MOVIE REVIEW
The Haunting In Connecticut
The House Isn't Livable But The Dead Are
Very Much Alive In This Connecticut Town
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday, March 27, 2009
Virginia Madsen as Sara and Kyle Gallner as
Matt in "The Haunting In Connecticut", which opened at midnight this morning
in
theaters across the U.S. and Canada. The film, directed by Peter
Cornwell, is based on a true story. (Photo: Rebecca Sandulak/Lionsgate)
You wonder what it is about
Connecticut that has deserved the recent movie reputation it has
received. In a span of three years
"Reservation Road" (2007),
"Revolutionary Road" (2008) and the intense but excellent
"Must Read After My Death" (2009), all of which were set or shot in
Connecticut, have brought nothing but dread and anguish to moviegoers
everywhere. None of these films have been the successes that they hoped to
be, and although "The Haunting In Connecticut" will exceed the box office totals
of these titles, it's a film both weak in story and concept. While the
last fifteen minutes of Peter Cornwell's film (which opened at midnight this
morning at select screenings across the U.S. and Canada) aren't the worst, the
film is a disappointing interpretation of a true story.
True story: In 1987 the Snedeker family moved into a house in Southington,
Connecticut. Soon thereafter the family was tormented by the ghost of a
boy who channeled himself through one of the family's members. It turns
out that the house was formerly a funeral parlor from at least the 1920s onward.
In these current tough economic times you couldn't expect this house to be taken
off the market for even a song but in 1987, a few months before that October's
Wall Street stock market collapse the Snedekers moved in, enduring at least two
years of haunts and visitations from spirits before finally leaving.
New story: In "Haunting", Sara (Virginia Madsen) and Peter (Martin Donovan) move
to Connecticut, bringing teenage son Matt (Kyle Gallner). Matt is there
for medical center experiments being done on his cancer which is rapidly
spreading -- trials hopefully resulting in arresting the progression of his
terminal illness. In the creepy asymmetrical house the family inhabits
Matt picks his room -- a basement that anyone, whether ill or otherwise would
steer well clear of -- and Sara says, "here?". "Why?" is exactly
what you want to say to Mr. Cornwell's film, which echoes familiar horror movie
cliches. The Connecticut house is super-ominous, with dark corridors,
shadows and jagged, oddly sharp angles. ("Amityville Horror", anyone?)
There are high-angle shots evoking Alfred Hitchcock. Just in case the
sleepy-eyed among you don't realize this, Mr. Cornwell throws in an homage to
Mr. Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) for good measure. By the way, Matt begins
to see figures, grotesque visions and disturbing images. He insists these
are real, that he's not imaging them. The rest of the family, which
includes Matt's sister Wendy (Amanda Crew), niece and nephew (Sophi Knight and Ty Wood), isn't so sure.
This occasionally atmospheric film, mostly ridiculous when it should have been
far better than that -- is not the director's fault alone. He (and we)
should say that it is the script by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe which really
sinks his film, whose half-dozen jolts are barely risible as to wake one from
deep sleep. The script insults the characters. For instance, Sara,
knowing that her son Matt is ill, has a strange habit of squeezing him, hugging
him too hard and bringing Matt more pain. Is that the way to treat
your terminally ill son? "I'm sorry," Sara keeps saying. Later on,
Nicholas Popescu (Elias Koteas), a reverend claiming to be able to drive the
spirits out of the wretched house, asks Sara, "do you not sense it's strange
here?" If the reverend is asking you a rhetorical question and you fail to
comprehend it, that's a sign you may need a mental tune up. Or your brakes
tested. Or your sense of reality challenged. One trivial
observation: two of the film's most important characters look like contemporary
film actors. Jonah (Erik J. Berg), the young boy haunting the bejeesus out
of poor Matt, looks the spitting image of a pre-teen Tom Cruise. And Mr.
Koteas resembles Robert De Niro more than he ever has, in mannerisms as well as
looks.
Ultimately, Mr. Cornwell makes the mistake of trying to make a
conventional horror film instead of trusting himself enough to make a film of a
true story. "The Haunting In Connecticut" lacks the imagination that other
films in this much-trodden genre have emulated and excelled in -- the
aforementioned "Psycho", "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), "The Exorcist" (1973) and
more recent films like "Jacob's Ladder" (1990). Or you can go back to 1933
and the great film "The Most Dangerous Game" to get a sense of relentless horror
and terror, yet with all the subtlety that feathers in a down pillow would
surely bring. Comfort, confidence and peace. With that said, the
cinematography and editing of Mr. Cornwell's film are its strong point, even if
logic isn't.
"The Haunting In Connecticut" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for some intense sequences of terror and disturbing
images. The film's duration is one hour and 32 minutes -- though it feels
much longer. Some of the images are grisly and may really disturb some
younger viewers as well as some adults.
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