The Haunting in Connecticut (PG-13, 2009)

common sense media says

Unoriginal, shoddy horror film is too gory for young kids.


parents & educators say
  • 38% say violence is an issue

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this is a review of the movie shown in theaters and not the Unrated Special Edition, which is sure to have scarier, raw content. This "based on a true story" horror film, while milder than movies like Saw, is still too scary and disturbing for kids. It's full of mutilated bodies, bloody scenes, supernatural violence, and medical and autopsy imagery. There are also fairly serious discussions of the challenges facing a teen fighting cancer. One character is a recovering alcoholic who starts drinking again and ends up driving drunk. But the language doesn't get much stronger than "hell" and "oh my God," and sex and product placement aren't an issue.

Positive messages: No strong/obvious positive messages. The question "Why do bad things hapen to good people?" is asked. Characters also talk about how "the Lord works in mysterious ways" and frankly discuss how alcohol and alcoholism affect a marriage and a family.
Positive role models: No strong/obvious positive role models. Characters (including a young teen) face cancer and are concerned about being able to afford medical treatment.
Violence: Plenty of violence and gore, with extensive depiction of blood, scars, cuts, wounds, and mass graves filled with emaciated, mutilated corpses. Ghosts take the form of mutilated corpses. Close-ups of medical instruments and procedures undertaken in the name of dark magic/sorcery/paranormal experimentation. Supernatural violence as restless spirits shove, push, and batter victims.
Sex: A woman is in the shower, but nothing sensitive is shown.
Language: Fairly mild, including "Jesus" as an expletive, "good Lord," "oh my God," and "hell."
Consumerism: Not applicable.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking: Characters drink hard liquor. A recovering alcoholic starts drinking again, driving drunk and frightening his family; he later apologizes, atones, and tries to make amends.

More on The Haunting in Connecticut

What to talk about

Talk to your kids
  • Families can talk about the appeal of horror movies -- why do we like to watch things that scare us? 

  • Which is scarier: a movie with a ghostly villain or one with a real-life bad guy? Why? 
  • How accurate do movies have to be when they're "based on a true story"? Can filmmakers make changes even when they're using that label? Is that OK? Why would they want to change things?

What's the story?

What's the story?
In THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT, the Campbell family purchases a home so that their son Matt (Kyle Gallner) can be closer to treatment for his cancer. The home, it turns out, used to be a funeral home -- and as the uneasy spirits who were tormented there rise up to haunt, bedevil, and assault the Campbells, Matt becomes the vessel for their supernatural rage. Can the love of Matt's mother (Virginia Madsen) and father (Martin Donovan) and the efforts of a cancer-patient priest (Elias Koteas) quiet the old funeral home's angry ghosts and save the family?

Is it any good?

Is it any good?
 

The Haunting in Connecticut is similar to other haunted house epics like The Amityville Horror; it's so similar, in fact, that you have to wonder what the point was in making it. Despite a cast of excellent actors, the movie is dreary and dull, relying on obvious jumps and jolts to scare us and culminating in an orgy of special-effects violence as poorly made as it is tedious.

If The Haunting in Connecticut were better made, it wouldn't feel so familiar; if the story didn't rip off The Amityville Horror, The Exorcist, The Ring, and dozens of other movies, perhaps the movie's tiredness wouldn't sting quite so much. Cliched, tedious, and full of cheap jumps in the absence of true horror and suspense, The Haunting in Connecticut is somehow jam-packed with dead bodies but completely devoid of any reason to care about the live characters.

