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Messengers, The
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment


3.4

based on 16 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 19 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic material, disturbing violence and terror

Starring Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, John Corbett, Evan Turner, Theodore Turner, William B. Davis, and Brent Briscoe

The Solomon family has left the fast paced life of Chicago for the secluded world of a North Dakota farm. Amidst the tranquil sway of the farm's field of sunflowers, Jess, 16, soon realizes how terrifying seclusion can be when she and her brother Ben, 3, begin seeing ominous apparitions invisible to everyone else. (Sony)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Horror \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Mark Wheaton Todd Farmer (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Oxide Pang Chun Danny Pang
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 5, 2007 Theatrical: February 2, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	84 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The trouble isn't just that this haunted-house story, written by Mark Wheaton and directed by Hong Kong filmmakers Danny and Oxide Pang, is both formulaic and derivative. It's that it's completely free of atmosphere, the very thing that their 2002 "The Eye" had in such creepy abundance.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The Messengers, dutifully cobbles together a pastiche of successful horror films past--"The Grudge," "The Sixth Sense," "The Birds," "The Amityville Horror," and "The Shining"--without asserting a single original idea of its own.

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

Like too many horror pictures, The Messengers becomes more boringly prosaic as it goes along, and there's an 11th-hour plot twist so dumb and poorly articulated that it destroys the movie. That's a shame, because shot for shot, the Pangs might be the most terrifying filmmakers alive.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

Though the Pangs prove culturally adaptive on a visual level, they seem completely clueless as to the tonal modalities of Mark Wheaton's admittedly undercooked, all-American script.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Earns points for its set and sound design, eerily desaturated color palette, able cast, and one really good special effect. Sadly, the movie just doesn't deliver chills.

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

There are a few decent jolts in The Messengers, but every one of them is accompanied by a cheap freak-out on the soundtrack so you know to be decently jolted.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

This spook story is a surprisingly mediocre Hollywood debut for Hong Kong's Pang brothers.

Los Angeles Times Sam Adams

The Messengers is at once ruthlessly efficient and shamelessly distended.

Philadelphia Inquirer Tirdad Derakhshani

A predictable, by-the-numbers TV-movie-sized affair which will break your heart - especially since it also contains brief flashes of horror greatness.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The Messengers is textbook, and the course it's teaching is HSL: Horror as a Second Language.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It's a little sad that The Messengers is ultimately a good candidate for burial in a toxic waste dump because there are some good elements contained herein.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

A tepid ghost story filled with all the usual things that go bump in the night minus the somewhat crucial element of suspense, this bland effort from Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert's Ghost House Pictures is surprisingly devoid of the creepy, claustrophobic atmospherics that haunt the brothers' Asian work.

LA Weekly Jim Ridley

The end result looks heavily doctored: The Sam Raimi-produced feature is a badly acted, nonsensical patchwork of fake scares, crow attacks and wall-crawling CGI spooks, capped by a DVD extra of an ending that must have the real resolution gagged somewhere in a closet.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's nicely photographed but slow-moving, dull and utterly predictable.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Extremely boring.

Film Threat Mark Bell

The story is so ridiculously obvious it's not even remotely enjoyable.

The average user rating for this movie is 3.4 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Josh gave it a0:
Terrible movie. I have a hard time thinking of one that was worse. No redeeming qualities whatsoever with this "movie". What took me most off guard was that it was heavily advertised, so obviously it was a big budget flick. Then I saw the movie, and I almost thought I had picked up the wrong thing, seeing as how it was as B movie as you get. Don't even bother watching this one once, it sucks horribly.

Jeno M gave it a1:
Painfully slow and predictable storyline, meaning no real plot. Seen-it-before people crawling on ceilings. Some of the worst acting and directing as well. Can't believe I got suckered in by the trailer. That's what I get for not checking here first.

Iain T. gave it a0:
I desperately wanted to give this film a rating of 1 but in order to do that I have to be able to come up with a redeeming factor that would warrant such an award but this Amityville/Poltergeist wannabe was so devoid of anything even remotely original that it gets a big fat Greek zero from me (see what I did there John Corbett, I'm so funny).

Eric C. gave it a0:
Holy crap, JoJo. Are you serious? "Not for the faint of heart"? Go watch some Cronenberg and tell me how you feel (I suggest starting with Videodrome). If you had a hard time stomaching this laughably tame trash, you might just throw up your guts with real horror movies.

Dan S. gave it a3:
Scary House? Check. Moody Teen? Check. Every other cliche' from every horror movie ever? Check. Yeah, take "The Amityville Horror", "The Birds", and "The Grudge", add crap, and blend them all together and then you get this movie. I only saw it cause there was nothing else to see, I didn't expect to be impressed, and I wasn't.

A Movie Critic gave it a4:
I found it pretty boring. The Pang brothers have a talent for building suspense and some creepy shots but overall this movie was slow and predictable. It's got a series of jump scares but nothing that is REALLY scary. A plot twist at the end was explained pretty poorly. It's not like I hate this type of movie (I liked movies such as the Pulse remake and the Japanese Grudge movies, and even the Grudge remakes were enjoyable) but this one just didn't do it for me. Kristen Stewart looked bored, and didn't make for a particularly compelling lead. Scares were OBVIOUSLY set up, often making little sense. And the setting really wasn't scary at all. (Most of the movie takes place in broad daylight.) Just, not recommended.

Tony L gave it a0:
Ye Gods! This was a terrible movie. Can some one tell me how I can get some of those super fast growing sunflowers? Kristen, call Jodie and see if she can get you a part in her next film.

Messengers, The Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment

Messengers, The
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment