Review of The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) by Filipeneto — 01 Oct 2018

I'm getting convinced that horror cinema has been so exploited that it's getting more difficult to do something new or original. This movie reinforces that thought a little bit because it doesn't bring anything new but still works well enough. The screenplay is based on another case of haunting studied by Ed and Lorraine Warren, as well as other films like "Conjuring" or "Amityville Horror". But as in these films, this script has little reality and immense imagination for dramatic effects (well... truth about the actual case portrayed in this film is still controversial today). Despite this and the abundant use of clichés that we are tired of seeing in other films, it works, causing some scares and, above all, a pleasant feeling of discomfort and tension. The script is easy to describe: in order to be closer to the hospital where their child is treating cancer, a family moves to a new home in Connecticut. However, the house they decide to rent was used in the past as a funeral parlor, and there were also spiritist sessions and black magic.

The family drama is very well introduced at the beginning of the film and is being developed in conjunction with the beginning of the strange events in the house, so we never get the feeling that everything was just a pretext to introduce a friendly family in a diabolical house ready to kill them all. In the middle of the movie we feel like we are very close to the end ... and that would probably be true if this movie were like many others, where the whole story is just a pretext for a mind-boggling journey of predictable scares in a weird house. It's not like this here... when we think it's all over, things really start to get interesting. The end of the movie makes use of a plot twist but it's not really shocking or unpredictable. Concerning the actors, I have to say that I hardly know them... Kyle Gallner is a good actor and shows talent, although he is still very young. Elias Koteas was also quite competent.