 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
The Haunting in Connecticut
- Review Date: March 26, 2009
- PG-13
- Genre: Horror
- 2009
Common Sense Media says
Unoriginal, shoddy horror film is too gory for young kids.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
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.
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?
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.
What families can talk about
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?
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AGE
Not really that disturbing
This movie isn't really that violent, not much blood but still. It was pretty good movie though.
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AGE
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.
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AGE
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. :)
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AGE
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)
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AGE
AMAZINGG!!
it was really good i saw it wit my freinds (the age was lik 12-14 years old) REALLY GOOD!!!
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AGE
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
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AGE
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+.
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AGE
Scary Alert!!
I loved it! Very scary! You should really see it!
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AGE
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.
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AGE
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.
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| Studio: | Lionsgate |
| Director: | Peter Cornwell |
| Cast: | Elias Koteas, Martin Donovan, Virginia Madsen |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Run time: | 92 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | March 27, 2009 |
| DVD release date: | July 14, 2009 |
| MPAA rating: | PG-13 |
| MPAA explanation: | some intense sequences of terror and disturbing images |
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