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So as you know, I stopped writing lengthy reviews on this site this year, keeping the blog as more of a film diary of sorts.  Lo and behold,...

Friday, July 24, 2009

Movie Review - The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)

Starring Virginia Madsen, Elias Koteas, and Kyle Gallner
Written by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe
Directed by Peter Cornwell

The Campbell family is facing some tough times. Oldest son Matt (Gallner) is battling cancer and his treatments are expensive and far from home. In order to save on travel, Mom (Madsen) decides to rent a large house without telling her hubby. This just makes the already strained marriage become even more tense. But, let's be honest here, the parents' issues are an unnecessary, pointless subplot. Jumping back to the cancer-stricken son, Matt begins to see visions of horrific ghosts in the old house which, come to find out, used to be a funeral home at which the owner did some awful things to the dead bodies that would come across his path.

Honestly, the story itself was moderately entertaining and very unlike the typical modern "teen" horror flick in that it wasn't incredibly bloody and actually had somewhat of an intriguing premise -- ghost stories always interest me more than slasher flicks, and this was a decent ghost story. The fact that they throw the "based on a true story" into the mix, if anything, makes this more unbelievable than were it just a regular old horror flick. Still, an interesting premise, to be sure.

I just wish they done away with the mom/dad issues and I wish they had cast a better actress than Virginia Madsen in the mom role. I didn't like her in Sideways (for which she was nominated for an Oscar) and I don't think I've liked her in much of anything. She just always strikes me as one-note and whenever she tries to break out of the "one-note-ness," it always seems fake. The guy who played the father wasn't much better either. The kid who plays Matt, Kyle Gallner, fares much better. He hasn't appeared in many movies, but he was actually quite good.

While not perfect, The Haunting in Connecticut was one of the better horror flicks I've seen recently and may be worth your while if you're into this particular genre.

The RyMickey Rating: C

1 comment:

  1. Amanda Crew is in this.

    I have a semi-crush on her.

    I still don't wanna see this.

    ReplyDelete