By no means perfect, Peter Cornwell’s THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT is at times, an impressive horror/thriller feature as it combines the horror element with good family drama.

The Campbell family moves unknowingly into a cheap rental house in Connecticut so that the son, suffering from cancer can receive more effective treatment from the nearby hospital.  The house turns out to be an old funeral home and yes, haunted by numerous ghosts.  That is as far as the story goes but Cornwell does a relatively well balance between horror and drama.

For a horror flick, the performances are uncharacteristically good, from Virginia Madsen (SIDEWAYS) and Martin Donovan as the parents down to their 20 year old son, Matt played by Kyle Gallner.  Surprisingly, the best scene is not a scary one but the confrontation between the mother and father when she tells him to shape up and that the family needs his strength and not self pity.

The camera work is impressive.  The false alarms that jolt the audience out of their seats are present from start to finish.  The surrounding scenery looks sufficiently eerie, with the credits proudly indicating that this American film is totally shot in the province of Manitoba in Canada.

As far as Cornwell’s film goes, it gets a bit silly once the reverend (Elias Koteas) discovers his mistake and hell breaks loose.  Though the special effects are top notch, it is still a question of too much that credibility is stretched to the limit.  By the film’s end, the audience would find it really difficult to believe that THE HAUNTING IN CONNETICUT is based on a true story.