Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner's clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to crossover.
The Haunting in Connecticut is a competent but largely formulaic haunted house thriller that fails to distinguish itself from the crowded genre. The plot relies on well-worn tropes — family in distress, sick child, dark house history, occult rituals — and the 'based on a true story' framing adds little credibility or depth. The acting is serviceable but unremarkable, with Virginia Madsen doing her best with underwritten material. Cinematography leans into standard horror visual grammar with decent atmosphere and some effectively dark imagery but nothing memorable. Novelty is low as the film recycles familiar haunted house beats with the funeral parlor/mortuary angle being the only modest differentiator, and even that is handled in a by-the-numbers fashion. The ending resolves too neatly and conveniently, undermining whatever dread the film had built up.