The Haunting in Connecticut

Even Virginia Madsen doesn't like spring cleaning.

(Lionsgate) Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner, Elias Koteas, Martin Donovan, Amanda Crew, Sophi Knight, Ty Wood, Erik Berg, John Bluethner. Directed by Peter Cornwell

The line between our world and the next is said to be gossamer-thin. There are those who walk that line between our worlds – the sick, the dying, the sensitive. These people can be hyper-aware of things the rest of us cannot know.

The Campbells are a family in crisis. Teenaged Matt (Gallner) is battling a rare form of cancer and is losing that battle. His frequent treatments require long drives into Connecticut, a drive that is excruciating for Matt and his mother Sara (Madsen). The illness has drained the finances of the family considerably, but Sara’s husband Peter (Donovan) has worked hard to overcome his alcohol addiction and is bringing in substantial work as a contractor. Still, the family (including the younger children Mary (Knight) and Billy (Wood) as well as their cousin Wendy (Crew) who has been recruited to help watch the smaller kids) are completely focused on Matt and the decision is made to find a place to live closer to where Matt is receiving his treatments.

The problem is finding something affordable in a particularly affluent part of Connecticut and Sara despairs of ever doing so, until she finds a place that seems perfect at first blush. It’s large enough to accommodate them all, reasonably close to Matt’s doctors and best of all it’s in their price range. The house is older and in need of repairs in some places but otherwise it seems perfect.

The family moves in and Matt is drawn to the basement. It’s cooler down there and has its own bathroom (so that the other kids don’t have to hear Matt vomiting), and there’s a mysterious set of locked doors and frosted windows. Things settle in to a semblance of normalcy, or at least as normal as things can get for a family with a critically ill child.

Then Matt starts seeing things. People who aren’t there, horrible visions of corpses being desecrated, those kinds of things. He’s reluctant to tell his family about them; the radical treatment he’s on is known to cause serious hallucinations as a side-effect and could be the basis of him being denied this treatment.

Then others in the family begin experiencing bizarre things as well. It turns out that the house they moved into was once a funeral home, but not only a funeral home – one in which séances were performed by a gifted young medium named Jonah (Berg) at the direction of the funeral home’s undertaker Ramsey Aickman (Bluethner). It becomes clear that there is something very wrong going on in the house, something beyond our experience. Matt turns to Reverend Popescu (Koteas), who is also receiving the same treatment Matt is and is more sympathetic than Matt’s parents but what does the malevolent force that resides in his house want with Matt?

This is loosely based on an incident that allegedly took place in the late 1980s in Southington, Connecticut and was the subject of a Discovery Channel documentary which is what caught the filmmakers’ attention originally. There has been some controversy about the validity of the claims of the family that became the Campbells in this story, but that’s neither here nor there.

What we’re more interested in is whether this is a good movie or not and surprisingly, it is. The filmmakers use Matt’s illness as an underlying thread far more horrifying in many ways than the spectres and spookies that pop out throughout the movie. The main complain I’ve heard leveled at the film is that there are too many instances of startle scares, scenes where something leaps out at you suddenly with an orchestral screech designed to make you leap out of your seat. A little of that goes a long way, and there are things forever jumping out at the Campbells that by the end of the film it gets to be old hat.

The relationship between Matt and Sara is what works best. Madsen is a capable actress and turns in one of the finest performances of her career here as a mother fiercely determined to see her son better, terrified that he will never be and willing to do anything to ease his suffering. Once in awhile, you can see some of the stress peeking through, as you might in any mother trying her damndest to hold it together in front of the kids.

Gallner and Koteas also turn in fine performances making the suffering of their characters believable. Koteas is a bit grim and kooky but Gallner is a kid coping with something no kid should have to cope with, and he’s the centerpiece here, not a horror hero in the traditional sense but one nonetheless.

Horror fans will be pleased to know that there is plenty of gruesome spectacles as well as some pretty nicely orchestrated scares. The backstory is impeccably logical and consistent, a problem with some supernatural horror movies.

I expected a cheesy B-Movie and instead was rewarded with a surprisingly effective, pleasantly well-acted horror movie that while not a classic was certainly worth my time. I particularly liked the cancer background theme; that seemed very authentic and made the story much more compelling, particularly in the relationship between mother and son. Even the furies of Hell can’t match a pissed off mom protecting her sick kid.

