The Messengers is a supernatural Canadian-American 2007 horror film directed by Pang Brothers, and produced by Sam Raimi. It stars Kristen Stewart, John Corbett, William B. Davis, Dylan McDermott, and Penelope Ann Miller. The film tells of the terrible darkness that struck a seemingly calmly sunflower farm in North Dakota, and the family of Solomon - the owner of the farm - torn by suspicion, chaos, and murder.
The film was released on February 2, and DVD was released on June 5th. The filming took place in Qu'Appelle Valley near the small community of Abernethy, Saskatchewan, Canada. This graphical novel adaptation was published in January 2007 by Dark Horse Comics, written by Jason Hall, and illustrated by Kelley Jones. The prequel, Messengers 2: The Scarecrow , was released in 2009.
Video The Messengers (film)
Plot
A frightened mother and her young son are packing a suitcase. He heard something outside the door and made his son hide under the bed. The door opened and an invisible force threw the mother against the wall, killing her. The boy escaped and ran to his frightened sister. The boy was hiding, but his sister was arrested and pushed past the banister, then dragged into the basement. The hiding boy was finally discovered by the attacker.
Five years later, the Solomon family from Chicago moved to a house, near a small town in North Dakota. Roy Solomon plans to start a sunflower farm. The teenage daughter, Jess, was upset about having moved away from her friends. Some time ago, Jess was drunk with her younger brother, Ben, a toddler at the time. He crashed the car, injuring Ben. He recovered from his wounds, but did not speak. Her parents, Roy and Denise, had a hard time believing it and they went bankrupt because of the cost for Ben's care. Roy believes moving to the farm will help heal the family.
Unpleasant incidents begin to happen. The house always has crows flying around it. Some attacked Roy; but they are driven by a drifter named John Burwell, whom Roy leases as a farm laborer. Ben sees the ghosts of mothers and children, though they do not seem to be afraid. Jess was in the basement when she heard a loud voice, she looked up the stairs unaware that the mud rose from the floorboards and her feet were drowned in the mud. He slowly started up the stairs and grabbed his hand and reached for Jess. feet guard it in the mud and start pulling it into the mud. Jess manages to get free and call 9-1-1. Bobby, a boy from the town with Jess, supported him.
Determined to prove his claim, and go to town with Bobby to learn more. He discovered that the Rollins family, the previous homeowner, suddenly disappeared five years ago. Jess believed they were not moving, and something terrible happened to them. While at a local shop, Jess saw a family newspaper clipping, with her father revealed none other than her new father's breeder. John Burwell is actually John Rollins, a man who, in a madness, kills his entire family (early film). Startled, Jess rushes back home with Bobby to warn her family.
At Denise's house preparing to leave when John attacked her, Denise walked inside the house and tried to climb the stairs when a hand reached over and grabbed Denise's ankle. Realizing Jess was right, she was determined to leave. John was cruelly attacked by crows, and his mental state became unbalanced. She believes Denise is his wife, Mary, trying to leave her again as Mary had five years earlier. He attacks Denise, but he takes Ben and hides in the basement. Bobby and Jess arrived, but John tapped Bobby with a pitchfork. Jess ran into the basement and found Denise and Ben. Denise apologized to Jess for not believing her about ghosts. John looks for them, believes that Jess is his daughter Lindsay, and Ben is his son Michael. Roy arrives but is stabbed by John. John took Jess's ankle and dragged it out into the hole in the excavated yard for the Jess family grave. John asks Jess, thinking that she's Lindsay, if they're still Jess's family kicking John in the hole Jess is crawling away but John grabs and grabs Jess's pant leg and starts pulling Jess on her own, Jess trying too crawling up and out. A pile of dirt that turns into mud begins to fill the graves. Jess looked back and John had a tight grip on her leg and Jess began to climb as the grave filled with mud. Jess tried to get John to release her leg so she could push herself out but John held her feet in the mud. Jess clawed to the ground while trying to get free. The slope in the muddy hole and Jess's legs slid down toward the mud as John tugged at Jess's foot. Jess's calf was submerged in the mud. Jess yelled for help. John grabs the waistband of Jess's jeans, A hurt Roy struggling to pull Jess out but John's hands and mud make it difficult. Jess reached her thighs in the mud, Jess's waist slowly rising from the mud. Jess managed to crawl out of the hole but Jess's shoes were pulled to be sucked into the mud with John.
