JIM Reviews : “THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT” = Think TWICE before you agree to buy a House! =

“THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT” = Think TWICE before you agree to buy a House! =
Rating: a mild 4 of 5 stars.

Per an advance preview:) This based-on-a-true-story film is set in 1987 & relates how a mother (VIRGINIA MADSEN) agrees to buy an old house (oddly enough, in CT) to allow their ill son Matt (KYLE GALLNER) to be close to his treatment center. Only the mother initially knows the place used to be a FUNERAL home and habitat of some very SPOOKY & unexplained goings-on in the past. Poor ill Matt is troubled by a bunch of increasingly strange supernatural happenings, & they soon begin to extend to the five other members of the family. As “fate” would have it, a handy priest (played by ELIAS KOTEAS) turns up who tries to help get RID of the burgeoning bizarre behavior, which directly involves using Matt to combat the ghosts of the past. Here, the paranormal’s NORMAL, & the eerie ISN’T cheery! Thankfully, this is an “OLD”-style Horror film (meaning, NOT basically a “slasher” flick). The three leads do a GOOD job in being believable, & it’s a surprisingly EFFECTIVE film since the CREEPY isn’t sleepy!

An added COMMENT about some BAD PLANNING concerning the screening(s): This preview in Chicago was offered by like 4 different venues. Originally, Black Curtain Screenings used MYSPACE to offer free passes to anyone who listed them & the film as “Friends” & brought a printout of a profile to the planned showing at AMC’s 600 N Michigan theaters. That gave no real “control” over the NUMBER of people who’d be there…

… Then, seemingly at the “last moment”, the screening there was CANCELED & switched to AMC’s RIVER EAST 21 theaters, where another screening of the film had ALREADY been scheduled & offered by OTHER venues. No one would normally have known to bother “checking” if the “600” screening was still going on, & it’s not clear precisely “where” the “change” was supposedly POSTED on MySpace. In any case, the “600” people were sent to the AMC21 & there was significant OVERBOOKING of theater 10 there. One must wonder why this couldn’t be BETTER COORDINATED so as to not INCONVENIENCE so many people unnecessarily…