WHY RENT THIS: The scares are very effective and the shocks very visceral. Horror fans will get their fill. The underlying story of Matt’s illness is genuinely affecting, and the effects of his condition on the family make for a compelling subplot.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Some of the plot points are a bit cliché, particularly where they deviate from the original story. The father’s alcoholism was an unnecessary subplot that either should have been explored much further or ignored entirely.

FAMILY VALUES: Some scenes of mutilation and mayhem not for the squeamish. Some extremely nasty scares and nightmare-inducing visuals will make this strictly off-limits for the very young.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Contraversial paranormal investigators Ed and Leslie Warren, who also investigated the Amityville Horror, were the investigators on the case that this is based on.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: A feature on post-mortem photography, as well as a re-examination of the original haunting.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: Day Three of the Six Days of Darkness

The Dead Call

Stephanie surveyed the bedroom with a sigh, unconsciously chewing on her top lip and brushed a stray lock of dark hair from her face. The magnificent king bed was made – she and Christopher had slept in it last night – but everything else was in boxes. Whoever said a fresh start would be easy?

It was the second marriage for both of them. Her first had een a nightmare; she’d gotten married right out of high school mainly because she’d gotten pregnant. Her ex had turned out to be a rotten bastard. After the honeymoon, he became moody, aggressive and then downright abusive. She firmly believed, as did her OB-Gyn that the miscarriage had been as a result of stress. After the miscarriage, she’d gone into a deep depression that wasn’t helped by her “loving husband’s” cruel remarks about her cooking, her cleaning, her figure, her looks.

Soon after that the beatings began, and the raping. If he wanted sex he no longer even bothered to ask. It became brutal and painful, something to be endured and survived. Finally, after four months of this she had summoned up the courage to walk out and find shelter. After getting some counseling at the battered women’s shelter, she pressed charges against him, and while he was in jail she filed for divorce.

After that, she hadn’t dated much. Her trust level for men was more or less at the same level as it was for scorpions. She finished school, got a college degree in marketing and went to work for one of the most prestigious firms in Phoenix. After proving herself, she got the account for a local children’s hospital charity and that’s where she met Christopher.

He was a star player for the Phoenix Suns and a local celebrity, but he was a lot different than she expected him to be. She had worked with professional athletes before and had found them to be egotistical and arrogant, more interested in the positive press they would get for working with a charity than in the actual charity itself. That was not the case for Christopher, who was passionate about helping underpriveleged kids with life-threatening diseases. He showed up on time – often early – for personal appearances, and often stayed well past the time required. He gave each kid his individual attention and made them feel like his best friend. Quite a change from the average NBA star.

When he asked her out she had been surprised, but decided to do it on the spur of the moment. They went out to dinner and he talked about his hopes, his dreams and his fears as well. He was so open, so honest she felt comfortable with him immediately. They became friends and as time went by fell deeply in love.

He had been a star basketball player since efore high school. His skills had gotten him a scholarship to Stanford, which he would have been able to attend anyway since his parents were wealthy and his grades were outstanding. He not only played basketball but got a degree in political science; he hoped to go into politics after his NBA career was over and give something back, as he put it.

He’d gotten married right out of college but the frequent separations that were part and parcel to the life of a pro basketball player’s wife had been too much for his wife to handle. She had several affairs until at last she left him for one of her many paramours. It had been a very painful and humiliating experience for him, so much so that he didn’t date for five years after the divorce.

Now they were both in their early 30s and newlyweds. The thought of it made her giggle like a schoolgirl. After her abortion of a first marriage she was finally married for real. It had been big news in Phoenix and she was a bit taken aback to find news cameras outside the church where they got married, but he told her she would get used to it. In any case, they had more important things to deal with.

Just before training camp for the season had started, Christopher had been traded to the new Hartford franchise. It had come as a shock, but they both made the best of it. They had moved into his large, rambling home in a wealthy suburb of Phoenix and promptly had to pack everything. When training camp began, they were living in a hotel in Hartford – a very nice one to be sure, but still a hotel. Every moment Christopher had free the two spent house hunting in the Hartford area. At last they found the perfect home.

It was extremely secluded, sitting on 25 acres of land in rural Connecticut. It was three stories and had a carriage house that had been converted into a guest house. It had been built just after the Civil War initially as the home of a railroad baron who wanted something far from New York City. His family fell into financial ruin during the first World War and the home passed into the hands of Robert Saunders, a noted surgeon in Hartford. When he died, the house became a hospital during the 1920s and 1930s. There were numerous owners after that. The most recent one had been an insurance company executive who had put an amazing amount of money into restoring the home, but had died suddenly shortly after the work had been completed.

