Sam Raimi and his Ghost House production company (which he co-founded with long-time producing friend Robert Tapert) certainly got off to a rocky start in my eyes with their poor remake of The Grudge and the watered-down teen horror flick Boogeyman. So it was with hesitation that I popped The Messengers into my player as the trailers made it look like yet another Japanese horror inspired ghost story. Of course, since it marked the North American debut for Danny and Oxide Pang (who made the fairly decent flick, The Eye), I expected a little more than another mediocre PG-13 fright flick.

And while things are a little bit more leisurely paced than I'd of liked and the finale has the plot shifting from one type of horror movie to the other (not uncomfortably, it must be noted) the Pang brothers throw in enough supernatural elements to make this more watchable than I expected it to be. It also doesn't rely heavily on imagery cribbed from The Ring or The Grudge instead preferring to have more "quiet" attempts at thrills than those films did (however, it seems the movie has an obssesion with imagery involving crows).

Kristen Stewart stars as Jess, a teenager who's being forced to move to the middle of nowhere by her parents (Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller) who are looking for a new start after marriage and money problems have almost torn the family apart. They've moved to the country in order to try and successfully launch a sunflower farm and try to get away from the bad influences of the city.

But things aren't quite what they seem in the small town as Jess not only learns that her home was the sight of a families disappearance a few years back, but also that their new abode may, in fact, be haunted. At least that's what it seems like judging from the behaviour of her toddler brother Ben (Evan Turner).

According to Mark Wheaton's script, children are more susceptible to the supernatural, which is made evident to us due to the fact that Ben starts to see spirits of all shapes and sizes within the house. Some are running along the ceiling, others are coming out of the walls. But once Jess finds this out for herself she finds she has a hard time convincing everyone, since they've written her behaviour off as an act of teenage rebellion.

From there Wheaton's script decides to focus more on the farm, the family, and hired-help Burwell (John Corbett) rather than on the scares. In fact, the first half of the movie is so thin on any sort of horror elements you almost thing you've stumbled upon a "movie of the week" drama, be it a solidly made and decently acted one.

That's probably the biggest thing about The Messengers that held it back, it's drabness. There's not enough going on for most of the first half that once the hauntings start in earnest and Wheaton decides to throw in a predictable plot twist in the last third (which also manages to turn this from ghost story to psycho thriller) that it can never rise above being a merely "okay" timewaster.

Granted, it does get a boost from the Pang brothers behind the camera and it's better than past Ghost House efforts, but it doesn't have any real "jump" moments and could've used a heck of a lot more in the "creepy" department. As is, it's a pretty painless way to while away ninety minutes or so on a lazy evening. (Chris Hartley, 7/24/07)

Directed By: Danny Pang, Oxide Pang.
Written By: Mark Wheaton.

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, John Corbett.