Movie themes & details

Movie Details
Studio: Lionsgate
Director: Peter Cornwell
Cast: Elias Koteas, Martin Donovan, Virginia Madsen
Genre: Horror
Run time: 92 minutes
Theatrical release: March 27, 2009
DVD release: July 14, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: some intense sequences of terror and disturbing images
Watch our review

This review was written by James Rocchi
 
 

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What parents & educators say

11
Based on 13 parent & educator reviews:
  • 38% say violence is an issue

Most useful reviews by all members

rebekahLol
teen, 13 years old
 
Disturbing, but has a happy ending. Great Movie!
It is a great movie! but there are some scenes that are... lets say disturbing. Plenty of blood, gore, and some pop ups at you. the only part that i would say "scared me" was in probably the first 25 minutes when Matt, the boy with cancer, see's this dude with glasses that appears to be writing something, but once you get a close up, you see that he is writing with a knife on a human corpse, and then cuts off his eyelid. Probably the most disturbing thing bout this movie but not that bad. good movie for tween & teens.

Poison Ivey
teen, 17 years old
 
I kinda liked this movie. but I was prepared for anything because I've seen every episode of "A Haunting" on discovery, but if you havn't seen the show then I suggest you watch it, just so you can be ready for anything... well, supernatural. It's a little but scarier, though, so I'd suggest to parents to watch it with their kids and skip through the intense parts. I watched this with my mom and sisters, where as I'd normally watch the show alone. :)

nightmaric
teen, 16 years old
 
Not really that disturbing
This movie isn't really that violent, not much blood but still. It was pretty good movie though.

nirvanachix
teen, 15 years old
 
AMAZINGG!!
it was really good i saw it wit my freinds (the age was lik 12-14 years old) REALLY GOOD!!!

meg_danielle12
parent of 18 year old
 
PERFECT FOR TWEENS!
Best thing i've ever seen... GENIUS! A fine work of art. Any child 2 and up would love this movie as much as me and my kids did! I'm definately buying this one!! Two thumbs up! =0)

vampire child
teen, 16 years old
 
I SAY 10 AND UP
oh g's dis movie had some gross parts bt besides tht i likd it.Tha eyelashes part grossed me out alot bt i liked it.I watch scary movies at nitew because i love scary movies.i cn gt really jumpy.bt i dnt rememba gettin jumpy in dis one.i say its like dayshavo.Its nt tht scary and it seems smeone let their 4 yr old waTCH THT.CME ON R U CRAZI MOST LIL KIDS WOULD HVE NITEMARE NO AFENSE TO ANYONE

kaytopian
teen, 14 years old
 
disturbing but intresting
I acctually loved the movie even though it was kind of scary for me. If i was a aprent i honestly probably wouldnt have let my 11 year old watch it unless she was super mature. there isnt any nudity except for a girl in the shower but it doesnt show anything bad. in several other scenes there are shirtless guys but i wouldnt really call that nudity or bad. there is alot of blood. in one scene the teen with cancer thinks his mom is mopping the floor with blood. in the teens room there is a room in witch people used to carve words into dead bodies. also they stole the ad bodies and replaced them in the grave with sacks of sand. the stealing is not a positice message. there are alot of frightening and disturbing scenes. for example the cut of the eyelids of the dead bodies and the teens find the box under the floor boards. there is some achohol involvment. a dad comes home drunk and he finds all the lights on. he gets mad and scares the family. he breaks all of the lamps and lights. i would say its ok for 12+.

Softballlover
teen, 14 years old
 
Scary Alert!!
I loved it! Very scary! You should really see it!

greenactress
teen, 15 years old
 
Should be okay
Ok, i watch horror films ALL THE TIME so this movie was no biggy to me, sorry i can say the same for my BFF. We went and saw it and she was coverng her face and sliding down in her seat multiple times! I loved this movie and was trying to convince my horror hating mom to go see it because it was so good. Some parts i must admit were a little gross but you get past it by how good the rest is. The whole time i felt so bad for the boy! The mom really annoyed me though. This movie isn't scary, more things poping out then anything else, the part with the eye lids was gross! Most tweens should be able to handle it, might be a little scared of the dark for awhile or have a nighmare but not a mental break down and refuse to sleep in their own bed because they are too scared or anything! I know that horror loving adults don't go for the PG-13 flicks because they say they are pathetic, but i think that even adult will like this rollercoaster of a movie, it doesn't keep you on the edge of your seat or anything. It's not to scary, but it keeps you interested and make you jump a couple of time when you least expect it. I'm not sure if my friend enjoyed it as much as i did, so i guess it depends on what kind of a person you are. If you scare eaisily, i would say no, but if u love horror or can handle it this movie is for you! It's not all that scary, like too scarly but it's not boring! VERY GOOD MOVIE!

littlemonster98
teen, 13 years old
 
NOt a great movie yuck though I guess its ok for preteens but...

