Thaindian News

The horror film, depicting the alleged haunting of a former funeral parlor in central Connecticut is turning into a nightmare for the home’s current owners and their neighbours.

The movie releases this Friday but the fans are already making a beeline for the Southington home that inspired the movie.

It’s just been really, really stressful,’ said Susan Trotta-Smith, who bought the home 10 years ago with her husband. ‘It’s been a total change from a very quiet house in a very quiet neighbourhood to looking out the window and seeing cars stopping all the time. It’s been very, very stressful, and sometimes worrisome.’

The family has never seen anything unusual inside their five-bedroom, two-family white wood-frame house and does not believe the property was haunted.

‘It’s got beautiful woodwork, and there is a nice warm feeling to the house,’ Ms Trotta-Smith said. ‘Because it was a funeral home, the upstairs apartment is much more spacious. It’s like two full houses, and it has a beautiful yard, too.’

The movie, starring Virginia Madsen and Kyle Gallner and released by Lionsgate, is loosely based on stories that revolved around the house in the 1980s.

The residents at the time, the Snedeker family, claimed their son would hear strange noises in his basement bedroom, which once held casket displays and was near the old embalming room. He also claimed to see shadows on the wall of people who were not there. A niece visiting the home said she felt hands on her body as she tried to sleep, and her covers levitated.

The family brought in Ed and Lorraine Warren, self-described paranormal researchers, who became famous for documenting the alleged ‘Amityville Horror’ haunting of a home on Long Island. Lorraine Warren says she felt an evil presence in the Southington home and experienced the haunting herself when she spent a night there.