Common Sense Media Review
By James Rocchi
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Unoriginal, shoddy horror film is too gory for young kids.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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The Haunting in Connecticut
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 15 parent reviews
Based on 50 kid reviews
Kids say this movie is filled with gory and disturbing scenes that might not be suitable for younger viewers, with gruesome imagery like cut-off eyelids and burnt bodies being frequently mentioned. Despite some mixed opinions about its overall scariness and originality, many found it engaging for older teens and horror enthusiasts, valuing the suspense and thematic depth it presents.
- gory scenes
- disturbing imagery
- suitable for teens
- suspenseful atmosphere
- mixed opinions
- engaging for horror fans
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
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.
Talk to Your Kids 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?
Movie Details
- In theaters : March 27, 2009
- On DVD or streaming : July 14, 2009
- Cast : Elias Koteas , Martin Donovan , Virginia Madsen
- Director : Peter Cornwell
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Lionsgate
- Genre : Horror
- Run time : 92 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : some intense sequences of terror and disturbing images
- Last updated : October 9, 2025
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