THE MESSENGERS
US, 2007, 91 minutes, Colour.
Kristen Stewart, Dylan Mc Dermott, Penelope Ann Miller, John Corbett, William B. Davis.
Directed by Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang.
The Pang Brothers made quite some impact with their horror thriller, The Eye, as well as their gangster story, Bangkok Dangerous. They were offered an American film and this is the one that they chose.
There is nothing particularly new here, nor any particular Asian style that they have brought to this film (except perhaps the way that the ghosts are visualised and go into action). Rather, they have made a quintessentially American film. It is a haunted house, ghost and poltergeist activity film, not so much horror or terror, rather one that is eerie and creepy. And most of the haunting occurs during the daylight hours.
The messengers of the title are ravens (all, in fact, plus trainer, from the Czech Republic). They hover ominously in Hitchcock vein. They stare at the dilapidated house and barn which a Chicago family have just moved into to make a new beginning (not knowing the violent history of the family who used to live there as we do). They swarm and swoop and bang against windows. Eventually, signalling the approach of evil, they swoop, peck and bite.
The directors remind us that it is said that children are more open to ‘the other side’ than adults, so that is what happens here. Kristin Stewart (Jodie Foster’s daughter in The Panic Room) is a troubled teenager who is not believed when she tells her parents of her fearful experiences, along with those of her little brother, Ben. Parents are Dylan Mc Dermott and Penelope Ann Miller. John Corbett plays a genial stranger who helps with the new sunflower crop. He is often a bland presence (as in My Big Fat Greek Wedding) but, once the ravens attack him, he is galvanised into surprising life. The climax occurs, as is fitting, in the darkened basement.
Unlike so many of the recent horror films, this one avoids the crass and the ultraviolent, relying on characters and situations and its eerie atmosphere. The ending, after the haunting, is literally and positively sunny.
1.The work of the Pang brothers in Thailand and Hong Kong? Making an American film? Their American style? Any particularly Asian distinctive characteristics?
2.The setting, the open countryside, the dilapidated house and barn, the fields? The small town? Authentic atmosphere? The musical score?
3.The special effects, the opening, black and white, the killings? The ghosts? Their appearances, the limbs, materialising in the wall? How effective for this kind of film?
4.The plausibility of the film? The ghost story, the haunted house, the reasons for this? Truth and vengeance? The role of the ravens? Their being the messengers? Their gathering, the flocks, at the windows, the drawings, the attacks on the humans? The attack on Burwell? Their flying away at the end?
5.The family, their background, driving from Chicago, the tension in the car, Denise and her fussing, Roy and his trying to be calm, Jesse and her relationship with Ben? The past, the story as revealed, the tension with Jesse, her drinking, driving the car, the accident, the effect on Ben, the hospital, two years, their money gone?
6.Buying the farm, the hopes? The arrival, the first impressions? Audience knowledge of the crimes and the ghosts?
7.Looking through the house, the stain on the wall and Denise twice getting rid of it, its final appearance? The barn? The cellar? The rooms? The presence of the Others? The noises, manifesting themselves? Poltergeist activity? Jesse and her experience – and the house being back in order? The ooze in the cellar? Ben and his seeing everything?
8.Jesse and her friendship with Bobby, at the basketball, talking, meeting him at different times, confiding in him, her getting on the bike, his picking her up, coming to the house?
9.The character of Burwell, his appearance, wanting to work, accepted by the family, playing with Ben at the table, the meals, genial, hard work, his listening to Jesse and her stories?
10.The issue of the cellar, the mysterious man, his materialising, offers? Roy’s refusal? Later telling Denise and her reaction?
11.Jesse, her experiences in the house, poltergeists, during the daylight? With Ben? The chaos and mayhem in the house, the furniture? The using the cellar? The confrontation with the ghosts, their dragging her, her fingernails on the floor? Going to the hospital, the injuries, the doctor’s opinion that they could be self-inflicted? Her parents’ disbelief, the past stories, her telling Bobby the story about the drinking, the accident and Ben?
12.Denise in the house, cleaning the wall, the manifestation of the ghost? Jesse and her return? Denise hiding in the cellar?
13.Burwell, in the fields, the ravens attacking him, jogging his memory? His identity, owner of the house, the flashbacks to his not wanting his wife and children to leave, his attacking them, killing them? His coming to – and thinking that Denise was his wife? The pursuit in the house, in the cellar, the darkness, the pitchfork? Attacking Bobby? The pitchfork and Roy? His being dragged by the ghosts into the pit, his clinging on to Jesse, her parents pulling her out?
14.The happy ending, the family together, the crops? Hopes for a future? A happy ending for this kind of family ordeal?
