THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT

Young Matt Campbell has a tumor that forces him to undergo experimental therapy in a Connecticut hospital. The fatigue from frequent travels and the excessive cost of the same push the Campbell family to rent a house right near the clinic, encouraged also by the fact that the price of the accommodation is rather advantageous. But from the moment the Campbells set foot in the house, strange events begin to happen: eerie noises come from the attic, mysterious shadows lurk in the basement, and Matt is tormented by terrifying visions of death. What is hidden in the past of that house? The cinema of haunted houses is ruthless: the clichés are inevitably always the same and once a film has had a wide public and critical resonance, everything that will be made afterwards will inevitably be compared to it. "The Messenger" follows this rule obligatorily, but it is not a matter of ignorance or laziness on the part of those who write it if the insistent comparison with "Amityville Horror" comes up, since the two films, the two stories, have so many points in common that one can really suspect the minimum of creative effort on the part of the makers of the film about the haunted house in Connecticut. Let's start by saying that both films are inspired by real events, sinister stories that had a very small echo in the newspapers of the time and that then fueled the collective imagination of paranormal and mystery enthusiasts. The house in Amityville is sufficiently known, while "The Messenger" is inspired by the story that happened to the Reed family in 1987, the disturbing consequences of their move into an old house in Southington that forced them to flee following strange events (noises, apparitions, inexplicable temperature changes) and the discovery of a small cemetery in the courtyard, as well as the discovery that in the 1920s the basements of that dwelling were used as embalming rooms. It seems that the idea for this film was born from the casual viewing of a TV documentary on the Reed family's story by producer Daniel Farrands, who immediately had a lightbulb moment about the commercial potential of the story. The two screenwriters hired, Adam Simon ("Carnosaur") and Tim Metcalfe ("Ammazzavampiri 2"; "Kalifornia"), thus collected the testimonies of Carmen Reed and blended everything into a story that uses all, but really all, the clichés of the haunted house genre, even reproducing some purely Amityville-inspired ideas. So, between noises coming from the upper floor even though there is no one, ghosts appearing in mirrors, doors that initially do not open but will then reveal disturbing truths, and flashbacks of dramatic past events, there are practically mandatory characters like the reverend who tries to exorcise evil and the alcoholic father who does not fail to go crazy. All stuff already seen and reviewed many times, right? Yes, unfortunately, that is the great limit of a film that is nevertheless generally well-made and capable of stirring up some scares. The lack of an original idea and innovative development means that anyone with a minimum of familiarity with the genre will find everything very predictable. It is normal then that those who have a first approach with haunted house films will find in "The Messenger" an orgasm film, a concentrate of scares and macabre situations that either make you love the genre definitively or distance you from it forever. The continuous moments of terror and the interesting iconography created for the film (the dead without eyelids, the ectoplasm that leaks from the medium's orifices, the necro-writing on the bodies) are all undoubtedly spot-on choices and capable of giving a quid to the work, but it must also be noted that perhaps too much emphasis was placed on the individual moment of scare at the expense of the compactness of the entire film. Sometimes there is the sensation that "The Messenger" is composed of many small mini-sequences almost independent and aimed exclusively at making the spectator jump out of their seat, not particularly functional to the narrative economy of the work. Almost a formula like "The Grudge" with the "Boo!" at the end of each sequence. Sometimes the game works - see the scene with the bird under the bed, for example - but in the long run this choice could also tire those who did not go to the cinema only to be scared. If the direction of the debutant Peter Cornwell (author of a famous animated short film, "Ward 13", which is also shown on a TV in the hospital during the film) follows the anonymity of the music video style of some new Hollywood recruits in the Bousman vein, a word must be said in favor of the cast, composed of no "scream" actors but excellent professionals sometimes too little used. From an intense Virginia Madsen ("Candyman - Terror Behind the Mirror"; "Number 23") in the role of Mrs. Campbell to a Robert De Niro-esque Elias Koteas ("The Last Prophecy"; "Shooter") in that of Reverend Popescu. Acting surprise for the young Kyle Gallner (whom we will soon see in the new "Nightmare") who tackles a difficult character like Matt Campbell with unusual naturalness. Beautiful the photography of Adam Swica and excellent some scenographic choices, like the mummies in the interstices and the embalming room, which manage to enhance the rooms of a haunted house sometimes architecturally too little disturbing. In short, "The Messenger" is a film probably indispensable for new generations but frankly useless and too predictable for those who grew up on "Amityville Horror", "Macabre Ballad", "The House of Lost Souls", "The Others", etc. Without infamy and without praise. And Lionsgate has already put a sequel in the works for next year: "The Haunting in Georgia".