The movie poster for "The Haunting in
Connecticut."
The new film "The Haunting in Connecticut" tells the story of the Snedeker family, who in 1986
rented an old house in Southington, Connecticut. Allen and Carmen Snedeker moved in with
their daughter and three young sons. While exploring their new home, Carmen found strange
items in the basement: tools used by morticians.
The family soon discovered — to their horror — that their home had once been a funeral parlor,
and the eldest son began seeing ghosts and terrifying visions. The experiences spread to other
family members and got worse: Both parents said they were raped and sodomized by demons;
one day as Carmen mopped the kitchen floor, the water suddenly turned blood red and smelled
of decaying flesh; and so on.
Finally the family contacted a pair of self-styled "demonologists" and "ghost hunters," Ed and
Lorraine Warren, who arrived and proclaimed the Snedeker house to be infested with demons.
The scariest part? It's all true, supposedly.
The Snedekers have told their story many times, including on national talk shows and in a
Discovery Channel TV show. The film's poster states in capital letters at the top that the movie is
"based on true events." Yet others aren't so sure.
Investigator Joe Nickell reports in the May/June issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine that the
Snedeker's landlady found the whole story ridiculous. She noted that nobody before or since had
experienced anything unusual in the house, and that the Snedeker family stayed in the house for
more than two years before finally deciding to leave.
Apparently being assaulted and raped by Satan's minions for months at a time wasn't a good
enough reason to break the lease.
The Snedeker's story first came to light in horror novelist Ray Garton's 1992 book "In a Dark
Place: The Story of a True Haunting." In an interview in "Horror Bound" magazine, Garton
discussed how the "true story" behind "The Haunting in Connecticut" came about.
Garton was hired by Ed and Lorraine Warren to work with the Snedekers and write the true story
of their house from hell. He interviewed all the family members about their experiences, and
soon realized that there was a problem: "I found that the accounts of the individual Snedekers
didn't quite mesh. They couldn't keep their stories straight. I went to Ed with this problem. 'Oh,
they're crazy,' he said…. 'You've got some of the story — just use what works and make the rest
up… Just make it up and make it scary.'"
Garton, who had accepted the job expecting to have a real "true story" to base the book on, did as
he was told: "I used what I could, made up the rest, and tried to make it as scary as I could."
Though the Snedekers stand by their story, it seems there is little or no proof that anything
supernatural occurred at the house. Whether or not the Snedekers actually believed their story,
they stood to make money from the book deal. They were aware that the Lutz family — of
Amityville, New York — profited handsomely from selling the rights to their "true story" of a
haunted house. "The Amityville Horror" has long since been revealed as a fiction by investigator
Ric Osuna and others. Interestingly, the Warrens were also involved in the Amityville case.
Fiction passed off as memoir or true story is certainly nothing new, from William Peter Blatty's
book and film "The Exorcist" to James Frey's debunked bestseller "A Million Little Pieces."
Filmmakers have a long history of touting movies as being based on true stories, when in fact
they have little or no connection to any real events.
As for "The Haunting in Connecticut," Garton notes, "I suspect the movie will begin with the
words: 'Based on a true story.' Be warned: Just about anything that begins with any variation of
this phrase is trying a little too hard to convince you of something that probably isn't true."
Questioning the Story:
Southington home the Snedeker
family rented from 1986-1988.
Did the eldest son have cancer?
Yes. The real life Matt Campbell, Philip Snedeker, had a cancer of the immune system called Hodgkin’s
lymphoma. -TheCabinet.com
Did they move to be near a hospital?
Yes. The Haunting in Connecticut true story reveals that the real life family, the Snedekers, moved on
June 30, 1986 from Upstate New York to 208 Meriden Avenue in Southington, Connecticut to be near
UCONN hospital for their son's Cobalt treatments. -'A Haunting in Connecticut' Discovery Channel
Documentary
Was the house really a funeral home?
