The Haunting in the least scary sounding state possible

Movie • THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT • 2009
I was invited to a good friend's house for a "Fright Night" evening of scary movies the other night. We voted on which movie to watch, and luckily it was the one movie in her entire collection I hadn't already seen.
The new fashion in ghost story movies is to find some "true story," and twist the truth just enough (like a braided string of licorice) to turn the unappetizing facts into a bag of Twizzlers. The Haunting in Connecticut really wasn't all that bad :)
I haven't loved contemporary scary movies the way I love classic scary movies, but for this kind of movie The Haunting In Connecticut was better than most. There was a nice build up of creepiness that I enjoyed like a bag of caramel cowtails.
A family must relocate to be closer to a specific treatment center for the son. He's got the ills, and his chemotherapy and experimental treatment wreak havoc on his mother's driving skills. She makes the "executive decision" to rent the creepiest looking over-sized house possible. It turns out to be an old funeral home where seances were held. There's more about the mortician, and his mummifying, and thieving of the bodies (this is where all the great images come from).
The son, Matt is slowly learning more about what happened through visitations from Jonah, the spirit medium who reluctantly helped steal the bodies. Not sure why he had to stick around to watch the mortician carve his diary into the bodies, but he did.
With everything they witness, I'm not sure why the family continues to stay. They are just as slow to react as the families in Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, and Burnt Offerings.

It's quite enjoyable for a few good jumps and goosebumps.

Die it and Exorcise

Movie • THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE • 2005
I was invited to scary movie night by my friend, Betty Bones last week. One of the movies we watched was The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I never really thought I’d enjoy this particular movie because it seemed like one of those flicks that tries to capitalize on the recent popularity of scary movies. Turns out, I was right… and I was wrong. Though it’s obvious this was released at an opportune time, it seems this was a labor of love. It was a somewhat new way to tell the same old story.
The setting is modern day. We watch a court battle of who is responsible for the death of this young woman, Emily Rose. She was possessed according to her family and her clergyman. She died after a failed exorcism. According to the “people” and the prosecution her death was the result of the priest’s neglect for the maladies she supposedly suffered according to her doctor.
Just as the result of the court case, the movie allows you to decide what actually happened. They paint it both ways, but you are in for a few good startles and ghoulish images. It was worth the watch just for that.
Not as good as The Exorcist, but definitely better than most exorcism movies.