Cinematic Haunts #6 – Behind The Haunting In Connecticut
The residents of 208 Meriden Avenue in Southington, Connecticut are pissed, and I can’t say I blame them. Recently, the two story, five bedroom white wood-frame house has become a rubbernecker magnet, drawing curious looky-loos and paranormal nerds from miles around. The driveway and avenue beyond have become clogged with cars slowing down for a look at the house that the current owners purchased ten years earlier. What had once been a quiet suburban neighborhood is now a circus of ghost story enthusiasts. Why? Because 208 Meriden Avenue is the site of the Haunting In Connecticut, a grisly tale of violent ghosts and demonic entities first told in book form in 1994 under the title “In A Dark Place” by Ray Garton, then featured as the pilot episode of the Discovery Channel’s hit series “A Haunting” and now a feature film from Lionsgate which hit theaters just this past Friday, starring Virginia Madsen and Elias Koteas.
Susan Trotta-Smith, the current matriarch of the notorious home, is displeased with the attention her house has been attracting as of late, and understandably so. I can’t imagine being under constant scrutiny and surveillance, without a safe port to flee to. Stressed to the max, Trotta-Smith has stated that no paranormal activities have occurred within the house since she and her husband purchased it a decade earlier. In short: there’s nothing to see there, folks. Have some respect for their privacy. If you want to see ghosts, YouTube has the entire Haunting episode uploaded in 9 parts for your free viewing pleasure, or you can go to the damn movies. I wouldn’t try and obtain the book though: last time I checked, a used copy was selling for nearly $300 which is about as ridiculous as hanging out in someone’s driveway hoping to see dead people.
The first I heard about the experiences of the Snedeker family was sometime in the 80s. The family had appeared on one of those afternoon talk shows like Merv Griffin or Mike Douglas, I don’t remember who. The details of their two years time in a former funeral home were chilling indeed, from the discovery of mortuary tools in the basement to several members of the family claiming to have been raped and sodomized by an unseen force. But were they true? That’s a question which is still very much open for debate.
The facts are these: 208 Meriden Avenue was once the site of a funeral home. Sometime during the 1980s, the Snedeker family, originally from upstate New York, were looking for a home closer to the Connecticut hospital where their eldest son was being treated for cancer. The house on Meriden Avenue was just a few minutes drive to the medical facilities and the family of six moved in once renovations were completed. Having discovered the embalming tools and realizing what the room had originally been used for, Al and Carmen decided it was best to keep the history of the house from their children, so as not to scare them. Their eldest son (identified as Paul in the Discovery Channel show, as Matt in the recent film and as Stephen in the actual family reports – so take your pick, I guess) moved into the spacious basement bedroom, conveniently located right next to the former embalming room. Hey, good job keeping the house’s history from the kids, there.
Apparently, the paranormal activity began almost immediately and included whispery voices, shadowy figures walking around the embalming room late at night and unexplained blood stains on the kitchen floor. Paul-Matt-Stephen began to withdraw from his family, becoming moody and depressed and isolating himself in his basement room. Sounds like a typical fourteen year old boy to me. As his physical condition improved, his mental state declined. The activity in the house escalated into physical violence with family members being touched while they slept, attacked while they showered and possessed in the presence of onlookers. According to the Discovery Channel episode, some of these attacks were perpetrated by Paul (or Matt, or Steve) himself, but there’s no verification of this. He was eventually removed from the house following what seemed to be a sexual attack on his cousin, and was institutionalized. It was then, the family claims, that the demonic presence shifted its attention from him to the other family members, taking possession of Al’s truck and nearly running him over, and possessing mom Carmen for eight hours at a stretch. Religious items, such as crosses and rosaries, went missing or were yanked from the necks of those who wore them.
After suffering through a few spectral rapes, the family called in Ed and Lorraine Warren, the parapsychological team who had also investigated the Amityville Horror case. According to Lorraine, the house was infested with demons…but, quite frankly, Lorraine seems to say this a lot and her authenticity is still hotly debated. Some sources claim that the Warrens never set foot in the house on Meriden, although Lorraine claims to have spent the night there and experienced odd sounds not unlike the chain hoist once used to bring coffins up from the cellar show room.
Following a seance/exorcism in 1988, the Warrens claimed that the house had been cleared of all paranormal activity, which would explain why the current owners have not reported any phenomena. But the legitimacy of the story remains up in the air. Author Ray Garton, who was contracted to write a book about the events, claimed that the family’s reports of the events did not match up and, upon approaching Ed Warren with his concerns about the inconsistencies, was told by Ed to just “make it up and make it scary.” Ed, who passed away in 2006, obviously can no longer be reached for comment…hm, or can he? First person who makes contact via the Ouija gets a gold star from me.
The Snedeker family and Lorraine Warren maintain that the stories they told were nothing but the truth, and for all I know they may very well be. But the answers are not to be found at 208 Meriden Avenue. Not anymore, anyway. It’s still too early to say whether or not The Haunting In Connecticut is worth the ticket price, but I’ll definitely be checking it out once it’s released on DVD, reviews be damned. However, I have no plans to go seeking answers on Meriden Avenue, and neither should anyone else. Seriosuly, people – the Trotta-Smiths don’t have any answers, and gawking at a private residence isn’t going to shed any light on this case. Stop wasting money on gas and just go see the damn movie. Oh, and let me know how it is, will ya?
