The search for autumnal horror movies is a never-ending one. Can it really be that auteurs just don’t—drenched in the California sun—get that October feeling? There’s something in the turning of the leaves and the appearance of pumpkins that changes everything. And it works every year. So it was that I thought of The Messengers. I’d watched this years ago but found it somewhat unremarkable. I seemed to recollect that, being based on a farm, it was autumnal in character, so I decided to try it again. I remembered once more why I hadn’t watched it for years. It’s a serviceable movie, but it is really set in summer (short sleeves the whole way through) and although August farm visits put me in the fall mood, this one is incoherent enough to prevent that feeling from catching on.
Jess is a girl with a past. Driving under the influence, in Chicago, she was in a crash that rendered her baby brother mute. In response her parents decide to move to a sunflower farm in North Dakota. There the crows (actually ravens) attack them. A stranger arrives and offers to help out. Of course the house is haunted because of some past murders, but when the crows attack the hired help, it spurs him into a relapse—he’d lived here before and had killed his family, and so he decides to kill this new one too. Being PG-13, they survive and the house swallows up the murderer from the past. It’s never quite clear what the crows (the presumed messengers) really want to convey. Are they trying to warn the family? Are they trying to awake a killer’s memory? What do they want?
This is an early Kristen Stewart movie—she’ll go on to more sophisticated horror films. William B. Davis, with only cameo appearances, offers echoes of The X-Files. Casting the generally congenial John Corbett as a killer is a bit of a stretch, however. More intriguing, in this more global world, are the directors—the Pang brothers. Known for their east Asian movies, including award-winning horror, they took on this American-themed, shot in Canada, project. It had the backing of a few production companies and a reasonable budget. Still, it struggles to be memorable. I seem to recall that the prequel might’ve been a bit better. But was it autumn-based? I can’t recall and it’s that time of year when seeing falling leaves and a pumpkin or two make for essential viewing.
