#snedeker

What Happened To The Snedeker Family?

Like most films toting the tagline ‘based on a true story’, The Haunting In Connecticut has many sins to bear.

According to the plot of the 2009 horror-hit, a family moves closer to a local hospital to ensure their son has access to cancer treatment. Of course the eldest son with cancer ends up taking the basement room. And - of course - there’s a mysterious door down there.

*Cue violent visions of an old man and corpses with occultish symbols carved into their skin*

They find out it’s actually an old funeral home, and that creepy old door (yes, the one that should’ve had ‘em runnin’ for the hills) homes a mortuary.

They then discover a box of old photos which gives a bit more backstory: the story goes that this guy, Ramsey Aickman, ran the funeral home and was into ghosts (ha, what weirdo would be interested in the paranormal?). He hired a juvenile medium to help him connect with spirits during seances he would host. But it turns out that at one seance, all of the attendees died and Jonah - the medium - went missing.

Basically, Aickman was practicing necromancy to bind the dead to the house and ‘amp up’ the seances. Is it then revealed that the seance that killed everyone and made Jonah disappear was due to a demonic presence. Having killed everyone else, it chased him through the house and burnt him alive in the crematorium.

Jonah then possesses Matt and attempts to burn down the house to get rid of the spirits and other entities that linger. The film ends by letting us know Matt’s cancer disappeared, and that the house was rebuilt.

So, Did Any Of This Actually Happen?

Took place in the late 80s? Check.

Their son had a serious illness and they needed a cheap rental to be near the hospital? Check.

The house had a dark twisted history of Necromancy and Spiritualist rituals? Nope.

But I think we can all agree that the Snedeker’s tale is far more terrifying.

Their eldest son did indeed witness terrifying visions, but his parents also experienced a multitude of horrific acts with a supposedly supernatural cause: they frequently claimed they had been raped by invisible entities, and one day Carmen - the mother - even saw the soapy water she was using to mop the floor turn blood red and smell of decaying flesh.

Although the book and film don’t match up, the movie might fit better in The Conjuring universe. That’s right - Ed and Lorraine Warren offered up their demonologist expertise. But not only did they prescribe an exorcism, they gave the author of a book inspired by the true story some worthy advice:

“Oh, they're crazy… You've got some of the story — just use what works and make the rest up… Just make it up and make it scary.”

This quote gives the whole game away. 

A game that some believe could be reduced to a cocktail of drugs and mental health problems. The son - yeah, the one who witnessed a majority of the activity - was supposedly on something for the whole duration of it. And the family claimed they experienced this violent activity for two whole years before deciding to finally leave the house.

And with the Amityville Horror spinning a similar tale with a hefty price tag attached, there may have been another motive at hand. That being said, I think this has less malicious intent than it is made out to be:

A big family trying to juggle American medical bills? Walter White might be more accurate than Haunting in Connecticut.

Ok - so there’s no Aickman and there's no Jonah. No occult rituals took place here, and no corpses lined the walls. But what the film did get right is their portrayal of necromancy.

Which, yeah, ok, that’s bad cause this shit is trau-f*cking-matic.

What Is Necromancy?

For those that don’t spend their Saturday nights raising the dead, necromancy is the practice of magic that involves communicating with those from beyond the grave. You could be summoning them like soldiers for an army, you could be using them for divination purposes. Whatever you’re doing, it has a bad reputation.

Also known as ‘Death Magic’, it is considered the epitome of black magic.

Unfortunately, like most cultural traditions spanning the beginning of time, pinpointing the exact practices is near impossible. But we do know that magic circles, wands, talismans, incantations, and the mutation of corpses were fundamental to the process.

(I know, not vague at all.)

The film closely follows Medieval necromancy in particular. This includes symbols and letters that merge Christian and Occult ideas being drawn, the belief that conjuration allows demons to communicate with and enter our realm, and the need for sacrifices of the human flesh to complete the rituals.

The mutation of the corpses is pretty significant in this film - but it’s the eyelids that were carefully dissected off of them which really matters here:

In one instance, for example, a Parisian ecclesiastical court record of the 14th century claims "[a] group who were plotting to invoke the demon Berich from inside a circle made from strips of cat skin".

The Haunting in Connecticut completes the portrayal by bringing us back to the modern use of necromancy: modern-day spiritualism and seances.

So the film gives us a rather graphic whistle-stop tour of raising the dead for personal reasons. Unfortunately, the retelling of what the Snedeker’s experienced, on the other hand, does not earn such praise.

"The family involved, which was going through some serious problems like alcoholism and drug addiction, could not keep their story straight, and I became very frustrated; it's hard writing a non-fiction book when all the people involved are telling you different stories."