BobTheBuilder11
teen, 16 years old
 
Some Gore-Who Cares!
I loved this movie, sure it may be a bit gory for anyone younger than a teen, but that's the style of horror movies. Plus this has more surprising scary than gore in my opinion. There's no harm in that! Also there is a problem in the movie with alcoholism, the main characters sober father gets drunk, but nothing that doesn't get sorted out in the end. side note: Oh and I disagree that this movie is "unoriginal, shoddy horror film". It's my favorite movie of all time, sure the idea of hauntings may be played a bit too often, but so has everything else (vampires and alien invasions), it's really only the good movies that matters.

Haydimi
teen, 15 years old
 
GREAT movie!
This is a really awesome movie. It can be pretty creepy at times. Several jump-out-at-you moments, disturbing images, basically NO profanity, NO sexual content. It is a very DARK movie. There is no humor at all in this. It's about a boy with cancer who is dying and so close to death he can see what happened in a possessed home. This movie is not inappropriate by ANY means. If you're into horror movies whatever age, you can see this.

Jadenp
teen, 15 years old
 
Great movie, and somewhat disturbing. The movie is not as much SCARY as it is STARTLING. There are many jump scenes, that made my family scream. The great thing about this movie, is that they keep it clean. there is NO language or sexual content at all. There is no actual violence, just disturbing images and startling scenes. Very good, great for 13+.

cheese-process
teen, 15 years old
 
Pointless and unoriginal.
This movie was pointless. I've seen way scarier movies. Too much was happening too quickly, and there was no true suspense. It was just a bunch of dead bodies and scary background music. In fact, if they left out all the sound effects, it would have been much scarier. There are so many things that they could have been done better. Just skip this one and watch The Ring instead.

ETFLover
kid, 13 years old
 
Good For A PG-13 Movie
I think it was a good movie. It did have a few cheesy parts, but most films do. I don't recommend this for anyone under the age of 10 or 11, it would be too gory and violent for them, especially the eyelashes. Overall, I really want to watch it again.

Common critic
parent of 11 and 13 year old
 
A good movie
My son loved this movie.I've had no concern with it at all and it's not very bad.

Doodelium
kid, 13 years old
 
Why the Low Ratings?
This movie was really good. The acting was good, the story, but the script was a little amateur. I enjoyed it, and I was scared but not as scared as some other films I've watched. I would recommend this to anyone interested in these movies.

Luna Evergreen
teen, 14 years old
 
Fav movie! Great for everyone!!
I love this movie!! I was 9 when i watched it and i bought it the next day! There dead people with writing that was cut into them, but it looked like ink!! I think anyone who watches this movie could enjoy it!

adamr2894
teen, 14 years old
 
If you love horror movies, then you will love Haunting in Connecticut. Parents: There are many startling sequences, but nothing too bad. There is mild language. A character uses "Jesus" a few times as an exclamation. Some references to alcohol. In one part, the dad is drunk. It has a very good plot and a tear-jerking ending. Some sad parts. There are sequences of violence in this movie, also. In one part, the main character tries to kill his sister with an axe. The father who used to live in the house appears to be writing something. It zooms in and he is writing marks on a dead bosy with a knife. Corpses fall out of the wall. Guts come out of a large pole. A character gets burned by an incinerator while running out of the house. The main character gets possessed by the burned boy. There are lots of scary faces. I recommend this movie to mature teens 13 and up who can take a scary movie.

SCHMEEGLE98
teen, 14 years old
 
Disturbing, NOT Scary
ok. This movie is not very scary. if you are sensitive well, why are you watching this movie anyway? there is no violence, more disturbing images. hardly any swearing.

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