The Haunting in Connecticut 2 Ghosts of Georgia   Starring: Abigail Spencer, Chad Michael Murray, Katee Sackhoff, Emily Alyn Lind and Cicely Tyson Distributor: Lionsgate Home Entertainment RRP: £19.99 LGD95078 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 03 March 2014

Andy and Lisa Wyrick manage to cheaply purchase a new home deep in the woods of rural Georgia, in the deep South of America. It seems like the ideal new start for their young family, until their little girl begins to see things. In particular she is often heard talking to an unseen elderly man called Mr Gordy. Her mother is critical of the girl, Heidi, but only because she interprets her own gift of seeing spirits as a curse. The girl describes Mr Gordy as a kindly old man, but her parents and Andy’s visiting sister-in-law are not so certain. They belatedly discover the house and grounds was used as a staging post for escaping slaves on what was known as the underground railway in the 1800s. Then a new and much more sinister figure makes itself known, endangering the whole family as it attempts to make them pay for the atrocities of the past...

Like the first film, The Haunting in Connecticut, Ghosts of Georgia has its origins in the American docudrama series, A Haunting. Whether or not you believe in ghosts, spirits, and things that go bump in the night, they make great tales, and I would highly recommend checking it out. I have Series 1 to 3 in a set, but I believe they have now made five seasons. Over forty-five minute episodes they re-enact a ‘true story’ interceded by snippets of interviews from the real people involved in the events. At the end of the third series there were two feature-length episodes: these two stories in question.

Although Ghosts of Georgia is portrayed as a sequel of sorts, the original A Haunting in Georgia was completely unconnected to A Haunting in Connecticut. I must say that I thought the first film was the best supernatural offering to ever come out of America, but I still kind of preferred the re-enactment documentary version. It was just so creepy. This one, I would say had pretty much the opposite effect. The episodic version starts off really well, with the Mr Gordy sequences, but then loses its way, becoming incoherent and overly long. In contrast, this film version manages to incorporate plenty of chills whilst still allowing the plot to pan out until the whole story of the trapped slaves is told.

For this reason, it was much better than I was expecting – although I find it difficult to believe spirits of the dead would essentially, between all of them, tell the story of what had happened to the escaping slaves. More likely, one would turn up and say something to the effect of, "Find our bodies, and sort out this geyser, cause he’s a wrong-un!" It’s a nice tale though, in a nasty sort of way (or should that be the other way around!). Of course, like most horror films it does resort to cheap tricks, like using the same ghostly appearances again, and weird noises. However, it does, thankfully, refrain from using slamming doors, which is a highly overused cheap method. There is a night sound which I suppose is supposed to be cicadas, but sounds more like the Che-che-Ha-ha of Friday 13th films.

Just a word or two for Emily Aln-Lind who is simply amazing as the little girl, Heidi. Even on the Seeing Ghosts featurette she is very professional for someone so young. It would have been a nice touch to have the original A Haunting representation as an extra, but you can’t have everything, I suppose.

8

Ty Power