Lionsgate/Allen Fraser
In this steam still image released by Lionsgate Films, Virginia Madsen is shown in "The Haunting in Connecticut."

Despite the many ghost stories brought to the big screen, many of them titled The Haunting this or that, The Haunting In Connecticut rises above the ectoplasmic ooze. Another based-in-fact supernatural tale, it stacks ghostly troubles upon a family that’s already reeling from worldly problems.

Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen, starring as the Campbell family matriarch, has dealt with evil spirits before, especially in 1992’s Candyman and 1999’s The Haunting. She battles especially angry evil in The Haunting In Connecticut.

It’s 1987 in upstate Connecticut. Madsen’s Sara Campbell is the mother of a teen son who’s receiving devastating cancer treatment. Because Sara hates seeing Matt suffer through long commutes to the hospital, she looks for a house to rent near the hospital.

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Sara finds a large Victorian home on a spacious lot. Except for its odd history, it’s perfect. As the trusty real estate agent says, the old place simply needs a little love and care to bring it back to life.

Sara signs the lease and keeps its secret to herself.

The Campbell family includes Sara’s husband, Peter (Martin Donovan), the couple’s two sons and two nieces. Simultaneously renting a house near the hospital and paying the mortgage back home is a financial burden. Peter also has a drinking problem and a construction company that’s struggling to stay afloat.

As if dealing with all of the above and Matt’s potentially fatal illness wouldn’t push any family to the edge, the Campbell clan moves into a house haunted by spirits most malignant.

Already knocking on death’s door, Matt (Kyle Gallner) is the focal point of the supernatural activities. He picks the house’s basement as his bedroom, or, more likely, the basement picks him.

The basement is even creepier than the rest of the home’s faded, dim interiors. And there’s something cold and industrial about it. A locked room enhances the space’s sinister tone. It’s a wonder that at least one person in every audience watching The Haunting doesn’t yell out the obvious: Don’t go in the basement!

Strange things don’t wait for the night. They happen in daylight, just as Matt begins an experimental radiation treatment. In another bit of good writing, Matt thinks he’s losing his mind but dares not say so because admitting it would get him dropped from the medical trial that may save his life.

As the chill count mounts, The Haunting gradually reveals the horror of wicked deeds done in this house of death. With Madsen leading the cast, director Peter Cornwell and screenwriters Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe tell a good ghost story.