It was stately and mostly hand-crafted, the kind of work that is a thing of the past. It also had all the modern amenities, including cable and internet access. The entire home had been freshly repainted, recarpeted and the rewired for modern electrical needs. Some of the flooring had been replaced with expensive hardwood. It really was magnificent and just a half hour drive from Hartford and about an hour an a half from New York City.

It would fall on her to unpack an get the house ready. By the time the sale was final, the NBA season was already underway. The day they moved in their things from storage was Christopher’s last day at home before he and the team would be going back west for a two an a half week roadtrip, which would include a stop in Phoenix. Stephanie was extremely jealous that she couldn’t go, but both of them agreed that it would be better if she stayed and unpacked. There would be another trip out west later in the year and she could go with him on that one.

There were others in the house with her. Christopher had left that morning to meet the team for practice, after which they would leave directly for the airport to Chicago, where they would stay overnight before playing the Bulls the next day. He’d hired decorators and designers to help unpack. She’d spent most of the morning directing them where things went before she went upstairs to the master bedroom to tackle that on her own.

Once again she sighed and decide to tackle the box nearest her. She opened it up and found framed pictures of both their families. She smiled, and went and fetched a hammer and some nails to hang up the pictures. She had just started pounding nails into the far wall when the phone rang.

SNET had the phone service up and running by the time the movers had gotten there yesterday, so she wasn’t surprised to hear the phone ring but she wasn’t expecting any calls. By now Christopher should be on the plane to Chicago. Wonering who it could be, she picked up the phone.

The connection was just terrible. There was lots of static, crackling and hissing in her ear. She thought she could hear a voice but she couldn’t make out what it was saying. “Hello?” she said and repeated it several times. Finally, she heard one sentence she could understand. “I will be with you soon” said a highly distorted male voice. “Christopher? Is that you?” The static continued for a moment then the line went dead.

He must have been calling from the air, she decided, and thought once again that she had the sweetest husband in the world. She resumed hanging up the pictures until one of the designers knocked on her door. Her name was Evelyn and she was local; she had worked on the restoration with the previous owner and knew more about the history of the house than the realtor did. “You might want to come downstairs to the basement with me,” said Evelyn in her quiet voice. She was a pretty woman about Stephanie’s age, model-thin with a pair of thick glasses that dominated her face and straight dark hair. Stephanie had liked her immediately upon meeting her, but something in her voice caused Stephanie to feel a chill. “Why? Is there something wrong?” she said, a bit worried.

Evelyn shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she said. “It would be easier to show you.” Stephanie put down the hammer and followed Evelyn down into the basement. It was a pretty typical New England basement, stone walls and cool in the summer, with the hot water heater, the junction box and lots of storage. The washer and dryer were also down here. Evelyn led her into a corner where Stephanie noticed that one of the walls had partially collapsed, leaving a gaping hole. “Oh crap!” she thought to herself, thinking that a major contracting bill was in her immediate future. “What happened?” she asked.

“We’re not sure,” said Evelyn. “We were working in the living room unpacking and one of the men heard a noise down here. He came down to check it out and found the wall like this, but that isn’t all.” At Stephanie’s quizical look, she said “Look inside the hole.”

Stephanie dutifully peered inside and let out a gasp. There were two metal tables bolted to the floor and compartments in the side of the wall. “Is that what I think it is?” whispered Stephanie. Evelyn nodded. “It’s a morgue,” she said quietly. “We knew that this was a clinic for 15 years, but we weren’t aware that they had a morgue. It must have been bricked up after it reverted to residential use. It doesn’t appear on any plans of the house…this room actually extends outside the foundations of the main home.”

Stephanie couldn’t take her eyes off the morgue. “Has anyone been inside?” she asked and Evelyn shook her head. “The hole is big enough to step through, but we don’t know if it’s safe to walk in there yet. If the rest of the wall collapses, someone could get hurt.” Stephanie nodded and was about to step away but something caught her eye. “What’s that…” she started to say and was surprised to find herself stepping through the hole. “Don’t…” called Evelyn but Stephanie was already through. Almost in a daze, she walked into the morgue to the thing shining on the floor.

