Rated PG-13 – 1h32

Reviewed 3.29.09

It’s a capable horror movie; just don’t try to sell this as based on a true story.

The Haunting in Connecticut is loosely based a scaring that happened in the 1980’s at an old funeral home. In this version, a struggling family moves into the home because it is near the hospital where the eldest son is undergoing cancer treatment. They discover there is a good reason why they got such a good price on the place.

The sins of the past provide for some creepy scenery and scares, but there are a few too many “scary house” clichés to make this an intriguing story.

For those looking for a good scary ghost story, this ranks somewhere between 1982’s remarkable Poltergeist and 1986’s stinker Poltergeist II.

Without finding out what really happened, I would have been satisfied accepting the “based on a true story” tagline. A quick Internet search will tell you that the film was just a fraction of what happened in real life. That’s a downer, because I was expecting to accounts of the real deal, not a reimagining.