Project-Blu ‘The Haunting in Connecticut’ Review, by Nate Boss

The Haunting in Connecticut

By: Nate Boss, 7.2.2009

The Movie Itself:
 I don't know about you, but I've seen enough horror films in my lifetime (mostly in the last 3 to 5 years, when my taste for the genre grew to outshine nearly all others) to have a clear sense of knowing where a scare will be, to see where a horror film is going at least a half hour in advance, so the whole "scary" premise is lost on me. Sure, occasionally there will be a film that will scare the living shit out of me, like [rec], regardless of knowing exactly what will happen. That is a characteristic of a fantastic horror film: the ability to scare even the most diehard of horror fans.

In recent years, the horror genre has turned into the hack and slash, torture porn, violence for sake of violence genre, with very few movies focussing on old fashioned horror staples, ya know, ghosts, hauntings, that sort of thing. Us modern audiences seem to like our horror fast paced (even our zombies run, now), in your face, and all over the place.

The Haunting in Connecticut feels like an attempt to cater to a mix of both audiences, and in doing so, failed to please either the scare fan or the bloody mayhem fan in me. You know, the whole "trying to please everyone, so no one special interest group really gets the focus" situation.

Matt Campbell (Kyle Gallner) is one sick kid, with a cancer affecting not only his body, but his family, creating/furthering a rift between his parents Sara (Virginia Madsen) and Peter (Martin Donovan). Tired of driving Matt back and forth to the hospital, Sara decides to rent a home much closer to the hospital. A home with its own form of cancer: a spiritual possession. Can't imagine that was on the list of furnishings of this home in Connecticut! A former funeral parlor, this spacious home houses a history of nasty secrets.

Slowly, the family begins to realize the evil surrounding them, but it may be too late. A fellow cancer patient, Reverend Popescu (Elias Koteas) attempts to help the family and their haunting, but interfering with this house may not be the best idea out there....

I won't go so far as to say that Haunting falls on it's face, but it certainly bruises its knees from tripping. It just lacks in originality, and resorts to some of the most base elements, you know, attempts at cheap jump scares, CONSTANT reflection ghosts, they just fail to connect. You can tell when something is going to pop up out of nowhere due to the camera movement, it is beyond predictable when you'll see a jump scare out of a random ghoul appearance. I get it, this is "based off a true story," only, really, it isn't. The "true" story has been refuted, and this film focusses far too much on an explanation to let real scares come through. Much like how the more humanized a killer becomes, the more we see his motives, what happened in his past, he is no longer as effective (Hannibal Rising, I'm looking at you!), the more this scare movie goes to the past to show what happened, the less I cared. Great haunting films, like the Evil Dead series, didn't constantly smack us, the audience, upside the head to remind us of what happened, to draw sympathy for the plights and situation. It threw us in the middle of a fucking mess and let it run wild.

In that sense, it's safe to say Haunting is very much on a leash. Sure, it did elicit a nervous freaked out peep or two from the cheap jump scares from Staff Contributor Samantha, but it failed to draw me into the story, and failed to convince me of its own scariness. A horror film, based more in the realm of supernatural scares than slashing violence, that doesn't scare makes this a tough one to give a thumbs up to. That said, it doesn't deserve a thumbs down, either.
Rating: 5/10

The Presentation:
I went into this Blu-ray viewing with high expectations. I think I've said a few times how well I've found Lionsgate to perform on these new release titles (while some of their catalog issues are beyond repair, as Kickboxer showed me). While I wasn't impressed with the video for the film, the audio, again, was the star of the show, the bright light in this release.

First, the video. Presented in an AVC MPEG-4 encode in the natural 2.35:1 ratio, The Haunting in Connecticut sports an interesting video quality. Yeah, I know, by saying interesting, it's like saying that horrendous girl with the "nice personality," but that isn't really my intent. I was satisfied by the lack of haloing and edge enhancement, and was also happy with the lack of DNR (digital noise reduction), as this film does possess (get it?) a nice, natural look that isn't marred by post-production fiddling.

What I didn't enjoy was the erratic grain level. The grain spikes from shot to shot, going mute, then screaming like a cheap scare moment. Some scenes are laid out as back and forth shots, and show off the clean, grainy, clean, gritty, clean, busy feel, showcasing this unfortunate issue. I'd rather have a healthy, aggressive, steroid injected grain level than one that bounces, personally.

Detail is a bit obscured at times, though in others, like shots of clothing, finer patterns can be discerned. Facial detail is solid, though not exceptional, while shadow delineation left a bit to be desired. Colors seem to jump with the grain, with clean shots sporting a bright full bodied effect, while darker grittier shots subdue the random hues. Digital noise is apparent, especially in darker sequences, even invading wooden floorboards when it isn't haunting walls or skin. In one sequence, a background (out of focus) article of clothing (a blue top) had a spiritual, unnatural glow. Still, aliasing was never an issue, not even in the mesh t-shirt. While far from the best video presentation out there, still far better than a lot of titles we have seen pop up recently, and many of the issues in this transfer have the possibility of being native to the source/film stock, so the inconsistent tone may be authentically represented here.