The Snedeker family might not have encountered a house scarred by necromancy, but some other people have witnessed their own share of experiences in former funeral homes.

The 5 Other Haunted Funeral Homes You Don’t Want To Visit

#1 - Jacob’s Funeral Home, Indiana (USA)

As with all buildings, flickering lights and settling sounds are common. Whilst they might not always point to the paranormal, the person who moved into this former funeral home in 2000 was certainly convinced of it.

Dark shadows and a moving black fog that wafted through rooms at night was the primary cause of concern. Then, lights would click on and off on their own, and the water fossetts would do the same.

It escalated when they decided to remodel the house - builders came in and claimed they heard a high-pitched drilling sound coming from the basement. That same day a psychic was called.

The medium stuck to a vague narrative, claiming the remodelling shouldn’t occur or the spirits in the funeral home would be stirred. She said there were people in the community that would be best forgotten.

“You sir are playing with fire”

Not convinced by the answer, they then rung a local preacher. They claimed this wasn’t a spiritual haunting but a demonic presence. The moment he began the exorcism/blessing of the home to cleanse the presence, things got crazy.

The activity spiked, with lights turning on and off at an alarming rate, and the residents experiencing light headedness when they walked into different rooms.

Eventually, the homeowners decided to stay in the house but remove the items to rid themselves of the spirits or demons attached to them.

#2 - Annison Funeral Parlour, Hull (UK)

The funeral home business will never run out of customers. It’s for this reason that they typically are historic features of town. But this Hull haunted hotspot bucks the trend. This funeral parlour was effectively abandoned 30 years ago, with the embalming room and mortuary being left just as it was 3 decades ago.

With a history spanning over 100 years, it was sure to have seen many spirits pass through, classing it as the most haunted building in Yorkshire. And the staff working in the pharmacy below can only confirm this.

In fact, one of the spirits causing such problems is rather famous.

Mary Jane Langley was murdered in 1891. She had visited a local photography studio to have a portrait taken, but never returned home. She was found dead with a slit throat.

No one was charged - but it is believed she might’ve been yet another victim of Jack The Ripper.

To this day she is reportedly seen by the visitors and staff who still tend to the building.

#3 - House of Wills, Cleveland (USA)

This building is nothing short of incredible: it was one of the longest running African-American businesses, it started out as a club or concert hall, and it was a speakeasy during the prohibition.

But only in the 1940s did it take the form of a funeral home.

With elaborately decorated viewing areas and chapels that belonged to the Jazz Age, this took the form of a rather peculiar and downright creepy-looking location by today’s standards. One of these rooms is even decorated with Egyptian motifs and designs, with engraved columns and sphinx sculptures guarding the room where you would say you’re final goodbyes to loved ones.

It was abandoned for many years with plans of renovation only entering discussions recently.

Despite claims of paranormal activity, there is little actual information on the potential spirits that could be haunting this location. Just like Pennshurst Asylum, the number of deceased people that would’ve passed through suggests it must still home some lingering ghosts. But, just like Pennshurst Asylum, it’s abandoned aesthetic has informed the paranormal activity that YouTubers seek for instant views.

If anything, House of Wills deserves attention and intrigue down to its incredible history rather than its current disarray.

#4 - Castle House, Missouri (USA)

So you’re telling me this was once a funeral home and a hospital? And there’s a graveyard out back? Oh boy.

A number of TV shows and paranormal investigators have searched the house for lonely spirits unable to pass on, and it seems that they often found exactly what they were looking for.

Like most funeral homes, the actual names, dates, and identification of the spirits haunting the location are impossible due to the sheer potential volume, but this is still an incredible location nonetheless.

#5 - Kehoe Mansion, Georgia (USA)

A classic romantic BnB in a classic paranormal hotspot.

It’s the ultimate bae-cation.

Built in 1892, Kehoe mansion was a family owned funeral home. And two of the family members - the young Kehoe children - are often sighted by those staying in the BnB.

According to legend, the young children got stuck in the chimney. The mother returned to discover the children were nowhere to be found, but noticed an ungodly smell.

To this day the sounds of children playing and the whiff of perfume (don’t worry, it’s not the scent of burning flesh) is often reported by visitors. Grabbing hands are also reported, suggesting that both a residual haunting - where events from the past replay - and intelligent hauntings - where spirits interact with the living - take place.

Theories of the supernatural are intricate, evolving, and rooted in pseudo-science. But it’s a simple principle: if there’s a lotta of dead people, there’s likely to be a lotta paranormal.

Do you have a story about a haunted funeral home? I want to hear it! DM me your ghost stories, whether they take place in a funeral parlour or not.