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Rating 2
Directed by Christian Alvert
Written by Ray Wright
Starring Renée Zellweger (Emily Jenkins), Jodelle Ferland (Lillith Sullivan), Ian McShane (Detective Mike Barren), Bradley Cooper (Douglas J Ames), Adrian Lester (Wayne), Cynthia Stevenson (Nancy), Alexander Conti (Diego Ramirez), Kerry O’Malley (Margaret Sullivan) and Callum Keith Rennie (Edward Sullivan)
Emily Jenkins is a social worker who already has 38 active cases, but is given two more to add to her impossible workload. She wearily picks up the first one and is fascinated by the case of 10-year-old Lillith Sullivan. After visiting the parents, she becomes convinced that Lillith is in real danger, but there is no evidence to allow her to act. However, she gives Lillith her cell phone number and after a terrified late night call she rushes to the Sullivan house, putting a call into her friend, the police detective Mike Barren. They break down the door and discover that the parents are attempting to roast their daughter alive in the oven. Emily is given temporary custody of Lillith while a suitable foster family is found for her, but she soon begins to realise that Lillith is not all that she seems.
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The German film director Christian Alvert came to the attention of Hollywood following his 2005 film ‘Antikörper’ (Antibodies). The science-fiction film ‘Pandorum’ was his first American venture to be released and that was followed by the horror film ‘Case 39’, which was filmed in late 2006 and originally due for release in February 2008. It was eventually released into New Zealand cinemas in August 2009, followed by numerous other markets around the world, but it was not until October 2010 that it limped out in America. Reaction to the film was generally negative and it has a 22% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 63 collected reviews. It had a production budget of $26 million and grossed a little over $28 million at the box office.
The film deals with a tried and tested horror theme that children are evil and often possessed by the Devil. The obvious influences here do not take too much guessing – ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘The Omen’. The film does need to be taken with a pinch of salt and does require a willing suspension of disbelief; not, oddly, because of the supernatural or horror element, but in response to more mundane moments in the plot. It beggars belief that Emily, the children’s social worker, would be permitted to become Lillith’s temporary carer and guardian. Perhaps even harder to believe is the manner in which Mike Barren, who had previously been seriously skeptical and concerned for Emily’s psychological health, so easily changes his mind and comes to believe her story, based on just one very indistinct and ambiguous phone call. This particular moment in the film and the scenes immediately after it seem rushed and yet the film generally rather drags and is a good 20 minutes too long. It runs out of steam long before the end. Having said this, there are some very effective individual scenes along the way and the film is not a complete dud.
I am not fond of Renée Zelleweger’s acting style and find her quite difficult to watch, but she is okay here as far as it goes. Jodelle Ferland is suitably creepy and unpleasant in the role of Lillith. It’s always nice to see Cynthia Stevenson in a film, although she has a small and a relatively inconsequential role.
Review posted 21 November 2010
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Rating 3
Directed by Danny Pang and Oxide Pang Chun : Written by Mark Wheaton, based on a story by Todd Farmer : Starring Kristen Stewart, Penelope Ann Miller, Dylan McDermott, John Corbett, William B Davis, Dustin Milligan, Evan Turner, Theodore Turner, Tatiana Maslany and Jodelle Ferland
Roy Solomon (Dylan McDermott) takes his family from Chicago to live on a remote and dilapidated farm in North Dakota where he plans to make a fresh start and cultivate a crop of sunflowers. Roy cannot afford to pay for farm labour, but offers Burwell (John Corbett), a passing stranger, food and lodgings and a small cut of the profits to work on the farm.
Jessica (Kristen Stewart) and her mother Denise (Penelope Ann Miller) are barely on speaking terms and tensions in the family worsen still when Jessica begins to display a barely concealed fear of the house and claims she and her young brother Ben (twins Evan and Theodore Turner) were attacked by apparently supernatural forces. Ben is mute and cannot corroborate her story. The deadly secrets contained in the old house seem to be inexorably linked to the crows that swoop around the fields that surround it.
The Pang brothers from Hong Kong are famous for the acclaimed 2002 film ‘Gin gwai’ (‘The Eye’) and its two sequels. ‘The Messengers’ contains several examples of the distinctive visual imagery common in J-horror films, but it is not in that league.
It is decidedly derivative, adding nothing new to the haunted house genre. Some muddle in the detail suggests editing after the fact, but it also has much to commend it for fans of genre, which I would count myself amongst. However, it is no better than ‘The Return’, the critically mauled Sarah Michelle Gellar film that followed a vaguely similar narrative.
