Quickcard Review The Haunting in Connecticut Directed by: Peter Cornwell Cast: Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner, Elias Koteas Time: 1 hr 20 min Rating: PG 13

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Plot: A teenager (Gallner) has cancer, and the family moves closer to the hospital for his treatment. But the house is an ex-mortuary. His mother (Madsen) hopes for the best, but the house is holding secrets from the past.

Who’s It For? Those who want/need the creepy stories, but are willing to overlook some flaws.

OVERALL

Going to a scary movie is kind of like a first date. Your palms get sweaty, you’re consistently nervous, and you’re just hoping for something unexpected to happen. It’s a love/hate thing, and so is this movie.

It’s a good start. Creepy tone, scary basement, big house, kids playing hide and seek … Plus, there’s the fact that this is a story about a family trying to help their kid who’s dying of cancer. And I am wrong or does Kyle Gallner kind of look like a sick Robert Pattison. There’s a great hook to this scary movie … We don’t know if something evil is lurking, or if it’s the cancer treatment making him see things …

But then it happens … the ecto-plasam, so of course my mind drifts to Ghostbusters and we’re stuck looking at floating chocolate pudding.

It totally removed me from the film. Suddenly, nothing was scary anymore. Especially not a shower curtain. I was just thinking about why in the world they didn’t move out of the house. Or keep the possessed kid away from the little ones. Not only that, have you noticed Virginia Madsen hasn’t been in a good movie since Sideways.

It only takes a second for something to snap you from a good creepy moment. That’s what happens half way through this film. But early on, I did get sweaty palms 3 times, and jumped twice, so that’s a total of 5.

Final Score: 5/10