Re-visiting my favorites from when I was young is always interesting. I can't remember what age I was when I first watched The Haunting in Connecticut but I'm assuming it was the year it came out because me and Oprah would grab anything and everything off the horror new releases shelf at Blockbuster. So 2009....I would've been 19/20-ish. What a year....mainly because Blockbuster still existed. There would've been booze involved, there would've been cheetos, and it would've been watched at 11pm or later because that was when Oprah's Mom went to bed and we had free reign of the flat screen TV and the lazyboys.
I remember being terrified the first time I saw it, because I was young and drunk, and I remember also really enjoying it. I also remember thinking it was very similar to The Amityville Horror.
Last night I re-watched it because a few days ago I suddenly remember it existed. And my stomach was trying to murder me with acid like it normally does, so I needed a distraction.
Re-watching Haunting in Connecticut was actually super fun! And I even jumped in a few different scenes. Granted, that's because it has a lot of jump scares. Like A LOT. And not all of them work but some do and that's pretty great. There's also A LOT of plot holes. There was quite a few moments where I was taken out of the story because I was trying to wrap my mind around how something worked. And in the final scenes SPOILER ALERT when Matthew and Sara are hiding under a table while the room burns around them and all I can think is, why haven't they died from smoke inhalation yet? They've been in there for like 20 minutes just sobbing and coughing.
But I enjoyed it and it holds up. The performances are very strong, from Virginia Madsen especially and Elias Koteas who plays the priest. The effects haven't succumbed to CGI hell yet which was nice and honestly it really is just a creepy ass movie. There's lots of spooky images and I'll always remember when they find a box of eyelids, even if I don't always remember what movie it's from, and sometimes panic because I think it's my own memory.
What I wanted to talk about today, other than the actual movie, is the "based on a true story" aspect of it all. I've actually never looked into the "true story" behind this movie, and not surprisingly it is very loosely based and the original story is not as gruesome or as intense. Although, I'm still holding out hopes that one day I'll move into a house and discover my basement was actually a funeral home and then I get all crazy and try and kill everyone with an axe. I'll cross my fingers.
1986 - the world is much cooler as shown by TV nowadays, the reactor at Chernobyl exploded causing a nuclear disaster, Halley's comet swung by to say hi, Hands Across America accomplished nothing, and the Snedeker family moved into a white duplex rental home in Southington. It had originally been a funeral home and the family found a bunch of free mortuary stuff in their basement like a medical gurney and toe tags. Unfortunately, the family were not as stoked as I would be and soon started experiencing evil attacks and violent personality changes. Which is mostly just me when my medication stops working. Their oldest son was undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's disease and he seemed to suffer the worst of them all.
Ed and Lorraine Warren were called, as they always were back in the day, they were very much like the ghostbusters, and officially claimed the house as possessed and capitalized on it much like they did with Amityville. But alas, remember that son who was suffering worst of all? Turns out he had a pesky drug habit and was schizophrenic. And not because of demons.
The upstairs neighbor, because this was a duplex, lived a pretty chill life - seemingly untouched by the violent demons that clearly understood that bothering your upstairs neighbors is rude. So while there was maybe nothing sensational going on demon wise, the family still lived in a pretty creepy home complete with old mortuary tools.
And so in 2009, The Haunting in Connecticut was released, "based on a true story".
The original house
Overall I'd still give The Haunting in Connecticut a solid 7/10 - it can still scare, and its imagery hasn't ruined its spookiness over time. The performances are great, the house is super spooky, and while the family seemed to live in a house filled with dead bodies in the walls and not smell a single thing, it's a really fun ride.
What do you think of The Haunting in Connecticut? Do you have a funeral home in your basement? Can I live there? Let me know in the comments.
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