Horror Movie Review: The Messengers (2007)

The Messengers is a 2007 supernatural horror directed by the Pang Brothers (the guys behind the excellent J-Horror, The Eye). It stars Kristen Stewart, John Corbett, William B. Davis, Dylan McDermott, and Penelope Ann Miller.

With a strong directorial team & a decent cast, The Messengers should have been an instant hit. Unfortunately, it’s so bland. Offering absolutely nothing new within the supernatural horror sub-genre. Watching it you will not be able to shake off the feeling that you’ve seen this movie a thousand times before. It’s also packed with a frustrating amount of jump scares & fake outs.

The movie opens with a family being terrorised & killed by something unseen at their remote farmhouse. Five years later the Solomon family are moving into the same house having sunk the last of their cash into it. The move isn’t something that the young Jess Solomon (Kristen Stewart) is particular happy about. A situation that is made even worse when strange occurrences begin to happen.

Of course, no-one believes her as trust has been eroded ever since she had her licence suspended for drink-driving. An accident that injured the youngest member of the family, Ben & left him mute.

As events get even more unsettling & start turning dangerous, Jess turns to the farmhand John Rollins (John Corbett). A nice & friendly man, John seemed to turn up at just the right time but does he know more about the houses spirits then even he realises?

The Messengers is one of the most shoulder-shrugging horrors to be released during the noughties. Almost everything about it is bland & uneventful. The cast sleepwalk their way through their roles, delivering the most forgettable group of characters. You’ve seen this family in a thousand other horror movies & you’ve seen the same events play out in a thousand other horror movies. No-one is particular bad, they’re simply just not putting in much effort.

The same can be said for the story. A boorish & uneventful one that thinks it has got a decent twist but really doesn’t. When the ‘truth’ is revealed it will simply result in yawns of boredom especially as getting to this point mean having to sit through a lot of jump scares.

If that’s your jam then you’ll be terrified & entertained by The Messengers for a while. However, even the most causal of horror fans will be throwing their hands up in the air by the mid-point as yet another loud screech of the music happens.

Totally forgettable, somehow it would get a prequel in 2009, called Messengers 2: The Scarecrow that bore almost no resemblance to this film. (Read our review of it here).

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