Yes. Darrell Kern, the former owner of the Southington home, confirmed that prior to purchasing the
property in the 1980’s, it had served as the Hallahan Funeral Home for multiple decades. -Hartford
Courant
Did the mom really not know that the house was formerly a funeral home?
(Back) Allen, Tammy, Ed and Lorraine Warren
(Front) Bradley, Carmen, Allen Jr., Jennifer
It depends on who you ask. Mrs. Carmen Snedeker (the real Mrs. Sara Campbell) claims, as depicted in
the movie, that she was never informed the house had been used as a funeral home. Carmen said that
she had not been in the basement due to renovation materials blocking the stairway, and only found the
embalming equipment after they moved in. However, the former owner and their in-house neighbor, claim
the family was fully informed of the situation prior to it being rented. -A Haunting in Connecticut
Watch the Discovery
Documentary that
inspired the movie.
Did the mop water turn bloody red?
Yes. According to the real mother herself, Carmen Reed, then Carmen Snedeker, “The mop water was
blood red. I mean a deep, deep red. It made my skin crawl. I started getting nervous that I was ruining the
floor.” -A Haunting in Connecticut
Did the dishes put themselves away?
Yes. While the movie depicts this occurrence happening to the eldest son, Philip Snedeker, the Discovery
Channel documentary reveals that it actually happened to the mother. “I thought I was losing my mind,"
Carmen recalled. "I know I set the table but the dishes weren’t there.” -A Haunting in Connecticut
Did a niece really live with the family?
Niece Tammy
Yes. According to the real life niece Tammy, “My mother and my father were divorcing. Just didn’t work
out too well so my aunt called and invited me to be with them. We were pretty close.” -A Haunting in
Connecticut
Did the younger brother really spin around on the gurney?
Yes. “My brother actually had me lay down on the gurney in the morgue and didn’t tell me what it was,"
recalled Bradley Snedeker. "It did freak me out real bad, but I didn’t want to run because of my older
brother. You know, I had to look tough around my older brother. It was pretty creepy, it scared me pretty
bad.” -A Haunting in Connecticut
Did the lights flicker without light bulbs?
Yes. According to a the middle son, Bradley Snedeker, “… the lights were coming on and off and on and
off even though there was no bulbs in it…” -A Haunting in Connecticut
Did the real Matt Campbell (Kyle Gallner) see things because of treatment side effects?
No. His mother, Carmen Reed, asked his oncologist about the possibility of visual side effects. “He said
there was no chance of him having hallucinations or delusions with the medication he was on.” -A
Haunting in Connecticut
Did the son really sleep in the basement?
Carmen Reed showing the
coffin lift in her basement that
leads up to a trap door in
the master bedroom floor.
Yes. Philip Snedeker slept in the basement with his brother, Bradley Snedeker. Since the upstairs rooms
were smaller, it was the only room that could accommodate the teens. The two brothers slept in the
casket display room down the hall from the former embalming room. -CarmenReed.com
How many séances did Jonah conduct in the house?
Zero. Jonah, portrayed in the movie by Erik J. Berg, is a fictional character. The filmmakers added Jonah
to the storyline to help provide an explanation for the supernatural elements of the movie.
Did they really find old pictures of dead people?
Yes. In this website's correspondence with the real life mother, Carmen Reed, she stated, "There were a
couple of photos in the home, but there were many toe tags and a head tag. There were other personal
items of the deceased.”
Did the son really see dead people with writing carved on them?
No, although other sightings were reported. Some of these include a thin man with high cheek bones and
long black hair and another with white hair wearing a pinstriped tuxedo. -AssociatedContent.com
Did Matt (Kyle Gallner) have a radical personality change?
Yes. According to his family, he became distant, dark and violent…like meanness had come over him. -A
Haunting in Connecticut Discovery Channel Documentary
Did the son meet Reverend Popescu (Elias Koteas) during cancer treatments?
No. Any priests that were met came from the Catholic church, not the hospital.
