Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageThe Messengers (2007)
Director: Danny Pang, Oxide Pang
Movie review
From Time Out London
Although Danny and Oxide Pang’s first English-language movie is a cut above most Hollywood supernatural thrillers, it inhabits an awkward aesthetic limbo. A gothic ghost story, it harks back to the stylish creepiness of their breakthrough Hong Kong movie, ‘The Eye’, but is constrained by an over-worked generic plot.Seeking a fresh start, Roy Solomon (Dylan McDermott ) moves with his wife and three kids to a remote North Dakota farm. Drifter John Burwell (John Corbett) helps plant sunflowers and becomes a trusted employee. Then, as harbinger crows swirl about, two of the children see pale-skinned spectres scuttling across the ceiling and floating down hallways. But one stays mute and the other’s visions are dismissed as attention-seeking.Mark Wheaton’s genre-savvy script and the Pang brothers’ fluid visual style generate some powerful scares and involving emotional undercurrents. Yet many of the images feel over-familiar, and the shocks a mite too forced.Author: Nigel Floyd
Time Out London Issue 1911: April 4-10 2007
User reviews of this film
-
- Craig said...
- Posted on Mar 27 2008 17:33 My God I fell to sleep. I gave it one star because the ending--despite the bad film made sense!
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Elena said...
- Posted on Mar 27 2008 17:31 You will rarely see me say this but this movie was complete and utter smelly s**t. It was so bad it was just awful. How can the actors and actresses feel proud when they say they were in it. Im not saying scary movies need gore because they dont-but there wasnt anything about it at all! Who is scared of a psycho farmer with a rake and a couple of crows that attack when you're getting the weekly shop out of the car boot! the kid was gormless and the girl was gormless and even the gollum creature was gormless. I went to sleep and kept skipping ahead scenes in this. If you are an insomniac craving sleep then by all means buy it-it will do you good! No rating!
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Danny Pang, Oxide Pang
Producer: Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, William Sherak, Jason Shuman
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, John Corbett full cast
Genre(s): Horror, Thrillers, Drama
Rated: 15
Duration: 90 mins
UK Release: Apr 6 2007
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
The essential guide to the London Film Festival
Get the inside track on the all the films and events you'll want to catch at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival
Terence Davies: interview
Wally Hammond talks to visionary British director Terence Davies about his deeply personal and long-awaited new documentary ‘Of Time and the City’
A Bond a day: No. 10 'The Spy Who Loved Me'
Time Out revisits the 21 Bond movies day by day to celebrate the release of 'Quantum of Solace'
W.
Read our early review of Oliver Stone's George W Bush biopic, 'W.', playing at this year's London Film Festival
Ten friendly ghost movies
To celebrate the release of 'Ghost Town' in which Ricky Gervais plays a New York dentist who can see dead people, Time Out counts down ten great friendly ghost movies.
What do you think?
Post your review now