DVD review (region 1 and 2)
Directed by Oxide Pang, Danny Pang
Starring Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, John Corbett
Release date 5 June 2007 (US); 13 August 2007 (UK)

And he would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky kids…

North Dakota - the rolling fields, the majestic plains, the amnesiac serial killers. Prime fodder for the most recent effort from Hong Kong horror-meisters the Pang brothers, no? No. From the black and white flashback opener, through to the almost comical denouement, The Messengers is a thoroughly uninspiring hour and a half.

Set on the now obligatory abandoned farmhouse, the Solomon family, headed by a suitably grizzled Dylan McDermott, decide to raise sunflowers and move their troubled daughter to a safer place. Of course, they couldn’t be more wrong. The house was in fact the scene of a brutal series of murders, and the ghosts of the dead family members still haunt – shock! – the creepy cellar.

If horror movies have taught us anything it’s that ghosts hang around for a reason, and they soon reveal their presence to the troubled teen and her baby brother. Here we find the film’s only highpoint, as the first manifestations of the deceased are excellently realised, and their sparing use in the first and second acts provide the only affecting scenes of the entire film.

The DVD itself comes with the standard slew of making-of featurettes and commentary from various cast and crew members. Emma Matthews

VERDICT: 3/10
An unoriginal, mostly scare-free horror that adds nothing to the genre.

Click here for the original cinema review.