I Love Horror – A horror blog devoted to the critical, analytical, and cynical assessment of the horror industry and horror films.

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If there is any sub-genre of the horror industry that has actual potential to be the quintessential horror film it’s supernatural horror. It is the ultimate untapped resource, with only a few films in the history of the motion picture to accurately capture the inherent fear in such a story. Those based on “true events” can capitalize on this because what you’re seeing in the film actually happened, or at least that’s what we’re lead to believe, and given the right script and a competent director, you have the formula for true fear encapsulated on the silver screen.

The Haunting in Connecticut did not get the memo.

The film, like most of its ilk, purports to be based on true events. Based heavily on a Discovery Channel episode of the show A Haunting, the film follows the Campbell family and their unfortunate encounter with all sorts of nasty spirits. In order to alleviate the pain caused by frequent car trips to the hospital for cancer treatment for her son,  doting mother Sara Campbell purchases an old home closer to the hospital that, SURPRISE! used to be a mortuary. As the facts begin to fall into place concerning the house’s haunting past, Matt begins to experience terrifying visions and behaving erratically. Whatever will happen to our unfortunate tenants? Will the cancer kill Matt before the ghosts do? And how does Elias Koteas still get work?

This isn’t a bad movie; but it’s not a good one, either. Whatever can be considered negative about the film is offset, at least initially, by a modicum of downright spooky scenes and, as much as it pains me to say this, some well-executed jump scares. The score is far less contrived than most films of this ilk, though the haunting piano from the trailer is absent, or at the very least was underutilized so as to make me forget its inclusion; the end credits provided some of the best music of the film. All of this merely coalesced in an attempt to distract the audience from the complete lack of subtlety that ultimately dragged the film down.

Supernatural horror films require slow-mounting tension; allusions and suggestions designed to make you fear that which isn’t really there. From the beginning we’re treated to shadowy figures, loud noises, and the like, thrown at the poor audience with such frequency that any effect it might have is lost; ultimately they become desensitized to it. When the climax arrives, there’s no surprise and no shock; no stunning realization that sends chills down your spine; and no singular “what the fuck” moment. It’s a neatly wrapped conclusion that’s convenient for everyone but the audience, the end result of a desire to include a deus ex machina-type ending without actually having God descend from the heavens and say “Bad ghosts. Stop it.” Sudden realizations that stem out of absolutely nothing merely indicate laziness on the part of the writer and the presumption that the film’s audience is composed of drooling morons.

Fucking stop it.