The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)

Image credit: Allen Fraser

Suburban Scare: Virginia Madsen in The Housing in Connecticut

In the grand tradition of horror movies relvolving around scary houses, the suburban home occupied by Sara Campbell (Madsen) and her cancer-stricken son (Veronica Mars' Gallner) looks perfectly charming by day. But at night, its nooks become shadows from which a secret emerges: The building was once a mortuary, and its former occupants haven't all left yet. Madsen barely emotes during the ensuing flood of hokey scare tactics, but The Haunting in Connecticut is smart enough to put much of its weight on Gallner, a lively presence with a terrifically sour mug that makes him look like a mutual cousin of Willem Dafoe and Peter Lorre. C-