The Messengers (DVD)

...I stumbled across this film The Messengers. After seeing the trailer it seemed like a typical horror movie plot but however I had heard really good things about this film and decided to persevere. The cast didn’t seem to be too well known but I usually find horror movies never really do have a really famous cast. This film was released in the cinema in April and is released on DVD in August which isn’t too far away.

This film begins ...
...house in North Dakota. The family don’t really get on well as the daughter Jess (Kristen Stewart) got into a car accident, suspending her license and causing the little brother Ben to end up in hospital never having spoken since. The amount of money it cost the family meant they had to up and leave as they had spent their life savings on hospitals bills amongst other things. Jess does not seem happy about having to move out to this farm house and ... more

I felt it was time to get back to watching horror movies again and I stumbled across this film The Messengers. After seeing the trailer it seemed like a typical horror movie plot but however I had heard really good things about this film and decided to persevere. The cast didn’t seem to be too well known but I usually find horror movies never really do have a really famous cast. This film was released in the cinema in April and is released on DVD in August which isn’t too far away.

This film begins with the Solomon family moving from Chicago to a farm house in North Dakota. The family don’t really get on well as the daughter Jess (Kristen Stewart) got into a car accident, suspending her license and causing the little brother Ben to end up in hospital never having spoken since. The amount of money it cost the family meant they had to up and leave as they had spent their life savings on hospitals bills amongst other things. Jess does not seem happy about having to move out to this farm house and neither does the wife Denise (Penelope Ann Miller). However, to please the husband (Dylan McDermott) they all decide to see how it goes.

As soon as they arrive an estate agent already tells the father that another family wants to put in an offer of the same price but with a 15% rise but he decides not to accept as he wants the family to really make a go of things. The house is set in the middle of a sunflower field as the main harvest they have is sunflower seeds. The house is a fairly dark brown wooden house with crows surrounding it, it all looks very eery in this bright yellow field but of course the family see nothing. Almost right away though the younger brother Ben starts to see things as the strange goings on and creepy figures lurking the house can only be seen by him and then later the daughter but nobody believes her and the little brother can’t speak.

Weird stains keep appearing on the walls, weird whispers, also there are footsteps being heard but still no one can see how this is happening. Burwell (John Corbett) plays the man who helps the family out by helping pick the sunflower seeds out so that the family can earn some money and they pay him in meals but he is willing to work and the father needs the help. At the very beginning of the film we see a family a mother, a daughter and a son they all seem frightened for their lives running away from something. The fear in them shows something in the house has made them this scared and they are being killed and then it moves to present day so we get a history of the house.

This film in some ways I thought I knew how it would end but I was very surprised as there turns out to be a bit of a twist but not an obvious one. It isn’t one of those kinds of twists though that tries to be clever but fails, this one actually makes sense and I thought it worked really well. The plot at first I thought was going to be like every other film family moves into haunted house, we never see what exactly is haunting them and the characters are stupid and not brave but it turned out to be nothing like I expected. In this film we do actually see what is affecting the family.

The good thing is this film is not all about the creepy sense to the house but also about the family and their problems and how they didn’t trust each other at first but then overcame it. Kristen Stewart was really good in the part of the daughter Jess, I haven’t seen her act in anything before but she is only about 17 years old and she did really well. She was really convincing and you can’t help but feel for her when her family keep shouting at her and won’t listen to her but she is a strong actress and I can see her surely doing well if she chooses her roles well.

The other characters were also really good the dad played by Dylan McDermott looked familiar but I can’t think what I’ve seen him in. He was annoying at times but only trying to do what was best for his family and he played the part well. John Corbett was the only one I actually knew in this film because I had seen him in Sex and the City amongst other roles where he usually acts very differently from his part in this film where he was a country guy who seemed quite weak but I felt he was great in the role and convincing.

This film last for approximately 85 minutes and is a 15 certificate. It is a film I would recommend for those who like a horror but one that has a plot and characters that are not annoying. It has a good plot and I wasn’t at any point bored as something was happening every minute of this film. 

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