The Haunting in Connecticut (Peter Cornwell, 2009)

With: Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner, Elias Koteas, Amanda Crew, Martin Donovan.

Plot: A family moves into an old isolated house for the sake of their ill son (Gallner), the house turns out to be a former mortuary and is possessed/haunted.

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The type of drudgingly familiar flash-bang horror that is usually sent straight to DVD these days. Madsen has some conviction but the characters are thin and the scares are cheaply done and repetitive. Framing the whole story with an interview to make it seem realistic fails badly, the crass presentation and murky style creating hysterics that make the whole thing wholly unconvincing. There's a sad story of a dying boy struggling to control himself under malevolent forces, but it's too hidden under all the crap.

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