The Messengers

Most people have probably heard of the idea that babies and young children can see and hear things that older people can't, or have lost the ability to. That a baby in a crib gurgling and laughing at the ceiling, for example, is actually talking to a spirit there. It's a fascinating premise, whose application to a horror movie is a stroke of genius.

In "The Messengers" a family moves into an old farmhouse where something very bad once happened. Only Ben, the little toddler of the family, can see the supernatural prescences in the house, and he appears more delighted with them than afraid. When his teenage sister Jess also starts encountering unusual occurences - this time of an apparantly non-benevolent nature - she also begins noticing Ben's unusual behavior as well and realizes that he too is experiencing something out of the ordinary; the hard part after that is getting anybody else to take her seriously. The movie utilizes much more atmosphere than action, and the cast has to carry off a lot the show by reacting to very subtle (Most of the time), slow-paced, occurences, in a way that makes it feel real and frightening. The actors and actresses were well picked for their parts, and Kristen Stewart as Jess and twins Evan and Theodore Turner as Ben, playing the characters who experience most of the strangeness in the movie's early, slower-going, parts, are especially impressive. All the production values necessary to make this kind of atmosphere work - the light and shadows, the subtle use of sounds, the camerawork, etc. - are all handled very well too.

In the last one third or so of the movie, as things start to speed up and secrets come to light, I guess you could say that there were too broad directions it could have gone in, that it had to choose from. Myself, I would have chosen the route the movie didn't take, but it handles the path it chooses so well that it avoids slumping into a letdown. (I am still curious, though, what it would have been like if they had gone that other way) It's worth noting that when it ended I was rather taken aback that it was over so quick. Its running time is something like 85 minutes, but it felt like it came it at under an hour - and that's even in light of the slowly building pace it maintained. It must have been doing something pretty right to make time fly like that (on the other hand, I've seen other movies of about the same length that seem to drag on for hours). "Messengers" could have actually been quite a bit longer without hurting itself one bit; and as good as the ending turned out to be it may have been even better if it had gone on that different turn, but there's no point in complaining with something this good. Highly, highly recommended for fans of "Dark Water", "The Eye", "Haunted", "The Sixth Sense", "Pan's Labyrinth" and other atmospheric horror movies. "Red Rover" is another, far less known, movie that also fits great in this vein that you might want to check out.

How many times can you tell the same dang gone story: There are ghosts, but only the kids can see them; nobody believes you when you try to warn them; you handle the situation very well; you even go back into the haunted house like nothing occurred there; in fact you enter creepy room after creepy room when the direction any normal kid would go in is *the other way...fast!*

It's like that old Eddie Murphy joke about The Amityville Horror: he said something like, "If the house says, 'GETTT OUTTT'...then get out! A normal family wouldn't be sticking around." (Eddie's joke was a bit more 'colorful' on several fronts, but this is a family web site.)

And the ghost effects are so yesterday in The Messengers. With a name like Sam Raimi attached (Producer) to The Messengers, one might expect better, more original effects. But Directors Oxide Pang Chun & Danny Pang took a page from The Ring as so many movies since (like The Grudge) have done, and delivered a more than familiar, predictable movie.

I saw this movie yesterday at the movies. I thought it was going to be really scary, but it wasn't too bad. There are just some parts that sort of sneek up on you, and may scare you a little, or a lot. It made me jump at those parts at least 10 times,I would guess. This movie did not leave me scared after and I did not have nightmares or anything like that. It just scared me while I was watching it. When the camera gets upi close with the "messengers", That is one part that always made me jump, and it gave me a case of the chills!!!! I know that it is rated pg-13, but I am 13 and I think that if a kid was mature, they could probably watch it at 11 years, unless they get scared easily. I would reccomend this to anyone 12 and over who does not scare easily. I loved this movie, and I'm getting it on DVD when it comes out!!!!!

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