You’re a haunted house movie fan and you think you’ve seen it all, right? Family moves into a house. Family thinks house is perfect. Onlookers cringe knowing that said house is anything but. One family member starts having terrifying experiences. Rest of the family thinks it’s a personal problem (like eating too many wasabi peas). Rest of family begins sharing these experiences. Family freaks. Ghosts come out to play. People may/may not die or ghost may/may not get evicted. You’ve seen this formula three-hundred times over, and yet, you still hope for some film to come along and make it new for you.

With The Haunting in Connecticut in theaters today we caught up with director Peter Cornwell to discuss his new ghost feature and the state of haunted-house movies as a whole. Hit the jump to see what Cornwell had to say about why this haunted-house flick is different, what cut scenes will resurface on the DVD, and The Haunting in Connecticut 2!

What drew you to The Haunting in Connecticut?
I really like ghost stories. I was looking at haunted house movies and there really haven’t been that many and I was trying to think about a really different back-story and the reasoning why the ghost is in the house. It’s really different. It wasn’t a ghost story about a house built on an Indian burial ground or something. This one, after they moved in, they realized that the house used to be a funeral home. You’ll see in the film [that] some pretty messed up stuff went down in the basement.

As the story unfolds, the mystery of what is in the house comes together and even if you figure it out, there are more layers to the story.

What do you think it is about the paranormal that is so terrifying to people and has helped the haunted house subgenre survive?
I think it’s all about things we don’t understand. If ghost happenings completely made sense, I don’t think it would be creepy anymore. It’s the fact that we don’t understand it and that it doesn’t make sense that makes it creepy.

Pre-The Haunting in Connecticut, could you talk about some of the haunted house movies that completely freaked you out?
I remember being scared seeing The Haunting from Robert Wise—the same guy that did The Sound of Music [laughs]. He had an amazing way of creating ghosts where you never see the ghost. You hear them off screen and know they are there. In your mind you are creating what you are scared of. I think it’s an awesome thing. It’s the difference of being scared of the guy with the knife around the corner about to kill you because you are looking out for the guy with the knife. If there’s something supernatural around the corner and you’re not sure what it is, your brain is working harder. It’s kind of creepy, and I really like that.

Would you say films like The Haunting inspired you on this film?
Yeah. Of course classic films like The Shining and The Exorcist inspired; but after The Ring came out in Japan, there was a whole wave of supernatural films. There was a whole new school of ghost stories.

In American ghost stories, traditionally, the ghosts would show up to warn people about something. These ghosts in Japanese films, you saw it and it killed you. That’s pretty creepy, I thought. They had a different tone to them and a new way of creating different scares.

So that was an influence I guess. At the same time we are doing an American ghost story, so I think we’ve come up with some weird stuff that’s completely different.

Do we actually get a good look at the ghosts in this film? They are alluded to in the trailers and in that creepy ectoplasm poster…
In my film, yeah. It’s pretty hard to make a film these days where you don’t see [ghosts]—I guess [in] Blair Witch Project or The Mothman Prophecies you don’t. In my film, you see some ghosts. They stay creepy though because you don’t really know what’s going on.

Was there anything you absolutely loved that you had to cut for one reason or another?
Well, there was the helicopter chase scene that blew up a couple of bridges… [Laughs.] I’m kidding. We did shoot a couple of scenes just for pacing. It’s funny because when you’re watching the whole film, each scene can be great by itself and then you watch the full film and the scenes that were taken away made the film better, so I didn’t really miss them. They’ll be on the deleted scenes, so it wasn’t a complete waste because people will still get to see them.

There was one moment in the film that we had to trim for PG-13 just to get the rating. We went back and forth with the rating, but I think we are as close as you can get to an R while being PG-13. Ironically, I think in the exploration of how to cut around stuff, we actually made it even scarier than it was before. If you look at things like The Ring, they are PG-13 and are terrifying. When it’s a ghost film as well, you don’t need as much blood or sex.

But we’ll see those scenes on the DVD…
Yeah. There will be an unrated DVD version as well. But I think the real way to see this film is in the cinema opening weekend. At screenings we’ve had people just screaming through the whole thing.

The haunted house subgenre is pretty diverse. As a fan/director, what is scarier to you: demonic possession or straight-up ghosts?
I think it depends. I think both, depending on the individual movie. There are films like The Exorcist, but then there’s films like The Ring, where it’s a scary ghost and she’s not possessed – she’s an evil ghost.

There’s also the notion of the haunted house versus the haunted hotel. What’s scarier: a haunting in your own home or a haunting in a strange place where you’ve just arrived?
I think there’s something you can really identify with in a family that lives in a house and slowly starts to see strange things happen. Your home is supposed to be the safest and most comfortable place. If you thought your own home could turn against you or be a portal to another world with the most evil things, [that] has a primal aspect to it, if we really tap into our primal fears.

So what is scarier: the ghost of someone you knew or the ghost of someone unknown?
I think the ghost of someone you don’t know because God knows what made them that way.

What is your personal biggest fear?
Doctors and lawyers. Someone you are going to be at the mercy of someone who will cut you open. [Laughs.]

And that could be a doctor or a lawyer that cuts in…
Right! [Laughs.] The lawyer, we’re all going to face something with them at some point.

Anything else fans might want to look out for?
I did a short film for Xbox Live. It’s a series of little shorts, where horror directors like James Wan and David Slade each did a little short-comedy. I did one that I had a lot of fun making. It’s after the apocalypse, and this guy, he’s the delivery man, so… “What are people going to do for pizza after the apocalypse?” Being the pizza delivery guy is one of the most dangerous jobs. He has to fight his way to deliver the pizza, and it’s a lot of fun. Action-packed silliness.

Any chance we’ll see The Haunting in Connecticut 2?
I think we couldn't do a sequel set in the same house. There’s the original documentary and it became a full series with maybe fifty haunted houses, so I think if there was a follow-up it would be more of a cousin than a direct sequel.

So you’d like to be involved?
I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it but I’m waiting to see how The Haunting in Connecticut goes. I think it would be really fun to do something with a bit of action in it. The primary thing is whatever I do is a good story.