The Messengers (2007)

Americanized Pang brothers go mainstream and sadly the results are not very good. I actually wanted to like this film, because I enjoyed the Pang Bros. previous well-known horror film "The Eye" and for that reason alone, I had some really high hopes with this one too. Well, I guess it was my bad and I must say now that I'm genuinely disappointed; since I was expecting something that would be just as dark and scary as "The Eye", considering that we are talking about the same directors, but this time, they even had a bigger budget to work with. Proof that good directors can screw it up (or at least in my humble opinion) and that won't have anything to do with the financial resources. In "The Messengers", the Solomon family, moves to an isolated farm, with the purpose of starting a new life and leaving an unpleasant memory behind. However, as soon as they arrive to their new house, the teenage daughter Jess, starts to experience some really odd situations and she claims to see people living inside the cellar. Creatures that are not in peace with themselves and need to give her a message before it's too late. However, her parents, who are pretty much fed up with her and her dreadful behavior, don't believe a word she says. Unfortunately, it is only a matter of time for them to realize that Jess may not be lying this time, after all and that there's actually something in that house…something that has been waiting in the dark for a few years and is waiting to be released. I won't complain about the fact that these kinds of stories were already told about a thousand times. I'm not one of those movie fans who complain about the lack of innovation when it comes to the plot. Honestly, I think most films (especially horror films) out there, share a decent number of similarities and while many reviews comment on the simplicity and unoriginality of the plot, I will mainly focus on the fact that this film is overall not scary, which is my main concern. It seems like The Pang Bros. basically sold their talent to the devil, just to enter in the American film industry, without realizing that there was no need to copy the most superfluous and silly PG-rated contemporary horror flicks. "The Messengers" turns out to be one of those movies where nothing really happens...ever. It's just a nice variety of hallucinations and situations that end up being reduced to "Did it really happen or was it just my imagination?". No, I'm sorry but I just had about enough with these nonsense. I suppose the real action starts happening during the last twenty minutes, but that just doesn't do it for me. The denouement turns out to be somehow far-fetched and it left me with the hateful "That's it?" feeling inside my head. Overall, not the worst movie ever and it's not like it is unwatchable. It happens to be entertaining for moments and it has a small number of well-done ghostly sequences that made the whole thing endurable in some way. I also enjoyed the scenes with the crows, since they reminded me a lot of "The Birds", which is like partying with an old best friend, or something like that. The music during the opening and final credits is in my opinion the actual high point and that is not a very good sign, unfortunately. Another thing that is not exactly a good sign, would be the overhead microphone that can be seen more than once during the film. No comments about that little detail.