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The Messengers
2007; directed by Danny Pang and Oxide Pang

Danny and Oxide Pang make their English-language debut with The Messengers, which frankly doesn't have that great of a premise -- a freaky little kid can see dead people -- and it can't even follow through on that. Hardcore Twilight nerds wanting to check out an earlier role from Kristen Stewart might want to peep this, but most everyone else is going to be bored stiff.

The movie centers around a family who moves from Chicago to North Dakota so they can begin farming and patching their life back together. The family's toddler begins acting strange because he can see the ghosts living in the house. Eventually, the teenage daughter (Kristen Stewart) begins seeing the ghosts as well, and pieces the story together of why the house is haunted.

When you discover why the hause is haunted, and see the events that come afterwards, it's most likely going to generate an annoyed groan rather than shocks. The Messengers subscribes to the whole overused "twist ending" gimmick, which became popularized with The Sixth Sense, and quickly got tired. If the movie managed to create any sort of tension during its' running time, then the lame ending might have been able to be forgiven, at least to an extent.

But that's not the case. The Messengers is bland, by-the-books, PG-13 "horror" all the way, full of stuff like cheap "scares" provded by animals jumping out at people, and, as is par for these types of movies, "ghosts" being actors with dyed black hair and white makeup. The lack of creativity in the script seems to have transferred on to the actors -- most of them look like they don't want to be there. And after finishing The Messengers, the viewer should be able to sympathize with them.

RATING: 3

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