Messengers (2007)

"...shot for shot, the Pangs might be the most terrifying filmmakers alive.  Matt Zoller Seitz, The New York Times
"...a pastiche of successful horror films past--"The Grudge," "The Sixth Sense," "The Birds," "The Amityville Horror"...  Scott Tobias, The Onion A.V. Club

Editor's Note Twin filmmakers Danny and Oxide Pang's creepy 2003 feature THE EYE earned them enough kudos to make the leap to Hollywood, and their first effort is the creepy chiller THE MESSENGERS. A Chicago-based family comprised of Roy (Dylan McDermott), his wife, Denise (Penelope Ann Miller), their teenage daughter, Jess (Kristen Stewart), and young son, Ben (played by twins Evan and Theodore Turner) try to put the hard times behind them with a move to a picturesque farmhouse in North Dakota. Jess quickly becomes convinced that the house is haunted after some peculiar occurrences while she's alone there with young Ben. But Ben can't articulate what he's seen, and Jess's story is met with skepticism by her parents. It soon becomes apparent that past family tensions are slowly boiling to the surface. Meanwhile, the ghosts keep coming, and the Pang brothers never keep their audience waiting for long before another nerve-jangling scene shudders into view. But as the ghosts torment their new residents, Jess does a little research on the old farmhouse and discovers a few secrets that may just hold the key to why this is all happening. Packed full of CGI effects and a few moments that may cause a jump or two, THE MESSENGERS is a horror movie aimed at a young audience and not horror aficionados, as indicated by its PG-13 rating.

	Dylan McDermott
	John Corbett
	Kristen Stewart
	Penelope Ann Miller
	Alicia Keywan - Production Designer
	Danny Pang - Director
	David Geddes - Cinematographer
	John Axelrad, et. al. - Editor
	Joseph Drake - Executive Producer
	Joseph LoDuca - Original Music By
	Ken Watkins - Art Director
	Mark Wheaton - Screenplay
	Oxide Pang Chun - Director
	Sam Raimi - Producer
	Todd Farmer - Based On Story By

The Guardian 7 of 10
Like Takashi "The Grudge" Shimizu, Hong Kong's cult horror directors Oxide and Danny Pang have been brought inside the Hollywood tent by producer Sam Raimi for their first English-language feature. It's pretty ordinary genre stuff, written by US screenwriters who cut their teeth on the Friday the 13th franchise. The result is a cross between videogame-style American horror and Asian-extreme exotica: gaunt midwest farmhouses infested with horrid imps with black hair and grey skin doing their creepy, creaky heavy breathing. - Peter Bradshaw