Thanks to Bobby, Officer Drew and paramedics arrived shortly after the attack. When Roy was put in an ambulance, he apologized to Jess. Some time later, everything returns to normal. The crows no longer attack, the ghosts stop appearing, and Ben starts talking again. The family is happy once again.
Maps The Messengers (film)
Cast
- Kristen Stewart as Jessica "Jess" Solomon
- Dylan McDermott as Roy Solomon
- Penelope Ann Miller as Denise Solomon
- John Corbett as John Burwell/John Rollins
- Evan and Theodore Turner as Ben Solomon
- William B. Davis as Colby Price
- Brent Briscoe as Plume
- Dustin Milligan as Bobby
- Jodelle Ferland as Michael Rollins
- Michael Daingerfield as a Police Officer
- Tatiana Maslany as Lindsay Rollins
- Shirley McQueen as Mary Rollins
- Kieria Robinson as Katy Turner
Production
Crows are used in movies, not crows, but characters say "crow" in the movie. The production team can not get the trained crows needed for certain scenes.
The film started life as an original script called The Scarecrow by Todd Farmer. It was originally written as a psychological thriller as opposed to a more supernatural horror film. It's about a family on a farm that is suffering from financial problems and bad weather seasons. When the patriarch puts a strange scarecrow on the field, things begin to change. But then people start to get killed, and the main character suspects the scarecrow. In the end, the main character revealed actually has led to the murder itself.
The script was sold to Revolution Studios. Director Patrick Lussier signed a contract with the film, and incorporated a supernatural talent into the story. The revolution then brought Stuart Beattie rewrite the manuscript. "What I'm throwing is the 'horror version of A Beautiful Mind ,'" Farmer says, "and what they want is 'The Shining on a farm.'" Revolution then sells it to Ghost House Pictures, which then picks it up and recruits Mark Wheaton to rewrite it. None of the original manuscripts survived through rewrites, in addition to farm settings, and character names.
The original Scarecrow script was eventually used as a basis for prequel, Messengers 2: The Scarecrow.
Reception
box office
The Messengers were first placed in box office receipts for the weekend of February 2-4, 2007. On the first weekend of release, the film grossed $ 14.7 million. The film grossed $ 55 million in total.
Critical response
At Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 12% approval rating based on 84 reviews and an average rating of 3.7/10. The critical consensus of this site reads, " The Messengers is an atmospheric horror film but a derivative of many another horror movie. " At Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100 based on 16 critics, showing "generally unfavorable reviews". Viewers surveyed by CinemaScore gave this movie an average value of "C-" on a scale A to F.
Film critic Nigel Floyd wrote in Time Out, "many photos are too familiar, and the mite shocks are too forced." IGN Movies wrote in his review, "This is The Grudge on a farm," and concludes, "The problem with The Messengers is that it does not offer much of anything new." Lou Lumenick wrote in the New York Post that his films were "beautifully photographed but slow-moving, boring, and completely predictable." Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club writes that the film was "technically adept enough to provide the necessary shake, but dÃÆ'Â Â © jÃÆ' vu haunts the movie like it's pastime, hitch-stepped ghoulies, and it's hard to shake the impression that we've seen this movie before." Writing for the site Reel Views, James Berardinelli writes that " The Messengers borrow so much from (other horror films) that have no room left for anything.
Prequel
The prequel entitled Messengers 2: The Scarecrow was released on July 21, 2009. The Rollins family is the main character of the film. The film stars Norman Reedus and Australian actress Claire Holt.
Messages
The comic version of the film was published by Dark Horse Comics in January 2007.
See also
- List of ghost movies
References
External links
- Official website
- The Messengers on IMDb
- The Messengers at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Messengers in AllMovie
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments