Review of The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013) by Filipeneto — 16 May 2020

I was very impressed when I saw "Haunting in Connecticut". I confess that I was expecting something worse and this film was a positive surprise. What I didn't expect was to find this strange film. Its not the first time that I find what I use to call "false sequels", that is, films that are advertised and sold as sequels to successful films, but that have no relation with them. It's like that Peter Carpenter (I'm inventing in order to illustrate my concept ok?) who says he's the cousin of the director John Carpenter with the clear awareness that he's not. Only then can we explain that this film has such a strange title, to the point of referring to two distinct and unrelated American states. Almost symbolic, isn't it? So, let's put "Haunting in Connecticut" aside because I'm going to concentrate on this film and forget about the miserable advertising maneuvers of greedy cinema studios.

The film is sold as being based on real facts, but I don't know to what extent the people involved in these "real facts" (and who even appear in photo in the final credits) will be satisfied with this film, because it subverts everything and builds a new story over their names. Anyway, the story starts well and with good premises, which quickly wear out as the film proves to be predictable until the last consequences and loaded with the usual clichés in the genre. The ending is rather weak and boring, attesting to the mediocrity of screenwriter, David Coggeshall.

Tom Elkins has had the proof that being a competent editor and having some experience in terror is not enough to be a good director. In the cast, we have to point out the average efforts of Abigail Spencer and Katee Sackhoff. Emily Anlyn Lind does what she has to do but has no material or experience to surprise. The rest is weak, just showing up and saying the lines they have to say. Its a deeply dark film, with dark cinematography that makes us sleepy. The scares are limited to the usual jumps, since the film is not able to create an atmosphere of consistent tension and, in the rare moments when it does, it wastes the opportunity. There are many sound and visual effects, which sometimes work quite well, but which generally seem to be within what we are expecting to find. CGI is weak and looks fake, as well as those ghosts, which inexplicably become clearer as the film evolves.

In addition to being sold under absolute and shamefully misleading advertising, this film turned out to be so weak and predictable that it was difficult for me to see the redeeming elements that prevented me from rating it even worse.