17-year-old Kristen Stewart has been mentioned as an actress to look out for in the future and her performance is perfectly fine. Her portrayal of the sullen teenager is believable, but she is not especially noteworthy in this particular role, apart from being wafer-thin, even by current Hollywood standards. She is perhaps best known for her roles in ‘Panic Room’ and the Oscar-nominated Sean Penn film ‘Into The Wild’.
Stewart does fare better than Penelope Ann Miller and Dylan McDermott, whose roles give them little to work with. It was nice to see John Corbett, who I have paid little attention to since his days in the television series ‘Northern Exposure’. William B Davis, a very distinctive actor celebrated for his role as the cigarette smoking man in ‘The X Files’, is wasted in a small role that initially offers much but goes nowhere.
‘The Messengers’ was produced by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, which was also responsible for other cheap and cheerful haunted house films like ‘The Grudge’ and ‘Boogeyman’. It has an 11% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes, which is par for the course for this type of film, and grossed $55 million at the box office against a production budget of $16 million.
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Rating 2¾
Directed by Christophe Gans
Written by Roger Avery
Starring Radha Mitchell, Laurie Holden, Alice Krige, Sean Bean and Jodelle Ferland
I rented this one some months ago, hated it on first viewing and then began to change my initial reaction to it when I watched it again for a second time the following night.
It has been fizzing away in the back of my mind ever since. Images from the film have stayed with me and clearly there was something about it that made an impression. I was finally able to purchase a copy recently and I have now watched it for a third time.
I know the film, which was written by Roger Avary, something that might have put me off if I’d known in advance (such are my general feelings of aversion to Quentin Tarentino), is based on a series of computer games, but since I have absolutely no interest in computer games and know nothing about them it makes no difference to me. What I can say is that this is, as far as I know, the first film based on a computer game I have actually managed to sit through from beginning to end. As examples, I’ve never watched the ‘Tomb Raider’ films and I gave up on ‘Resident Evil’ after about ten minutes.
I’ll quickly deal with the “cons” first. The plot is somewhat silly, but what horror film isn’t? Visually some of the special effects are quite derivative, or at least very reminiscent of other films, but that is the nature of these things, as each new advance is made in the technologies available. I would guess the effects utilised here were state-of-the-art at the time. Sean Bean is amongst the cast. I don’t like Sean Bean. I have no particular reason for this; it’s just an irrational thing. In this specific instance, Bean, with his bluff Yorkshire persona, playing an American doesn’t work as well for me as probably an American actor would have done playing the role. Having said that, the lead actress, Radha Mitchell, is Australian (she got her first major acting break in the daily TV soap ‘Neighbours’) and I don’t have any problem with her playing an American.
What I like about the film is the genuine nightmare quality. It’s surreal and queasy and oddly unsettling, but I don’t find it stomach-churning. Some of the visual imagery is really impressive, especially in the first half of the film. It has a melancholy feel that I like, something it has in common with films like ‘The Fog’ and ‘The Return’. The film it probably most reminds me of is John Carpenter’s ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’. If you happen to like women in uniform kicking ass (not really my thing, to be honest) – well, that would be a bonus.
This is not a classic film and there is nothing in particular to recommend it for, but I have now watched it three times, so it must have something that appeals to me.
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Emily Jenkins is a social worker who already has 38 active cases, but is given two more to add to her impossible workload. She wearily picks up the first one and is fascinated by the case of 10-year-old Lillith Sullivan. After visiting the parents, she becomes convinced that Lillith is in real danger, but there is no evidence to allow her to act. However, she gives Lillith her cell phone number and after a terrified late night call she rushes to the Sullivan house, putting a call into her friend, the police detective Mike Barren. They break down the door and discover that the parents are attempting to roast their daughter alive in the oven. Emily is given temporary custody of Lillith while a suitable foster family is found for her, but she soon begins to realise that Lillith is not all that she seems.
The film deals with a tried and tested horror theme that children are evil and often possessed by the Devil. The obvious influences here do not take too much guessing – ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘The Omen’. The film does need to be taken with a pinch of salt and does require a willing suspension of disbelief; not, oddly, because of the supernatural or horror element, but in response to more mundane moments in the plot. It beggars belief that Emily, the children’s social worker, would be permitted to become Lillith’s temporary carer and guardian. Perhaps even harder to believe is the manner in which Mike Barren, who had previously been seriously skeptical and concerned for Emily’s psychological health, so easily changes his mind and comes to believe her story, based on just one very indistinct and ambiguous phone call. This particular moment in the film and the scenes immediately after it seem rushed and yet the film generally rather drags and is a good 20 minutes too long. It runs out of steam long before the end. Having said this, there are some very effective individual scenes along the way and the film is not a complete dud.