It was a locket. She picked it up and looked at it. It was a bit dusty but not as much as you would think for something lying there for almost a century. She blew the dust off it and opened it. There were two small photos in it, one too deteriorated to make out, the other of a strikingly handsome man. “Look at this,” she said. Evelyn, looking worried, stepped through the hole. “What have you got there?” she asked. Stephanie showed her the locket. “Who is that? Do you know?” Evelyn examined the picture closely. “I’m not sure but I think this might be Dr. Saunders, the man who owned the home before it became a clinic. Can’t see who the other person is, it’s too badly damaged. If you’d like, I could take it over to the historical society and compare it to pictures we have on record of dr. Saunders.” Stephanie pulled the locket away, a feeling of panic swept over her. “No,” she said, trying to keep her voice from wavering, “I’d rather you didn’t. Couldn’t you just make some copies of the photos and bring them here?” Evelyn gave her an odd look but said okay.

That night, Christopher called and she told him about the morgue, but not about the locket. For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him about the bauble which she couldn’t get out of her mind. All day she would periodically pull the locket out and stare at the picture of the man. Whoever he was, she couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

She got ready for bed, putting on an oversized t-shirt which was her customary sleepwear as a single woman. Just after she turned out the light, the phone rang again. She picked it up and once again heard the static she’d heard that morning. After a moment, she heard that same distorted voice say “Soon my love we’ll be together.” Then again the phone went dead. Stephanie was puzzled at first, because Christopher had called earlier that evening. Maybe he had wanted to call to say good night. It was odd, though; he generally didn’t speak that way. She shrugged and went to sleep.

It was an unquiet slumber. Her dreams were vivid, full of faces she didn’t recognize and hands touching her body. It was extremely erotic and she awoke in the morning feeling aroused. She dressed and met up with the design team downstairs, who were finishing the living room and had started work on the kitchen and dining room. Things were going extremely well and they hoped to be done with their work ahead of schedule. Stephanie hoped so too – she yearned for some privacy, having on odd sensation of being crowded.

All morning as she finished unpacking her bedroom she felt an odd sensation that she needed to go into the basement. She would pull out the locket, which she wore around her neck now, and stare at the photos but that would help only a short while. One peculiar thing; she thought the damaged picture opposite the male was beginning to clear up. She thought she could make out the figure of a woman now. Maybe she was just getting used to it. Still, she felt an urge to go into the basement, into the morgue like she was missing something that was there. It took all her self-discipline to continue working on her bedroom.

At last in the late afternoon, she finally decided to go down there. She couldn’t think of what she could possibly have left down there, but nonetheless she would check it out just to give herself some peace of mind. When she got down there, she was surprised to find Evelyn standing by the hole in the brick wall, peering into the morgue. A worklamp ha been strung into the room, illuminating it now. The hole had been shored up and the loose bricks removed. The two women peered into the room, Stephanie feeling unquieted but oddly drawn to the room. “I can’t stop thinking about this room” said Evelyn, her voice trembling. “I’ve come down here 20 times during the day. I don’t know why.”

Stephanie nodded, knowing how she felt. Once again, she stepped through the hole. Evelyn stepped in with her. The two women stood in the morgue in silence. Suddenly Evelyn stroked her cheek and Stephanie looked into her eyes, the arousal that she had felt upon waking up and that had been with her all day flaring up to a new high. She could see in Evelyn’s eyes that she had the same feeling. “You’re so beautiful” whispered Evelyn and she kissed Stephanie. Evelyn’s lips were soft and the two women kissed passionately. Stephanie had never felt any inclination to bisexuality but she was suddenly erotically charged. The two women quickly undressed each other and went to one of the autopsy tables. Evelyn laid down and the two women made love.

Stephanie was troubled. After making love, the two women quickly dressed and left the basement without a word. She couldn’t believe she had sex with another woman; she hadn’t been attracted to Evelyn in that way at all until the moment they stepped into the morgue. When Christopher called shortly after the work crew left for the night, she felt ashamed but kept that hidden from him. She resolved that a repeat of what had happened that afternoon would never occur again.

Again that night, just after she turned out the light the phone rang and again the now-familiar static filled the receiver. The voice whispered “You are mine my love forever.” She said back into the phone “I am yours” almost without realizing she’d said it. After the phone went dead, she wondered why she had.

Again her night was filled with troubling, erotic dreams. This time, among the faces she saw Evelyn’s face and felt her touch as well as the touch of many hands. However, she saw the man in the locket, his eyes fixed on her and she felt drawn towards him. When she woke up, once again she was highly aroused. However, she was troubled by the phone calls so she called SNET to ask about the static-filled calls. The service operator promised someone would check her line that afternoon.

