The Haunting in Connecticut Ending Explained: Matt Sets the Spirits Free

The Haunting in Connecticut is a horror movie with the most cliché story ever: a family moves into a new home where they are haunted by spirits. It is a partially true story. 

The film revolves around a young cancer patient, Matt, and his family, who move to a new house to be closer to Matt’s medical facility. 

After moving, Matt starts to have disturbing visions that his family initially attributes to his cancer treatments. However, they soon discover that the basement of the house was once used as a mortuary and that the house is infested with malevolent spirits. 

Shortly after changing homes, Matt starts seeing things. His parents, Sara and Peter, disregard his visions at first, thinking they are a result of his treatment. However, things get ugly, and Matt and his parents are forced to reconsider. 

At the end of the film, Matt finally manages to get rid of the spirits and move out of the cursed house after setting it on fire. The end title card mentions that the house was rebuilt later, and future residents did not complain about any peculiar incident in the house, indicating that Matt successfully set the spirits free. 

1. How are the evil spirits defeated? Who defeats them? 

Matt realizes that if he wants to get rid of the dark spirits, he must defeat them himself. Matt finally manages to get rid of them.

Matt runs away from his medical facility and goes to his cursed home, where he breaks the walls of the house with an axe. By breaking the walls, he frees several corpses that have been locked within the walls for years. After that, he sets the house on fire to free the souls of the cursed spirits. 

He sets the house on fire because after talking to Nicholas, another patient in his hospital, he finds out that many people died in a fire that had occurred in the house years ago. By setting the house on fire again, Matt manages to free the souls of the dark spirits trapped in the house’s walls. 

More than what he did, Matt’s empathy towards the victims and his understanding of the tragedy in the house helped him free the spirits. 

2. How was Matt cured of cancer?

The Haunting in Connecticut does not explain why Matt’s cancer was cured miraculously after burning the house down. 

As per Matt’s mother, Sara, it was God’s own way of healing his son because he did a good deed by freeing the spirits. She believed that God worked his magic to cure his son miraculously. 

However, the theme of the film points to another interpretation. Matt could relate to the pain and suffering of the trapped victims in the house, so it was easier for him to empathize with them. This is the reason why only Nicholas and he could see the visions. 

When Matt sets the home on fire and helps the cursed souls find freedom, he also relieves himself from pain. As he helps many cursed souls get rid of their pain, he is able to get rid of his own pain as well. 

3. Is Peter’s alcoholism cured in the film? 

There’s no clear indication about Peter and how he deals with his alcoholism in the film. However, the film indicates that he is ready to try harder and heal himself for his wife and son through one scene. 

One night, Sara scolds Peter for his awful behavior after coming home drunk. This scene is followed by another crucial scene where Peter listens to an old voice recording of Matt where he tells him that he is excited for his father to attend parent visiting day at his summer camp. 

Matt’s tape makes Peter rethink his life decisions, and the film indicates that he wants to be a better father to Matt. He seems to be eager to work on his alcoholism. The film does not follow up on this, so we are not sure what happened in the end, but let’s think of it in a positive light for now! 

4. How is Jonah involved in the hauntings? 

While Jonah initially appears to be an evil character in the film who is responsible for Matt’s visions, it is finally revealed that he is also a victim. 

Jonah was actually used to hold seances by a mortician named Ramsey Aickman. Ramsey was tying the cursed spirit to the haunted house, which was the reason for Matt’s visions. 

During the séance, everyone is burned down, but Aickman asks Jonah to run away before he succumbs to the fire as well. However, while trying to escape, Jonah is dragged back into the house and killed in the fire. As a result, he remains trapped in the house with the other spirits. 

5. Is The Haunting in Connecticut a true story? 

The Haunting in Connecticut is loosely based on a true story. It is based on Ray Garton’s book, titled “In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting,” which in turn is said to be based on a true story. 

The story is based on the real-life incidents involving the Snedeker family, who shifted to a new home in Connecticut in 1986. Their son, Philip, had cancer, like Matt in the film. However, his cancer was apparently in remission, unlike Matt’s condition. 

Unlike in the film, Philip was diagnosed with schizophrenia after he complained of paranormal visions. Philip’s parents even sent him away to live with other relatives because he would play disgusting pranks on his parents and later forget about it. 

However, there are many inconsistencies in the Snedeker family’s stories. Many believe that they made up the entire thing to earn money after seeing how the Lutz family earned money after sharing their paranormal experiences for the Amityville Horror books and films. 

Garton himself agrees that the Snedeker family’s reports were inconsistent and that he made up most of the story. In other words, it is a stretch to call The Haunting in Connecticut a true story given that it is so inconsistent and there’s no proof of the paranormal activities being real. 

6. About The Haunting in Connecticut

The Haunting in Connecticut is a 2009 supernatural horror film produced by Gold Circle Films and directed by Peter Cornwell. The film is alleged to be about Carmen Snedeker and her family, though Ray Garton, author of In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting (1992), has publicly distanced himself from the accuracy of the events he depicted in the book.

The film’s story follows the fictional Campbells as they move into a house (a former mortuary) to mitigate the strains of travel on their cancer-stricken son, Matt. The family soon becomes haunted by violent and traumatic events from supernatural forces occupying the house.