The Messengers (2007)

Sunflower Trip

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy The Messengers on DVD

Set on a sunflower farm, this haunted house story interestingly juxtaposes its bright exteriors with its creaky interiors, and features one standout scene: a teenage girl (Kristen Stewart), clutching her baby brother, waits as a ghost approaches her from behind. The boy can see it, and she can't, and the flashy directors from Hong Kong, Oxide and Danny Pang, wait an impossibly long time before the payoff. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie forgoes any more innovations, lazily borrowing from other people's horror movies, the undulating shrieks on the soundtrack (Poltergeist), the massing, pecking crows (The Birds) and even a creature skittering along the ceiling (the Exorcist films). The able cast also includes Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller and John Corbett.

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, John Corbett, Evan Turner, Theodore Turner, William B. Davis, Brent Briscoe, Dustin Milligan, Jodelle Ferland
Written by: Mark Wheaton, based on a story by Todd Farmer
Directed by: Oxide Pang Chun, Danny Pang
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, disturbing violence and terror
Running Time: 84 minutes
Date: February 2, 2007