Haunted by the ghost of unoriginality....

For some reason I have a morbid affinity for movies that freak me out. I'm not talking about slasher films - I've never really cared for or been scared by those - but movies that send me home with a creeped-out feeling that makes me want to hug a teddy bear and sleep with the lights on. Such was my experience watching the Haunting in Connecticut. When her son begins an experimental treatment for his cancer, Sara Campbell (Virginia Madsen) moves her family to an old house in upstate Connecticut so that they can be closer to the hospital where her son is receiving treatment. Unfortunately, the former funeral home has a dark history that includes corpse desecration, necromancy, and ectoplasmic séances (sounds like Never land Ranch). True to form, the family begins experiencing the classic symptoms of a haunted house (self breaking plates, disappearing figures, and homicidal shower curtains), all culminating in a fiery climax that reveals dozens of mummified corpses being used as wall insulation. Although loaded with several wet-your-pants level "boo" moments, Haunting is disappointingly mediocre and predictable and comes off more as a low budget Poltergeist meets the Messengers. Two stars for the creepy, but woefully unoriginal "The Haunting in Connecticut."