David O'ConnellThe Messengers
September 12th 2008 03:08
After the critical acclaim of the The Eye, made in their homeland, Hong Kong twins Danny and Oxide Pang were given a shot at making their English-language horror debut, with the financial backing of Sam Raimi and Ghost House Pictures.
The result is the stylish but generic The Messengers, which fails to distinguish itself, script wise, from a thousand other haunted house stories before it. The superior craft is present, in terms of the manipulative skills of the Pang brothers, but it all falls apart inevitably under the weight of cliché and a depressing sense of déjà vu.
Dylan McDermott is Roy Solomon who drags his family – wife Denise (Penelope Ann Miller), daughter Jesse (Kristen Stewart) and young son Ben (Evan and Theodore Turner) out of the rat race in Chicago to a scenic farm in North Dakota, to plant sunflowers and wipe away their debt! (Sunflower seeds must be huge business in Hicksville!)
The prologue, in black and white, reveals what happened to the previous residents and the horrible fate that befell them. Avenging spirits are lurking in the house and young Ben seems to be the first to sense their presence; it’s not long though before Jesse becomes the centre of attention, all manner of creepy occurrences starting up which only she can see.
Typically with by-the-numbers horror films, no one else believes a word of what she’s saying and because she’s a troubled teen, her visions can be written off as part of some adolescent attention-seeking.
Things progress predictably, with John Burwell (John Corbett), a friendly drifter, soon helping out on the farm and living on the family’s property for meals but no pay.
There are plenty of very skillfully staged moments of fright in The Messengers, with the Pangs showing that they’ve lost none of their deft touch with showy visuals. The crisp colour palette is evocative too, giving the appearance of a homely farm with an off-putting sense of dread lurking just beneath the normality.
And there’s some other random horror goodness to savor here, like demented crows, a gross recurring stain on a wall, and a scuttling baby gargoyle!
But ultimately the script teases, going nowhere interesting or new after a decent set-up, and though Stewart, who has more screen time than anyone else, and McDermott, are very good, they’re mired in bad dialogue, plot holes and nonsensical developments.
The excellent score by regular visitor to this genre - and Sam Raimi productions - Joseph LoDuca (Evil Dead trilogy) raises the quality of the film somewhat, especially his pastoral but ominous lullaby-like main theme, but still can’t save The Messengers from being a disappointment overall. There’s no logical development or build-up to the scary moments, with no gradual sense of unease generated – there are as many shocks in the first half as in the second.
There’s no denying its watchability however, and I freely admit I could handle this again in the not-too-distant future, but the patchwork screenplay is an amalgam of so many other better films.
Let’s hope the Pang brothers are given an opportunity to work with much fresher material in future if they return to horror film making. Even their upcoming Bangkok Dangerous with Nic Cage (a remake of their first film) looks a bit dubious.
Here's an original trailer:
The result is the stylish but generic The Messengers, which fails to distinguish itself, script wise, from a thousand other haunted house stories before it. The superior craft is present, in terms of the manipulative skills of the Pang brothers, but it all falls apart inevitably under the weight of cliché and a depressing sense of déjà vu.
Dylan McDermott is Roy Solomon who drags his family – wife Denise (Penelope Ann Miller), daughter Jesse (Kristen Stewart) and young son Ben (Evan and Theodore Turner) out of the rat race in Chicago to a scenic farm in North Dakota, to plant sunflowers and wipe away their debt! (Sunflower seeds must be huge business in Hicksville!)
The prologue, in black and white, reveals what happened to the previous residents and the horrible fate that befell them. Avenging spirits are lurking in the house and young Ben seems to be the first to sense their presence; it’s not long though before Jesse becomes the centre of attention, all manner of creepy occurrences starting up which only she can see.
Typically with by-the-numbers horror films, no one else believes a word of what she’s saying and because she’s a troubled teen, her visions can be written off as part of some adolescent attention-seeking.
Barns are always creepy places in horror movies!
Things progress predictably, with John Burwell (John Corbett), a friendly drifter, soon helping out on the farm and living on the family’s property for meals but no pay.
There are plenty of very skillfully staged moments of fright in The Messengers, with the Pangs showing that they’ve lost none of their deft touch with showy visuals. The crisp colour palette is evocative too, giving the appearance of a homely farm with an off-putting sense of dread lurking just beneath the normality.
And there’s some other random horror goodness to savor here, like demented crows, a gross recurring stain on a wall, and a scuttling baby gargoyle!
That wall stain is getting worse
But ultimately the script teases, going nowhere interesting or new after a decent set-up, and though Stewart, who has more screen time than anyone else, and McDermott, are very good, they’re mired in bad dialogue, plot holes and nonsensical developments.
Kristen - please don't go down in the cellar!!!
The excellent score by regular visitor to this genre - and Sam Raimi productions - Joseph LoDuca (Evil Dead trilogy) raises the quality of the film somewhat, especially his pastoral but ominous lullaby-like main theme, but still can’t save The Messengers from being a disappointment overall. There’s no logical development or build-up to the scary moments, with no gradual sense of unease generated – there are as many shocks in the first half as in the second.
There’s no denying its watchability however, and I freely admit I could handle this again in the not-too-distant future, but the patchwork screenplay is an amalgam of so many other better films.
Let’s hope the Pang brothers are given an opportunity to work with much fresher material in future if they return to horror film making. Even their upcoming Bangkok Dangerous with Nic Cage (a remake of their first film) looks a bit dubious.
Here's an original trailer:
A family in peril
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