Sunday, October 4, 2009

Haunting in Connecticut (movie #13)

Lucky number thirteen was a movie that I really enjoyed, but I have to say that I realize not everyone will appreciate this movie. It's weird and has some unusual twists, but a lot of the anger about this movie surrounds the ending. I liked it, but a lot of people hated it, and it's just one of those things where the filmmakers chose to try and depict something strange that actually happened to a family, so some of the details seem weird and unexplained...but like the mother says at the end of the movie, sometimes there is no explanation for the supernatural and maybe we shouldn't always try to explain it away.

I have to say Rachel, if you like CGI representations of second sight, you should give this movie a chance. It's very interesting in the way it depicts the visions the young man has and the reasons why he has them. This is one of those movies where a family moves into an old house and weird things start happening and you think, "why don't they just leave the house?" but at least in this movie, we get some reasons. First, they're broke and they have to stay in town for their son's medical treatment.Second, they don't know for a long time if strange things are really happening or if it's all in the son's head, and once they realize it's a real haunting, they take steps to rectify things pretty quickly instead of running around saying "there's no such thing as ghosts!" as ghosts appear all around them. I appreciated that they seemed like real people in that way.

There are some images in this movie that really bothered me, and that's hard to do, so I was impressed. Plus I really enjoyed watching the son wonder if what he's seeing is real or if his medication is making him go crazy, so his struggle intrigues me. Good acting there. Also a good actor is Virginia Masden as the mother. I've loved her ever since her appearance in "Candyman," and she was great here as well. The father is falling apart under the strain of losing all his money and watching his son die and having to be away from his family for work. It's a gripping and grim little exercise all around. I didn't expect to like this movie as much as I did, and I was told that the ending sucks, but I firmly disagree. I loved the ending and this is definitely one I'll watch again.

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