Movie Review: The Messengers

The Messengers

I've told you more than once that I like horror movies. With little else to see this weekend in theatres, it only made sense, then, that I'd choose to see The Messengers. Although I can't pretend it was the scariest movie ever, or the most original horror flick in history, it had its moments...

The Messengers opens with flashes of a screaming family as they're horribly killed one by one. But a moment later, the day is sunny and everything appears perfectly ordinary as Roy (Dylan McDermott) moves his family from Chicago to the rural farm fields of North Dakota. His wife, Denise (Penelope Ann Miller) seems supportive of the move; his teen daughter, Jess (Kristen Stewart) is significantly less so. His toddler son Ben (Theodore Turner), of course, appears happy enough merely to be going for a ride.

Roy has spent the family's savings to buy a farm near where he grew up, and he's determined to make it work. With a house that needs work, a ramshackle barn, and a tractor that's seen better days, "work" is certainly the operative term! But the family pulls together — even Jess — to unpack, and Roy even manages to get the tractor started. By the time Roy and Jess head into town to buy sunflower seeds for planting, things are looking up.

While her husband and daughter head to town, Denise works to put the house together. She chatters happily to Ben who isn't smiling when his mother makes the bed. That's because he can see the bloody legs under the sheets that his mother all too clearly can't. Denise does see a nasty spot of mold on the bedroom wall, and she promptly climbs up on a chair to clean it up. As she does so, however, Ben is clearly watching something on the ceiling that nobody but him can see.

When Roy comes home with the seed, he notes that there are a lot of crows around. But just as the crows head for a closer look at his newly purchased seed, a shotgun blast scares them off. He looks up to see Burwell (John Corbett), an itinerant laborer looking for work. After a brief discussion during which the two men hit it off, Roy tells Burwell he can't pay him until harvest, but that he can offer him room and board. Burwell accepts the opportunity, and Roy's career as a farmer is now well and truly underway.

The next morning, Denise is horrified to see that the mold in the bedroom is back. Ben is still seeing things. And now Jess fears that she's seeing things, too! Burwell offers the teen a chance to unburden herself with things her parents can't — or won't — hear, but it's not enough. A local boy named Bobby (Dustin Milligan) confirms to Jess that there are rumors her house is haunted, but he laughs them off. Once she's back at home, though, Jess isn't amused. In fact, she's terrified she's losing her mind, and then she's just terrified.

Kristen Stewart does a nice job as a rebellious teen who has her head on straight after all. And little Theodore Turner is surprisingly natural in front of the cameras. Dustin Milligan is okay, and Dylan McDermott is also all right. Penelope Ann Miller, though, appears entirely amateur. Did her agent force her to take this job? Meanwhile, it's really refreshing to see John Corbett muddied up and being handy with everything from a shotgun to a monkey wrench. He and Stewart easily give the best performances of the film.

The settings were truly lovely, although I'm willing to bet it wasn't filmed in North Dakota (I've unfortunately actually been there). The house was suitably creepy and at the same time filled with character and just the kind of place you can imagine a couple from the big city wanting to fix up. The special effects, including the make-up effects, were also good. One thing I did have a real problem with involved jarring inconsistencies, like McDermott's lily-white clean hands after having been working on the tractor, and the repeated and nonsensical appearances of a banker that are never explained.

The script didn't really offer up anything we haven't seen in some other movie before (shades of everything from The Sixth Sense to The Ring abound), but as I said, the movie had its moments. I jumped more than once, and was none too thrilled when I got home that night to make my way into a dark house. Where horror movies are concerned, you could do worse than that for sure.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Messengers is rated PG-13 for "mature thematic material, disturbing violence and terror." The horror is graphic, but not particularly bloody; it's the reason for the horror that is, perhaps, the most disturbing. That being said, The Messengers is clearly aimed at a teen market, and I think it hits the target just fine. Most teens will be fine with the violence, and many of them will probably like the movie well enough. More sophisticated horror buffs, however, might want to hold out for 2007's later offerings to see if something more innovative might be waiting in the wings.