The Haunted in Connecticut

When the Campbell family moves to Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner’s clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to crossover. (source: IMDB)

The movie is really well made, the writing is powerful and the acting is excellent. So why only 3 stars? All the ingredients are there to make me love it, yet I just manage to like it.

Maybe haunted mansion stories didn’t manage to scare me anymore? But it’s not the case, since The Enfield Poltergeist (The Conjuring 2) is one of my favourite horror movies. However, by comparing these two movies that I finally found out what’s wrong with The Haunting in Connecticut: it doesn’t manage to build a feeling of terror, while The Conjuring 2 does it perfectly.

When an horror movie is supposed to be creepy, it has to create a deep sense of threat, the malevolent entity has to inspire a sense of terror. The Haunting in Connecticut, while dark doesn’t do any of that. I guess that the story of the sick kid and the unnecessary drunk father overshadows the occult part of the movie.

Anyway, it’s not a bad horror movie but, with such a potential, it’s sad that it doesn’t manage to hit its mark.

By the way, Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are known for involvement in The Enfield Poltergeist case, were also investigators for this case.