The audio, Lionsgate's Blu-ray speciality, comes in their audio format of choice for new releases: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. What struck me most with this mix was the use of bass as atmosphere. The room never rumbled, and yet, I felt that this track had an absolutely superb LFE quality, due to its constant involvement in the film, accenting every moment, helping create a bit of tension to the house that was far more effective than the scares put on film.

Dialogue is always clear, no matter the busyness (or lack thereof) on screen. The rear channels had a bit of a different utilization, with some obvious (but well performed) localized effects, but for the most part, an unsettling ambiance effect, to try to draw a user in to the house, to put them in the shoes of the Campbell family. Sadly, the audio is also used to stress shock moments, something that is not the fault of this transfer, just the style of scare used for the film. I did hear an audio pop around the 21 minute mark that threw me off guard, but it isn't a a visitor again in this mix. I think the rears could have been stressed a little further, and motion effects could have been accented as well, but really, we are given a very nice track that doesn't deter from my stance that Lionsgate resides easily in the top two, if not the very top, when it comes to audio support on these titles.
Rating: 7/10 ( 6/10- video, 8/10- audio)

The Extras:
2 Versions of the film.
Both the Theatrical (PG-13) and Unrated (Unrated...duh) versions of the film are included on this disc.

Audio Commentary
With director Peter Cornwell, Andy Trapani, Adam Simon and Tom Elkins. Only on the Unrated version of the film.

Audio Commentary
With Cornwell, Virginia Madsen, and Kyle Gallner. Only on the Unrated version of the film.

Two Dead Boys: Making of (HD, 14 min)
A somewhat dull, generic making of feature, that really didn't offer me any real intriguing details. The best portion of this feature was the application of the "carvings" from the film.

The Fear is Real: Reinvestigating the Haunting (HD, 41 min)
A two part feature, that is playable as one long take or two separate pieces. THE REAL PEOPLE FROM THE "REAL" EVENT are involved in this feature, which rocks, as I hate it when any "based on a real story" doesn't have some input from the real people involved, and their inputs on their events can be the star of a show (see: Defiance). It's more than just the family, the neighbors and former employees of the funeral home pop up and talk about the history of the home. The entire process is gone through. The entire ordeal. If you enjoy this film, this feature (and another, keep on reading!) are must sees. This feature is better than the film itself, really, in my opinion, and the many tales from the family that didn't make the film contained some info that would have made the film a bit better. The convictions of this family, and the depth things are gone into are far "scarier" than the movie, and really can get to ones nerves after a while, as this is a barrage of paranormal complaints/encounters.

Anatomy of a Haunting (HD, 12 min)
Speculation, wooo! A series of whackadoos (ya know, paranormal experts) talk about hauntings, the anatomy behind them (hence, Anatomy of a Haunting), theories, so on. Sorry, but I don't think that epileptics or cancer patients have magical powers, as some of these guys do, which the film also focusses on. I can turn a bottle of water into a duck billed platypus with my magic powers, but I have no proof of it. Yet, since I am the expert, I'll go throw some conjecture, theory, and flat ass random guessing out there and try to pass myself off as smart. I hope you readers understand what I'm saying here. A big meh.

Memento Mori: History of Post-Mortem Photography (HD, 11 min)
No, not the Korean horror film, Memento Mori (although that would have been totally fucking sweet!). This feature discusses the photography of the dead, a practice any paparazzi must know if they are to follow Helena Bonham Carter. The host discusses the differences between the mid-19th century and now, in terms of how people grieve. A very interesting feature, about society as a whole, really. A MUST SEE feature, with as high a recommendation that I can give an extra.

Deleted Scenes (SD, 8 min)
Some scenes flesh out the story, show a bit more possession, but some are pure throwaway that focus on the supporting members of the family rather than those important to the plot. The entire magic eyeball subplot makes MUCH more sense with the last deleted scene. Shouldn't have been cut, from any edition. Oh well.

Theatrical Trailer (HD)
A high def trailer for the film. Seen it a few times on the "Also from..." features on a few previous Lionsgate discs already.

LG-Live
The standard gadgets from this studio-unique feature, the clock, temperature, news marquee, even downloadable content.

Bookmarks
Bookmark your favorite scenes.

Also from Lionsgate (HD)
Trailers for My Bloody Valentine 3D, The Eye, Cabin Fever: Terror in the Flesh. These trailers also play at the beginning of the disc.

Digital Copy Lastly, a digital copy of the film is included on disc 2.
Rating: 9/10

Overall:
The Haunting in Connecticut. A film likely to draw two reactions: love it, or hate it. There may not be much middle ground. I personally felt the film focussed on all the wrong things, the wrong points, themes, and moods, and never had any real fright from the film. The video is less than superb, but the audio is great (just short of really great!), and the extras are fantastic for the most part. This one is worth a look, but for once, it is recommended to not just rent it for the movie itself. Take the time, and watch the extras. Even if you didn't like the film, watch the extras. You may not believe the family and their story, but it is a very interesting watch.
Rating: 7/10