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Schlock-horror hokum just falls flat this time
THE MESSENGERS
Directed by danny pang and Oxide pang
Certificate 15
THE name Sam Raimi (Spiderman, The Evil Dead, Darkman) on the credits (as producer) indicates a certain cachet about a film, but in this case it would be sadly misplaced.
This is one suspense tingler that has nothing new to offer on the old dark house theme it borrows so brazenly from the past. The messengers seem to be black crows which attack without warning (The Birds) when failed Chicago salesman Dylan McDermott heads for a spot of country air in the mid-west with his wife (Penelope Ann Miller), flaky teenage daughter (Kristen Stewart) and small son Ben (Evan Turner).
He invests in a derelict farm where several grisly murders took place, but only young Ben can see visions of the corpses as they come alive (The Shining). Mud oozes out of the floorboards (Amityville Horror), and the usual suspects are on show – pitchforks, broken dolls, doors that open and shut by themselves – to build up the menace.
Sorry, Sam, it’s pure schlock-horror hokum – and it just doesn’t work any more. |
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