Living With a Nerd

Note:  There are a couple of very slight spoilers in this review, but nothing that would ruin the storyline or scary scenes.  If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you can read this review without ruining the experience.

Horror film cliches are overused nowadays due to the lack of original and interesting concepts.  The Haunting in Connecticut is, unfortunately, a film that could have functioned very well within just the story and the idea of what was going on, but instead was filled with scene after scene of groan-inducing cliches.  It’s a real shame, because there are some moments of horror movie brilliance that rank up there with the big boys (Suspiria, House by the Cemetary, Jacob’s Ladder, etc.)…but they are almost overshadowed by uninspired and unoriginal scares.

The concept itself, a young cancer patient undergoing treatment who starts hallucinating (or not?)  due to his treatment, is quite good.  Solid.  Not much in the way of potential plot twists or anything like that, but solid.  There are some genuinely creepy moments within this movie, many of which involve no CGI, gore, or “monsters” whatsoever.   The scene in the kitchen with the plates was PERFECTLY executed; it was simple, effective, and required no “jump out at you” type of scares or anything of the sort…it provided you with just enough unease to give you goosebumps, but didn’t require any cheesy gimmicks.  Had this movie been made in the 60’s or 70’s, I imagine it would have been filled with events like the plate scene.

My main issue with this film is that the bad scenes are REALLY bad…but the good scenes are REALLY good…some of the best I’ve seen in a mainstream horror movie in quite a while.  It’s a shame they are tainted by their mediocre brethren.  It was fun seeing Virginia Madison (of “Candyman” and “The Haunting” fame) back in a horror movie,  and Elias Koteas (of “TMNT” and “Fallen” fame) does a fantastic job as a priest. Even though he looks like a rejected clone of Robert Pattinson, Kyle Gallner does an AMAZING job playing a sick cancer patient distraught from his illness and his horrific visions.

There isn’t much CGI in the film…old-school makeup effects and camera effects are executed very well.  I don’t know what the budget was on this film, but it was likely not very high.  There was very little variety between sets (although the sets are well done), the non-CGI effects were simple yet well implemented, and the CGI effects that are there serve their purpose.  Keeping the vast majority of the effects in the real world plays a huge role in keeping in the film grounded, which is part of the reason why the creepy scenes are as effective as they are.

Taken as a whole, Haunting in Connecticut is a decent horror film with some genuinely scary moments.  Take it apart and examine it scene by scene, however, and it appears to be just another generic horror film that has become the norm over the last 10-15 years.  Still, the good scenes are good enough to make the bad scenes tolerable.  I give it an “I’m glad I saw it, but I wouldn’t care if I never saw it again” rating.