Haunting in Connecticut, The

Charlotte Observer Roger Moore

Sinks or swims with the actors. Gallner makes a very convincing boy-about-to-die; Madsen is his properly stricken mom; and Donovan, an under-used leading man, plays the stressed, guilt-ridden dad well.

The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore

Haunting tweaks familiar tropes enough to make them interesting. Just not so interesting as to inspire many nightmares after the credits roll.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Don't misunderstand: the proceedings are pretty silly, and the scares were a lot fresher back in 1979, when we first saw "The Amityville Horror." But Cornwell and his cast take things just seriously enough to keep us at least intermittently on edge.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Although it's reasonably well-acted and offers a few certifiable jolts, feels awfully familiar.

Variety Joe Leydon

Long on atmosphere yet short on dramatic tension.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A technically proficient horror movie and well acted.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The movie bumps along from low-grade scare to scare, and it's not lousy, mainly because Virginia Madsen prevents it from being so.

Philadelphia Inquirer Tirdad Derakhshani

A tepid PG-13 iteration of the already lame 1979 genre classic "The Amityville Horror."

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

You have to be willing to take a lot of punishment for a few good scares.

Entertainment Weekly Adam Markovitz

Smart enough to put much of its weight on Gallner, a lively presence with a terrifically sour mug that makes him look like a mutual cousin of Willem Dafoe and Peter Lorre.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

It loses steam once the wraiths become fully visible: they're just not scary enough.

Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen

Part of what makes "Connecticut" oddly watchable even as it drags is the oil-and-water mix of acting styles of the leads. Virginia Madsen's refined naturalism is an awkward fit with the sharp mannerisms of Martin Donovan.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Boring and uninspired, this movie gives ghost stories a bad name.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Not very haunty.

TV Guide Jason Buchanan

A film that pays lip service to some interesting ideas, but is far too concerned with pleasing a large crowd to be anything more than another instantly forgettable fright flick.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

As a piece of storytelling, The Haunting In Connecticut is pretty lazy. As a horror movie, it’s lazier still, bringing out every annoying shock-cut and disorienting sound-design trick of the last decade.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

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.

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

Gives you the creeps, the giggles and the groans in almost equal measure.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

C'mon, in matters of haunted-house inhabitation, settling into an ex-mortuary is like renting above a dentist's office -- ashen faces and ghastly screams come with the territory.

Premiere Rob Calvert

When the hits finally do come, they are really only capable of scaring 13-year-olds making their first trip into the horror genre.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

There is still a great horror movie about foreclosure to be made. In the meantime, this movie plays games. (How many rounds of hide-and-seek should an audience tolerate?)

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Contains so many insults to the audience's intelligence.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Koteas' overearnest performance almost makes The Haunting in Connecticut worth a look, but ultimately even the star of Cronenberg's "Crash" can't salvage what is essentially a substandard rip-off of "The Amityville Horror."