Did the shower curtain nearly suffocate the niece like in the movie?
Carmen Reed
Not exactly. In the movie, the shower curtain nearly suffocates the niece, Wendy (Amanda Crew). The
Haunting in Connecticut true story reveals that the shower curtain incident did happen, but to the mother,
not the niece. In our correspondence with the real life mother, Carmen Reed, she stated, "Yes, the
shower curtain did wrap around my face so that I couldn't breathe. My niece had to come and rescue me.
I couldn't have fallen as I was being pressed in upon."
Did Matt Campbell attack his cousin Wendy?
Yes. The real life Philip Snedeker did attack his cousin, Tammy (Wendy). An ambulance took him to a
mental hospital where he remained for forty-five days. -CNN
Did their father really remove all the light bulbs from the home?
Morgue doors are still visible on the side
of the Southington, Connecticut house.
Yes, but not in the drunken manner depicted in the movie. After seeing the high electric bill, the real life
father, Allen Snedeker, concluded that this was because of the children sleeping with all the lights on and
removed the light bulbs to get control over the situation.
Did the real life Matt find bodies in the walls of the home?
No. The bodies in the walls were created by Hollywood to explain who was haunting the family and why.
Since the bodies had never been properly laid to rest, their souls remained trapped in the home,
struggling to get out and find peace.
Did the son really burn the house down?
Carmen Reed and her
daughter, Jennifer
No, the oldest son, Philip Snedeker, never tried to burn the house down. The filmmakers needed a
climactic way to release the demons from the home and created the fire for theatrical purposes.
According to the Snedeker family, an exorcism was performed on the house on September 6, 1988,
which brought closure to the spirits.
-MyRecordJournal.com
Did Philip Snedeker survive cancer?
Yes. During the treatments in Southington, Philip Snedeker’s cancer went into remission and has not
resurfaced since. He is now in his thirties, works as a trucker and has four children. -People
Is the house still haunted?
No. According to the current owner of the Southington home, Susan Trotta-Smith, the true story is that
the house is not haunted now and never was. “We’ve lived in the house for ten years. Our house is
wonderful,” Susan said. “This is all Hollywood foolishness. The stories are all ludicrous.” NBCConnecticut.com
Why do the Snedekers believe the house was haunted?
John Zaffis
Do to the disturbances in the household, the Snedeker family brought in paranormal researchers,
including John Zaffis, Ed Warren, and Lorraine Warren, to help pinpoint the problems. The researchers
believed that former funeral workers were guilty of necrophilia, which led to the evil presence. Carmen
later reported that former workers were found guilty of the crime, although we are unable to find
documentation regarding this claim. -AssociatedContent.com
How do the paranormal researchers feel about the movie's retelling?
Lorraine and Ed Warren
During an interview, Lorraine Warren commented on what she had heard about the movie, "I was also
told about scratching on the walls, blood and séances. That isn't the type of things that were occurring
within the house at all." (MyRecordJournal.com) Lorraine Warren put it simply when saying, “The movie is
very, very loosely based on the actual investigation.”
-NBCConnecticut.com
Haunting in Connecticut Behind the Movie
Interviews & Video
Watch video featuring interviews with the Snedeker family mother, Carmen Reed, portrayed by Virginia
Madsen in the movie. Included in the interviews are her niece Tammy, played by Amanda Crew, and the
famous paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were called in to work the real life
Southington haunting.
Haunting In Connecticut - Current Affair TV
Segment
This is the piece "A Current Affair" did on the alleged
haunted house that became the focus of the 2002
Discovery Channel documentary, "A Haunting in
Connecticut," which led to the 2009 movie.
Carmen Reed CNN Interview
The real life mom, portrayed by Virginia Madsen in
the feature film, talks about her family's experiences
that became the basis for The Haunting in
Connecticut movie.
The Entity Trailer
The real mother behind The Haunting in Connecticut
movie expressed that she endured bouts of demonic
possession similar to those experienced by the main
character in this 1983 Barbara Hershey movie.
