The Haunting In Connecticut

I really like paranormal stuff and one day there was a documentary on television about the true events this movie is based on. Well the movie was really nothing like the true events, but what can you expect? I guess it needed to be Hollywood-ified. Putting the facts aside, this was a pretty decent movie.

The Gist Of The Movie:
Matt Campbell (Kyle Gallner) is recieving cancer treatment at a hospital that is not in close proximity to his home. So his mother Sara (Virginia Madsen) decides it would be a good idea to relocate to a new house closer to the hospital in Connecticut, to which her husband agrees although he can only be there on weekends as his job requires him to be at their other home during the week. The family, which consists of Sara, Matt, his younger brother, and two cousins, moves into the new house and strange things start happening immediately to Matt. He has grim hallucinations which he originally believes are side effects of an experimental new treatment he's signed up for at the hospital, but soon realizes are somthing a little different. He's also plagued by visions of a boy named Jonah that clearly mean something, we just don't know what yet. As the strange events become more frequent and various strange objects are discovered, Matt and his older cousin Wendy (Amanda Crew) try to unearth the truth about their new home.

What I Think:
This movie proposes the idea that while most of us will die relatively suddenly, somebody with a terminal illness such as cancer deals much more closely with death on a daily basis. So when they come into a 'haunted' location they'd be much more likely to experience something paranormal than you or I would. I'm not sure that this is true, but it's certainly an interesting idea and adds a little spice to the oatmeal that would have been just another ghost movie otherwise. Being that this is classified a horror film, there are a lot of things trying to scare you. Reflections of people who aren't there, terrifying ghosts with eerie eyes popping up at random, and Matt's relatively gruesome hallucinations are all added for the shock value but they sort of happen too often and you start to expect them, especially if it's dark or if someone is alone. I guess that's supposed to make you feel like, whether you can see it or not, there's always something in this house, it is haunted after all. As far as the story line goes, it's a pretty good one. Something happened in the house, it involved Jonah, and now his unrested spirit is trying to communicate with Matt. Pretty basic as far as ghost movies, but with a few twists and a little bit more detail than that.

I know a lot of people were disappointed with this movie, but I personally liked it a fair bit. Sure, it probably won't go down as a horror classic but I'd watch it again any time.