The House of demons

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Movie
German title The House of demons
Original title The Haunting in Connecticut
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2009
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Peter Cornwell
script Adam Simon ,
Tim Metcalfe
production Paul Brooks ,
Daniel Farrands ,
Wendy Rhoads ,
Andrew Trapani
music Robert J. Kral
camera Adam Swica
cut Tom Elkins
occupation

The House of Demons (originally: The Haunting in Connecticut ) is an American horror film by director Peter Cornwell from 2009 - based on allegedly true events that are said to have happened to the Snedeker family. In the mid-1980s, the Snedekers moved into a property in Southington , Connecticut , allegedly home to demons . Soon after, they went public and reported extensively on ghostly beings, although they could never produce evidence of their existence. With the help of self-proclaimed exorcists , they eventually managed to victoriously fight these creatures.

action

Young Matt Campbell has cancer . Costly therapy in distant Connecticut drives his family to the brink of ruin. In addition, the strenuous car journeys have negative effects on the young person's health; the journey also saps mother Sara's strength. So she and husband Peter, a dry alcoholic , decide to rent a cheap house near the hospital. A little later, Sara - without consulting her husband - quartered in a Victorian building, a former funeral home. At this point in time, the new tenants had no idea that the venerable building had a gloomy past.

In the basement once practiced a mortician named Aickman powerful seances to using prepared corpses - hiding in the house and so the final resting place have been removed - and an assistant as a medium to contact the afterlife. When the insane Aickman presented his skills to invited guests, the dead used the medium Jonah to get rid of the annoying undertaker in the form of ghosts. They later killed Jonah too. Unfortunately, the tortured souls of the deceased did not find the final peace they had hoped for.

Meanwhile, Matt begins to notice eerie things on the first night in the new domicile. The teenager senses the presence of ghosts to which he initially does not attach any importance, since his treatment is accompanied by medications that can cause hallucinogenic side effects. When the head of the family, Peter, arrives the next day with Matt's younger brother Billy and his cousins ​​Mary and Wendy, the other relatives are also plagued by creepy visions. Nevertheless, it is up to the sensitive seriously ill to fathom the strange occurrences. As a doomed man, he is particularly sensitive to supernatural perceptions. Soon he comes across the said morgue in the basement of the building, later on old photos of the former owner. With the help of his cousin Wendy and a clergyman who is also suffering from cancer, he laboriously researches the house's past. At some point he finds out the cause of the demonic activity. At the end of the film, Matt frees the dead trapped in the walls in an all-destructive fire inferno. The cancer patient himself is fatally injured, but reanimated. In the credits , the viewer learns that the young man will later be completely healed.

background

The film is based on the book In a Dark Place by Ray Garton and, according to the opening credits, is a true story. In the 1980s, the Snedeker family, who had moved into an old house in Southington, Connecticut, reported paranormal activity around the house and the presence of demons. The house was examined by the couple Lorraine and Ed Warren . In fact, pathological instruments were found in the basement , and trap doors were also reported through which coffins were brought at night. In a séance in 1988, the house was cleared of the ghosts.

In order to do more detailed research for In a Dark Place , Ray Garton had several conversations with the Snedeker family. According to the comments in his book, the statements of the individual family members about the incidents in the house contradicted each other. In response to a subsequent request from Ed Warren, he said to him:

"Oh, they're crazy," he said. "Everybody who comes to us is crazy. Otherwise why would they come to us? You've got some of the story - just use what works and make the rest up. And make it scary. You write scary books, right? That's why we hired you. So just make it up and make it scary. "(German:" Oh, they are crazy. Everyone who comes to us is crazy. Why else should they come to us? They have something of the story - just use that what goes together and add the rest. And make [the story] creepy. You write creepy books, don't you? That's why we hired you. So make it up and make it creepy. ")

According to Joe Nickell , who investigated the supposed ghostly goings-on, the Snedekers landlady found the whole story ridiculous:

"She noted that nobody before or since had experienced anything unusual in the house, and that the Snedeker family stayed in the house for more than two years before finally deciding to leave." had experienced something unusual in the house and that the Snedekers lived in the house for more than two years before they finally decided to move out. ")

Garton also notes in his book:

"I never met the son, who was said to be ill, although I was allowed to talk to him on the phone once, supervised by Carmen [his mother]. When the boy began to talk about drugs and told me that he didn't hear and see strange things in the house once he began taking medication, Carmen ended the conversation. "(German:" I have the son who was supposedly ill, never met. But once I was allowed to speak to him on the phone while he was being watched by Carmen [his mother]. When the boy started talking about medication and told me that he didn't hear or see any strange things in the house, as soon as he started taking medication, Carmen ended the conversation. ")

Cornwell's directorial debut started on March 27, 2009 in American cinemas, on July 2, 2009 in German and on September 18, 2009 in Austrian cinemas.

The production climbed to second place in the US box office on the opening weekend with 2,732 film copies and grossed around 23 million  US dollars . The US box office results added up to 55 million US dollars after five weeks. In Germany, the film was far less successful commercially. The ghost story, which started with 89 film copies, opened its home weekend with 26,090 viewers and thus reached sixth place in the German cinema charts.

Sequels

In 2013, The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia was a sequel to the film. Tom Elkins directed it. The production was shown only to a very limited extent in US cinemas. In August 2013 the film was released as Das Haus der Demonen 2 in Germany on DVD and Blu-ray. On June 11, 2010, Gold Circle announced the third installment in the series, The Haunting in New York , and confirmed Sean Hood as the scriptwriter for the project.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. See entry on the official website ( memento of the original from October 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hauntinginconnecticut.com
  2. ^ Reyes, Kyle: A Connecticut Haunting: The Reel Deal . In: NBC Connecticut . March 11, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
  3. Brown, Alan: Ghost Hunters of New England . UPNE, 2008, ISBN 978-1-58465-720-0 , p. 7.
  4. ^ Benjamin Radford: The Real Story Behind 'The Haunting in Connecticut' . livescience.com. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  5. a b "HBM_Editor": Ray Garton, Author of Ravenous and Bestial . In: Horror Bound . February 3, 2009. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
  6. Demons in Connecticut
  7. a b cf. House of Demons box office grossing results , boxofficemojo.com, accessed July 6, 2009
  8. See analysis from July 2nd to 5th, 2009 on insidekino.de , accessed on July 7th, 2009.