Link-to-Learn More:
Carmen Reed's Haunting in Connecticut Story
Real Pictures from the Haunting
John Zaffis's Paranormal Research Society of New England
Official The Haunting in Connecticut Movie Website
About Southington, Connecticut
INSIDE STORY: The Real-Life Haunting
in Connecticut
BY OLIVER JONES
Saturday April 04, 2009 01:35 PM EDT
Carmen Reed
Lionsgate; Courtesy Carmen Reed
Put this on top of the list of things you don't want to hear your teenager say three hours after you move
into a new home: "Mom, this house is evil. We need to leave here right away!"
That Carmen Reed failed to heed her son's advice would one day haunt her. Literally, she says. And two
decades later, the time she and her family spent in that creepy old house on Meriden Ave. in Southington,
Conn., is the inspiration of the surprise hit movie The Haunting in Connecticut.
"It has been very emotional for me seeing that time in my life play out on the big screen," says Reed, now
54, of the two years in the 80s her family spent in a former funeral home while her son underwent
treatment for cancer at a nearby clinic.
The Man With Long Black Hair
According to Reed, while she, her then husband, her three kids and two nieces lived in the house, they
regularly experienced a malevolent force that took different forms and would on occasion slap, grope,
threaten or otherwise freak the heck out of them.
It began the night they moved in. "My son started seeing this young man with long black hair down all the
way to his hips," recalls Reid. "He would talk to my son every day. Sometimes he would threaten him,
other times he would stand there and just say his name, which was enough to scare him."
During the course of his treatment, Phillip's cancer went into complete remission. Now 35, he is a father
of four who makes his living as a trucker. But when he started claiming that someone, or something, was
trying to communicate with him, doctors diagnosed him with another problem: schizophrenia.
Reed remembers watching as her son started to play cruel jokes on family members, like locking his little
brother in a chest – and then forgetting that it ever happened. She eventually sent him to live with
relatives, and he immediately stopped hearing voices, she says.
A Spirit on the Stairway
With Phillip out of the house, Reed claims the dark forces turned their attention to her 18-year-old niece.
"One night, my niece said to me, 'Aunt Carmen, it's coming, can you feel it?'" Reed says her niece clung
to her in fear. "I peeled her back," she says, "and I saw the impression of a hand going up underneath her
nightshirt."
Says Reed: "That is when I knew for sure that what I was dealing with was supernatural."
Reed contacted her parish priest, then the local archdiocese, then a host of experts in the paranormal.
"Compared to that house, the other cases I had been involved with were like dealing with Casper the
Friendly Ghost," says researcher John Zaffis, who has spent the last 36 years investigating paranormal
phenomenon. One particularly memorable summer night, Zaffis claims to have seen a spirit descend the
main stair well and say to him, "Do you know what they did to us?"
"All I wanted to do was get my car keys and get the hell out of that house," Zaffis tells PEOPLE.
An Exorcism?
According to Reed and Zaffis two priests visited the home but became frightened and left. A third, whom
they do not name, was finally able to rid the house of its evil once and for all after a three-hour exorcism,
says Reed. (According to a 1992 article in the Hartford Courant, however, the local Roman Catholic
archdiocese said no authorized excorcism was conducted at the house.)
The house still stands in Southington, and the current owner has not reported any disturbing visions –
save for the rubbernecking tourists who drive by hoping to catch a glimpse of some ghouls.
As for Reed's family, they all report being sensitive to supernatural forces since their time in the creepy
house in Connecticut. Sometimes it serves them well, says Reed. "I sold real estate for a while," she
says. "If I wouldn’t sell you a house, you can bet it was because I knew it was haunted."
A Connecticut Haunting: The Reel Deal
By KYLE REYES
Updated 12:14 PM EST, Wed, Mar 11, 2009 | Print
Buzz up!
0diggsdigg
Lions Gate Publicity
On March 27, the movie “A Haunting in Connecticut” hits the theaters. And it's based on a true story.
