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| Creepy frame from The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) |
I was
staring at the television when I caught an talk show in which the interviewer
asked the interviewee if he is ‘refreshed’. Because I don’t watch television
shows, I asked my wife to help me understand why the interviewer does not ask
the subject something about his probable recent doings (maybe he appeared in a
film, released a music record, or starred in a series?), only to receive the
explanation that this sort of people don’t do anything really and they are
simply celebrities (mainly popular on social media platforms of one variety or
another). This amazed me, to say the least. A
Binge too Far is about people that actually do something on screen, and
this time around we get to have a brief look on The Haunting in Connecticut duo (2009 – 2010).
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| The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) |
Reviews:
The Haunting in Connecticut
(2009)
Set in
1987, when a troubled family (the son is a cancer patient and the father is an
alcoholic), moves to a Connecticut house with a history, probably of the
supernatural kind. Based upon the real-life story of the Snedeker family that
moved to a Connecticut house in 1986 and investigated by the famous Warren
couple, the screenplay was written by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe.
The
extended version that I opted for viewing this runs at 102 minutes (a
considerably 10 more minutes than the theatrical version) is suffering of a few
padding issues, as we get to witness long periods of time in which not much is
happening. When things do happen, they are either of the ghost activity kind or
the torture porn variety (both trends very relevant at the time this was
released), and as such confusion ensues and the viewer does not know when to be
scared and when to be disgusted. Director Peter Cornwell’s film is genuinely
frightening at times and terribly boring at others. Made on a $10 million
budget, it went on to gross $77 million, despite the bad reviews, and therefore
it was super-natural for a sequel to follow.
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| The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013) |
The
Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013)
This
sequel is connected only in title with the original, and other than that
director Tom Elkins (who also cut the picture, as he is an editor by trade) is
offering a completely new story; one that is featuring the youthful Wyrick
family (father is played by Chad Michael Murray, mother by Abigail Spencer, and
daughter by Emily Alyn Lind) that just moved to a secluded house in Georgia
that has a bit of history that goes back to the days of slavery and which in
turn might have something to do with the origins of local ghost Mr. Gordy
(Grant James).
When you
have a 100 minutes and a witty screenwriter (David Coggeshall, mostly known for
his TV work) at your disposal you can offer loads of character development, as
is the case here. However, the rest of the movie is ‘by-the-numbers’ (this
explicitly the case with its editing, for example) and it is only somewhat
salvaged by its very attractive cast (another player, Katee Sackhoff is a joy
to watch). It is at time genuinely creepy, but it mostly relies on grotesque
aesthetics (the imagery is occasionally gross), rather than actual scares.
Based
upon a book called The Veil: Heidi Wyrick’s
Story which is about the events of the titular house in Georgia, the film’s
attempt at connecting with some sort of ‘true story’ reality will appear
credible only to the most hardened fans of such stories. The film received a
limited theatrical release before being dumped into V.O.D. where it can be
rented or purchased on the cheap, as is the case with its physical media release.
Another sequel of sorts followed, The
Amityville Murders (2018), which I had previously reviewed over at Weng’s Chop.
Afterword:
I just
discovered ‘Tik Tok’ which appears to be an app in which teenagers sing and
dance. Their videos – all shot with high-end mobile phone equipment – often get
very creative, as these aspiring ‘content creators’ (dare not to call a new age
videographer, an actual filmmaker) discover the secrets of cinema, pretty much
filmmakers did so back in the age of silent cinema. The vast majority of those
teenagers never saw the old black and white films that broke grounds and
invented tricks, so they just discover them now all by themselves. How
peculiar! Be sure to come back next month, when I’ll try to be less off-topic.
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