The Real Haunting in Connecticut begins with Carmen Reed and her family, as they move into a new rental house at 208 Meriden Avenue in Southington Connecticut. Just as the movie depicts, they had rented a home closer to the hospital because one of the Reeds sons was suffering from hodgkins lymphoma and they family felt that they should be closer for his treatments. The rent was surprisingly cheap and the family was trying to save all of the money that they could.
It wasn’t long before things started to take a turn towards darkness for the Reed family. The mother, Carmen, was getting familiar with their new home when she stumbled upon something very disturbing. She had found old pictures of what looked like dead people. The people in the strange photographs were placed in coffins or propped up. This was very common after death in the past and was usually done at funeral homes. Many people were never photographed until their fateful date with the local funeral parlor, as cameras were not as common or as simple to use as they are today. Carmen also found things such as toe tags. This was disturbing enough to Carmen that she hid the photographs and disposed of them so that her family would never know. After all, they were under enough stress recently.
It wasn’t long until other things were found in the basement, which served as an embalming room and coffin storage. Morticians tools and instruments were found and the gurney used to place bodies on was even discovered. Soon the entire family knew they were living in what used to be a funeral home.
This is where Hollywood and reality part ways. The movie does a great job of explaining why things started to happen in the Reed home, but other than a few things taken directly from The Reed family themselves, it isn’t very accurate. As a matter of fact it doesn’t even mention key parts of the story. Although The Real Haunting In Connecticut is even more creepy and sinister.
The family reported seeing apparitions or visions of demons throughout the house. The two most prominent were an old man who appeared to be pale and thin with long black hair and glasses and a gray haired man in a pinstriped tuxedo. The son, Matt, did start to undergo a drastic personality change and reportedly attacked his cousin who was living with the family. Although some say it was his medication that caused him to hallucinate, the Doctors who were treating Matt say that it was not his medication. An old trap door was found inside the master bedroom, which was used many years before as a way to hoist coffins up from the basement. The Reed family reported hearing those chains drag many times, as if coffins were still being hoisted to the room above. The scene in the movie where water turned to blood while Carmen Reed was mopping is also an alleged Real event that took place in the Connecticut home. Dishes were also moved and broken without being touched and family members reported being “assaulted” in the worst way by unseen forces.
Many people believe that the Reed home was haunted by powerful ghosts and spirits. Others, including the Reeds believe that something even darker resided inside the home on 208 Meriden Ave. Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were both expert Demonologists were called to help The Reed family with their ongoing nightmare. Ed and Lorraine Warren were prominent figures in the paranormal world and had both worked on the wildly popular Amityville case, which was also later made into a film.
Rather than a fire being started by one of the sons (which was totally inaccurate and pure Hollywood) It was with the help of the Warrens that an exorcism was performed that finally rid the house of it’s unwanted inhabitants. The “Jonah” character was also completely fictional. No reports of demons, ghosts or other paranormal activity has been reported since. So was there a Real Haunting In Connecticut? The Reeds say yes. What do you think?
Carmen Reed travels the country telling her story these days and many frequently asked questions reagrding The Haunting In Connecticut can be answered here at Reed’s own site The Haunting In Connecticut
