Review: The Messengers

It looked promising: A creepy old house, an unsuspecting family, something disturbing in the walls. There were whispers of real life phenomena, there was speculation about what a small child is able to perceive.

And then… there was mediocrity.

The marketing campaign for The Messengers had me. I have to admit it. I love ghost stories, I love being creeped out, and when I heard that the Pang brother’s were directing a new film set in a dilapidated farmhouse in the middle of America’s heartland, I was a little excited. I loved, still love, their enormously effective The Eye (the unfortunate remake starring Jessica Alba is currently in theaters). The Eye is great; it’s well directed, well acted, and genuinely scary. Beyond all that though, it has a good story. A good story in a ghost flick? Go figure.

The website and trailer for The Messengers had me going and when it was released, I saw it in the theater, by myself. I was completely prepared to be freaked out. Was I? Well, I guess a little bit at moments but for the most part, not really.

The Messengers is about Roy and Denise and their two children Jess and Ben. After an act of rebellion has nearly fatal consequences for Jess and her little brother, Roy decides to move the family away from urban life. The idea is to take Jess away from the bad influences and to give their family a fresh start. This fresh start is to happen on a run down farm in the middle of South Dakota.

Bright yellow sunflowers clash with dark rotting wood. Peace is interrupted by mayhem. There is something not right in the old house. Jess is the first to suspect but it’s the story of the boy who cried wolf. After everything that’s happened, Jess has no credibility and her parent’s think she is merely seeking attention.

Take a dysfunctional family and throw a couple of mysterious strangers, a few ghosts, and some pissed off crows into the mix… and you get a bit of a mess.

The characters aren’t bad, the acting is okay, the movie looks good, there are a few suspenseful moments, but things just never come together. The cast is not bad with Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, and John Corbett all featured. William B. Davis (The Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files) even has a cameo.

I do wonder what it is about Asian horror that just does not work in American films. I hate the idea of remakes but after watching so many of them I’ve come to the conclusion that the remake part is not what makes them bad. I think it’s possibly cultural but I certainly don’t know enough to draw any more conclusions than that.

Whatever the reason is, aesthetics that work so well in The Eye fail to enthrall in The Messengers. What we get in the end is a mediocre ghost story with a couple of scares, mildly likeable characters, and an overly complex ending that really does not work. It’s disappointing but hey, at least it wasn’t another remake. At least the Pang brothers attempted to do something original. They should get credit for trying.