Evelyn wasn’t there that morning when she went to meet with the work crew. They had finished most of the ground floor and were moving up to the spare bedrooms. At the rate they were going, they would finish the next day. Stephanie was pleased; she wanted the house to herself. When she felt the compelling need to go into the basement, which beset her all morning, she would pull out the locket. This time, the picture was clearly that of a woman. Stephanie couldn’t make out the features easily but she thought she looked familiar.

At lunchtime, Stephanie decided to check her e-mail and was surprised to find a video e-mail from Evelyn. She was sitting at her computer, looking worried and frantic. “Stephanie,” said Evelyn in an agitated voice, “I tried to call you but there wasn’t an answer so I’m sending you this by e-mail and hope that you get it. I decided to go to the historical society to check out that picture from the locket. It was, as we suspected, Dr. Robert Saunders, who owned the house during the early 20s. The locket belonged to his wife Margaret. The two of them were murdered in the house.” She paused for a moment, ringing her hands. “I found out some other things too.” The image began to corrupt. “Get out of that house Stephanie. It isn’t safe….” The distortions grew worse and she couldn’t make out what Evelyn was saying. “Call me if…” and the message ended.

She called Evelyn’s number but there was no answer. She went back to work, figuring she would try again later. An hour later, there was a knock on the door. It was one of the women who worked with Evelyn and it was obvious she had been crying. “What’s wrong?” asked Stephanie. The woman began to cry again. “We just got a call from the police,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “Evelyn died last night. She was raped and murdered in her apartment. They have no idea who did it, but…it was apparently brutal. Nobody heard her screams…she must have screamed…” the woman broke down into sobs. Stephanie held her, shocked.

After the crew left, Stephanie went downstairs into the basement. She couldn’t believe that Evelyn was dead. Something was definitely not right. She stared into the morgue again and felt that familiar arousal. She stepped in and stripped off her clothes. She lay down on the autopsy table, the same one where she had lain with Evelyn and let her feelings take her.

That night she got no phone call from Christopher, which she found odd but she did get the familiar call after the lights went out. The voice said “You have always been mine.” Stephanie felt aroused again. “Yes,” she cried into the phone, “I will always be yours.” The voice said again “I am coming for you tomorrow. Be ready.” She cried back “I await you.” The line went dead.

The same erotic dreams filled her sleep. This time the faces were recognizable as those of the workers in her home. Evelyn was there and Dr. Saunders as well. The eroticism was more insistent, more defined. When she awoke, she was as horny as she had ever been.

The phone rang that morning, and it was the SNET service operator. “We checked your lines and found nothing wrong with them. The problem must be on the other end.” Stephanie replied “But I heard the static on the call I received last night.” There was a silence and then the operator said “You must be mistaken. You haven’t received any phone calls since you got a call from Chicago the night before.”

Later in the day the supervisor who had replaced Evelyn knocked on Stephanie’s door to inform her that the work was completed. Stephanie wrote out a check and handed it to her without a word. The supervisor seemed happy enough to be going. Stephanie went downstairs to thank the crew; they all stared at her like she was meat and they were hungry wolves. She didn’t notice.

She was too busy looking at the locket. The damaged picture was no longer damaged and Stephanie knew who the other picture was. It was her own face staring at her. Now she knew what she had to do. She walked slowly down to the basement, the work crew following her silently. The worklamp and the shoring had been removed from the crumbling wall. Stephanie stepped through and removed her clothes. One by one the members of the crew mechanically had their way with her, one after another. At last, she lay on the autopsy table, alone.

The drawers of the morgue were all open and the members of the work crew save for one lay on the slabs, staring blankly at the ceiling. The slabs retracted into the compartments of their own accord and the doors slammed shut behind them. The one remaining worker picked up a trowel and began to brick the morgue shut. Stephanie watched with a detatched smile on her face. She felt a caress and looked up. Dr. Saunders stared down at her, a lustful smile on his face. The worker looked up and saw the apparition, gulped and hurried his work. He would not look inside the morgue again. It was easier that way.

He knew down inside that something would come for him that night as it had come for Evelyn and all the others. He also knew that Dr. Saunders had been a sexual deviate who had molested his female patients throughout his career. He was fully aware that every woman who had ever lived in that house reported being raped or molested although there was never any evidence of it.

After he placed the last brick in the wall, he heard Stephanie screaming. He couldn’t tell if it was in passion or terror but it didn’t really matter. When the dead call, you had to answer, no matter what the cost.