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Attempting to leave the past behind, Roy and Denise Soloman
move from Chicago to an isolated farm in North Dakota, with
their teenage daughter Jess and two-year-old son Ben. Pretty
soon the children begin to see frightening apparitions in
the old house. Their parents think this is some kind of teenage
rebellion to the move. But when the visions intensify and
start to have an affect on the real world, and in particular
their current situation, there is no denying that the past
is screaming out to be heard...
To my mind, a new Pang Brothers film is a cause for celebration;
after all, they did direct The
Eye, an excellent supernatural horror set in
Hong Kong and Thailand, and one of my top thirteen films of
all time.
The
Messengers is their first English-speaking (American)
venture, so it was going to be interesting to note how East
Asian and North American filming styles might blend. It certainly
didn't work with the American remakes of The
Ring and The
Grudge.
The Pang Brothers are very visual directors and obviously
don't compromise on achieving their inner vision. As is the
aforementioned The Eye, simple techniques are utilised
to great effect. The ghost boy who scuttles across the ceiling,
and at one point across the background of a shot, was realised
by filming him at a speed of six frames per second, producing
an eerie, insect-like movement. There is a scene where Jess
is carrying Ben over her shoulder. He can see an approaching
ghost, but it is coming up behind Jess. This is extremely
effective, and again reminiscent of a scene in The Eye
when the protagonist is trapped in a lift with a ghost which
slowly drifts towards her from out of the corner. The Pangs
certainly know how to squeeze every drop of suspense out of
a scene.
The poltergeist activity was so abrupt and well-choreographed
that for a brief moment it caused the hairs on the back of
my neck to stand up. That's always welcome, because I've seen
so many horror films that I seldom experience a moment like
that anymore.
By far the best character in The Messengers is Ben,
the 2-year-old boy, who views the events with innocent curiosity
and acceptance. You see what acting skills can be achieved
when you don't even try?! The other key players are pretty
standard stereotypes. The mother, Denise, is almost totally
forgettable.
The problem with this film is that the North American culture
of the scriptwriter intrudes on the East Asian filmmaking
techniques of the Pangs, causing a lot of the magic to be
nullified. In a senseless attempt to tie everything up into
a neat little package, the concluding scenes leave more questions
than answers - and in a detrimental way that makes you question
the plot.
The logical plot point of having only the children witnessing
the apparitions is suddenly thrown away with no explanation
except for the possibility the writer suddenly wanted the
parents to see the ghosts too. To say that the ending is a
disappointment, considering all that has gone before, is a
monumental understatement. We, the viewers, are abruptly witnesses
to what took place in the house years ago, as it starts to
happen again - and all I can think of is that these events
are admittedly horrific, but not totally unheard of by today's
standards. So why, in the context of the movie, aren't there
similar apparitions in hundreds of other locations?
In conclusion, this is not a bad outing, but I get the distinct
feeling that had Oxide and Danny Pang also handled the script,
we would have been delivered a celluloid force to be reckoned
with.
Special features include a Trailer; Webisodes
(26 mins); and Exhuming The Messengers featurette (37
mins), which covers some of the same ground.
Ty
Power
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