The Haunting in Connecticut: Film Platypus

 In 1989, our family moved to Southern Connecticut so I could begin receiving cancer treatment. The house wasn't haunted, but for a brief time I was. The Warrens lived in the next town over. We were Protestants. We prayed. It stopped.

The Haunting in Connecticut is a merely competent horror movie. It deserves the two stars Ebert & Roper gave it. It also deserves the praise they gave to the core actors. While the movie is wildly beyond anything I ever experienced (and isn't even shot in CT), the texture of non-paranormal elements is jarringly real. In some sense, it's validating: cathartic. There are only so many people who have lived in Connecticut. Far fewer are childhood cancer survivors from the 80s-90s. I'd be willing to wager even fewer have been haunted. It's such a small, small segment to base a pop movie on. Honestly, I have a hard time connecting with others. I've just accepted that I'll always be a sort of platypus. But people watched this movie and many enjoyed it at some basic-popcorn level. I don't know why that should be validating, but it is. Also validating is the way the film depicts the way a child's cancer impacts the larger family group and the way survivor guilt influences a surviving patient's life. However weird the film is, I'm glad that someone wanted to make a story about these things. 

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