Kind of.
Here’s how Lions Gate describes the film:
“When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian
home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where
inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner’s clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger,
providing a gateway for spiritual entities to crossover. Now unspeakable terror awaits, when Jonah,
the boy who communicated with the powerful dark forces of the supernatural, returns to unleash a new
kind of horror on the innocent and unsuspecting family.”
“Whhhaaaaatttt?!?!?!?”
That was the reaction of Lorraine Warren when she heard the synopsis.
Lorraine and her late husband, Ed, were the investigators in real life.
"It’s a case that was much, much scarier than any movie could ever be," Lorraine said. She also said that in
typical Hollywood fashion, the movie is about as far fetched from the actual case as it could be. “The
movie is very, very loosely based on the actual investigation,” she said.
And she’s not too thrilled with it, either.
“You don’t know how many phone calls I’m getting. It’s embarrassing. Do you know the amount of time
and effort that we put into that case? Do you know how many meetings with the clergy we had to finally
bring closure to the family?”
So we asked Lorraine to explain how it all really happened.
And as you might expect, the true story begins in the witching hour, in the wee small hours of the
morning.
“It was back in the ‘80’s. We were called, it was very late at night, that Ed and I were called by a woman
and her niece who were living with her at the time,” Lorraine said.
That family was the Snedekers. In the movie, they're known as the Campbells.
She said the family had moved into a house on Meriden Avenue in Southington while their son was being
treated for cancer at UConn. They wanted to find something close to the hospital so they could take him as
an outpatient. What they found – and bought – was a big and seemingly welcoming home.
“All they could see when they were going to rent this property was a big, airy place. That’s what it looked
like. But what they didn’t know was that it’s a former funeral home," Lorraine said.
Oh, and by the way, the morticians at the funeral home were allegedly involved in necrophilia, or
performing sex acts with corpses.
What used to be the show room for the coffins was now the kids room. Just down the hall? The place
where the bodies were prepared for viewing.
“The boys were the first to start talking about things they had seen and experienced, saying they were
terrified,” Lorraine said. “The parents were kind of chastising the kids – they thought it was all crazy. But
the kids were so scared they started sleeping on the floor in the living room.”
Among the sounds the kids would hear were the sound of chains pulling the coffins upstairs. Only thing
was… there were no coffins.
“The night that the mother and the niece called us, they were really terrified,” said Lorraine. “Her niece
was in a small bedroom in the back and the covers on her bed were levitating around her like there was a
fan blowing them around.”
Lorraine said while the mother was on the phone with her, even more bizarre events started happening.
“The mother had rosary beads in her hand. They were in the kitchen talking to us and the beads were
actually being pulled apart in her hand and falling to the floor.”
Lorraine and Ed went over the next morning with the family’s parish priest. Lorraine said even HE was
scared. A blessing of the house seemed to do nothing to calm things down, she said.
“You really felt for this family. We tried everything to keep them comfortable. You can’t say to a family
that has a sick son in the house that you have to just move on,” she said.
That’s when the Warrens decided to call in the big guns.
“It finally got to the point where we contacted the bishop’s office in Hartford. Thank God he was very open
to our work and what was going on. He sent two priests to the house and both of these priests were very
high in the church. One had been used as an exorcist. They came to the house and said mass.”
But during that mass, Ed, who had recently suffered a heart attack, started having severe heart
palpitations.
Enough was enough.
“Both priests wrote a letter to the bishop saying an exorcist was needed, and they didn’t want to do it,”
said Lorraine. “These were powerful forces at work.”
She said the church sent an exorcist, which seemed to do the trick. But not before one last “hurrah” from
whatever was believed to be haunting the house.
“When the exorcism happened, a crazy thing also happened that we still don’t really understand,” she
said. “There was a huge tree in front of the house – and half of the tree, with no wind, broke off and fell on
the property.”
The family moved a short time later.