Screenhead

With the all too imminent release of A Haunting In Connecticut to DVD mere hours away, it’s interesting to note that the movie is indeed based on a true story.  Said true story was documented in the popular Discovery Channel TV series A Haunting, specifically, an unusually large ninety-four minute version that, for this series, likely meant it was split in two parts to accommodate the commercial break.

But is it any good?  Was it even necessary?  Can it possibly compete with the added force of the Hollywood wizardry the theatrical release brought to bear?  That’s what we’re taking a look at today.

When Karen and Ed Parker move into their new home, in order to help take care of their cancer-stricken son, they find that their new house has a whole lot of history to it…and none of it good.  But when the Parker family decides to stand and fight, they’re going to be taking a force of serious evil, and all they’ll have to fight with is their faith, a priest serving as exorcist, and that always-controversial of paranormal investigator teams, Ed and Lorraine Warren, the same duo who took on the Amityville haunting.

Anyone who’s seen the show A Haunting already knows what the format is like–part dramatization, part interview with the actual participants, and always present is the gravelly voice of the narrator. But for those of you who haven’t seen this show yet, man, you don’t know what you’re missing.  This is the SCARIEST kind of horror you’re going to see.  Why?  It doesn’t depend on blood or obscenity or anything else.  What it depends upon instead is the random juxtaposition of the mundane and the insane.  They’ll start out wiht something quiet and simple, like a little girl playing with her dolls, then they’ll let something flash by, almost too quick to be noticed.  Almost.

Then you find out what that something is, and man, you almost wish you hadn’t found out after all.

They are going to do things that you never thought were possible within the confines of a normal everyday television show–they’re going to scare you.  Why?  Because this show is the absolute unquestioned master of creating forboding, ominous environments.  They will SCARE YOU by virtue of creating an atmosphere of utter dread.  They will frighten you to no end, and you will enjoy it.

I’m stunned to report that, after having seen the theatrical version, and having seen THIS version, that there can be no doubt.  This version is wildly, WILDLY scarier.  Not to mention wildly, WILDLY superior.  It amazes me to no end to tell you that an episode of a pseudo-documentary television show can pack more punch than a theatrical release movie, but it is what it is.

I have little doubt that you’ll be patently amazed by what you see here, and cheerfully recommend it to you.  Enjoy to your heart’s content, because this sucker’s spectacularly freaky.

A Haunting In Connecticut is so spectacularly freaky, in fact, that it gets a full nine out of ten, with only its inherent limitations holding it back from true perfection.

Popularity: unranked [?]