agrees, and he even supplies a mattress, so mother and son can spend the night. Peter is furious that she did this without consulting him, but she explains how much pain Matt was in. So they move in with  Matt, his brother Billy (Ty Wood) and Sara’s two nieces, Wendy (Amanda Crew) and Mary (Sophi Knight). But Sara is hiding something from her husband – something he is livid about when he finds out.

Matt claims a bedroom in the basement, drawn to it for reasons he can’t explain. He finds what appears to be a secret door, but his father can’t budge it. However, later Matt manages to get through the door, and he and Billy discover the secret of the house that Sara withheld from her husband – at one time it was a mortuary.

Sleeping in the basement, Matt begins to see things. Very strange things. A young boy. But he’s afraid to say anything. He’s been warned that if he experiences hallucinations, he will have to be dropped from the drug trial he is participating in. So he keeps it to himself. At his treatment one day, he befriends a fellow patient, Reverend Popescu (Elias Koteas) and they become friends, as he tells the minister about the things he’s seen. Popescu is concerned that something is wrong with the house and that maybe they are in trouble.As Matt becomes more and more involved in the dark history of the house, Sara begins to feel as though she is losing her son in more ways than one.

This film has a premise we’ve seen many times – the house of death (mortuary) where people have been brutally killed and seek retribution of some kind, while haunting the new people who just happen to buy the house. It’s an interesting premise, but one I feel could have been better handled here. Supposedly this was based on a true story that was actually investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren themselves. I think it could have been better done. Some of the story seems disjointed or isn’t well explained. For example Sara’s animosity toward the revend. The husband’s growing alienation with his family.  Matt seeing the boy and then becoming caught up in his story doesn’t seem to flow. At times it almost seems to have shades of Poltergeist. I think better attention could have been paid to the storyline and the characters. It was interesting enough to warrant watching the second one. I’ll give this film 3 Stars.