The Haunting in Connecticut
User Score
5.9 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 51 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 51
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 51
  3. Negative: 12 out of 51

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  1. FranN.
    Mar 30, 2009
    4
    The documentary on the discovery channel was so much better, and didn't involve all the cheap tricks. The fact that this happened to a really family is ridiculously disturbing but this depiction is completely lack luster.
  2. CaroleS.
    Jul 25, 2009
    2
    OH MY GOD. I give this rag 2 stars. Very disappointing, and I'll tell you why. First they tell you that this movie is based on a true story. By telling me that it is based on a true story it set my expectations very high. For a true story I expected the realism to be REAL. You know, something I could believe. Well this movie was anything but realistic. It was typical Hollywood.We found ourselves laughing through 95% of this movie. Watching this and trying to believe that it really happened to someone was hysterical. We couldn't stop giggling. Nice try Hollywood, but this was a NO GO!! Scary??? NOT!!! hilarious?? ABSOLUTELY! Rent this one if you want a good laugh fest.… Expand
  3. JohnS
    Jul 6, 2009
    0
    Movies with cheap scares should not be classified as horror but trash rather. Anyone can surprise an audience, horror movies requires good plot and storyline.
  4. ChadS.
    Mar 27, 2009
    3
    Priests err. The priest in Peter Hyams' "End of Days" corrects the biggest clergical error of them all: the sign of the devil was misread("666" is actually "999" upside-down). When the priest in "The Haunting in Connecticut" realizes his own error, he calls the family and leaves a message on their answering machine. It's only natural that the urgent transmission goes unheard. The message itself has a self-relexive quality WHICH deconstructs the horror sub-genre that is the haunted house flick. Reverend Propescu's words are plain-old common sense, but the characters that inhabit these fatalistic diegeses are stuck in a circumstantial paradox. If these non-people behaved in a rational manner, the narrative would be over before the first reel. In this case, we'd miss out on the supernatural hurl. It's bad enough that Matt(Kyle Gallner) insists on sleeping in the same room where the ghosts without eyelids regularly scare the bejesus out of him, but his sister Wendy(Amanda Crew) takes the customary lobotomized thrill-seeking nonchalance of haunted house victimization to the next level. Unfazed by the systematic decomposition of all the house's perishables, Wendy takes a shower, where the unflappable girl seemingly starts a fight with the shower curtain. And still Wendy won't leave the goddamn house. Once the ghosts can't be allocated solely to the mental sphere; a mere psychosomatic reaction towards Matt's cancer-fighting drugs, the Campbells need to make like the Lutzs and flee. The family's painfully slow-reaction time to the obvious dangers of the house, makes "The Haunting in Connecticut" increasingly convoluted as the facts about their home stack up like a hundred dead textual bodies.… Expand
  5. JaysonL.
    Mar 27, 2009
    0
    Waste of time. Completely retarded movie that is only about 1% of the actual haunting, and 99% of family drama. It was so bad that everyone in the theater was actually chatting/whispering instead of watching it about 30 minutes in. I can only recommend this movie to people who enjoy torturing themselves.
  6. AaronS
    Mar 27, 2009
    0
    This movie was awful. It was just a string of nonsense connecting jumpscares, which were too frequent and unimpressive. It also had one of my most hated plot devices, an old spiritual person who meets the main character in the middle of the movie and seems to know everything about everything. The movie follows its own internal logic to a degree until it's time to throw in the twist, at which point all of that gets thrown out the window. Unsurprisingly, the elder expert who was completely wrong about everything up to this point as it turns out suddenly knows... exactly what's going on! Skip it.… Expand
  7. FitriAmirrol
    Dec 5, 2010
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. At its core, Connecticut is a fairly warm, heart-rending family movie frequently disguised as a low-grade horror movie of shoddy writing and cheap thrills.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
33 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 23
  3. Negative: 11 out of 23
  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: John DeFore
    60
    Haunting tweaks familiar tropes enough to make them interesting. Just not so interesting as to inspire many nightmares after the credits roll.
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  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    50
    Long on atmosphere yet short on dramatic tension.
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  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    30
    In the realm of domestic horror, The Haunting in Connecticut is about as scary as a shower that suddenly changes temperature when someone flushes the toilet.
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