.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

The year was 1999 and two haunted house movies hit the multi-plexes. There was The Haunting, starring Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones and House on Haunted Hill with Geoffrey Rush.

The films came at a time when haunted house movies seemed scarce. Everyone remembers the Amityville Horror and some have fond memories of House, but as far as horror movies go, the 80's and 90's spent more time giving us Jason's and Freddies, rather than focusing in on something that can be relatable to all viewers (who hasn't been spooked by a creaking floorboard).

The two 1999 entries did nothing to re-energize the genre. And two years later, Thir13een Ghosts added to the lukewarm resume of haunted house filmdom.

Since 2001, there have been additional haunted house movies (the remake of Amityville included), but most of them ended up going straight to DVD and for good reason. We were treated to more ghosts (The Sixth Sense, The Others) than we were possessed homes.

But a 2002 documentary on the Discovery Channel named, A Haunting in Connecticut caught the interest of a major studio. The story is of a family who move into their new home only to be haunted by the home's funeral parlor past was chilling and, dare I say it, damn-well scary.

Writers Tim Metcalfe and Adam Simon worked on a screenplay directed by Peter Cornwell (Post Apocalyptic Pizza) in bringing the story to the big screen in the aptly named The Haunting in Connecticut.

Proclaiming to be based on the true story, The Haunting in Connecticut follows the Campbell family, Sara (Virginia Madsen), Matt, Peter and Billy who are portrayed as your typical average American family who find their dream home in…wait for it….Connecticut.

But their charming Victorian home has a secret - a bunch of nasty ghosts that channel and torment teenaged Matt, who just so happens to be suffering from cancer. Talk about a family that can't catch a break.

The film's 'Based on a true story' promotion is what makes this film in any way scary. The thought of these being real people in a real situation is the true terror of the film as was the case with Amityville and The Entity.

Wherein a shower curtain that attacks someone might be something of consensus snickering in a fiction based story, the fact that the producers push the realism of the events make the scene a bit scarier. Just a bit (it's still a shower curtain).

The Haunting in Connecticut is one of those films that is a roller coaster ride of good and bad. You dive into the lives of these poor saps from the shallow end of the plot pool and hats off to the director for trying to give us a good back story before floating us into the deep horror of their situation.

The acting was a bit spotty in parts (even Madsen couldn't rise too much above the material), but it was enough to keep us interested in the Campbell's even if there wasn't any kind of an emotional attachment.

As for the horror, well, it was nothing you haven't seen before. If figures that appear in the background of the unbeknowing actors or slamming doors freak you out, then this is your cup of tea.

But for the majority of the horror and thriller paying customers, The Haunting in Connecticut just doesn't pass the mustard. The house is creepy and a box of eyelids had it's 'eww' factor, but putting all the parts together it was nothing that I will remember by mid-week.

By the time Matt releases a bunch of mummified bodies from the walls of the house, you lose your belief that this was in fact based on any truth or reality.

A good Saturday night film, The Haunting in Connecticut will play well with the teenage audience and earn back its modest production budget in its opening weekend. But for a story that was incredibly creepy, I suggest you track down the documentary of the same name and really get the bejesus scared out of you.