The Messengers

:"For the TLC series of the same name, see The Messengers (TV series)."Infobox Film
name = The Messengers


image_size =
caption = Promotional movie poster for the film
director = Oxide Pang
Danny Pang
producer = Lou Arkoff
Sam Raimi
Joseph Drake
Nathan Kahan
Jim Miller
writer = Stuart Beattie
Todd Farmer
Mark Wheaton
narrator =
starring = Kristen Stewart
Dylan McDermott
Penelope Ann Miller
and John Corbett
music = Joseph Doluca
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Sony Pictures Entertainment
released = February 2, 2007
runtime =
country =
language = English
budget = $16 million
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:335521
imdb_id = 0425430

"The Messengers" is a 2007 supernatural thriller film directed by the Pang Brothers (directors of the notable "The Eye" series) and produced by Sam Raimi. It stars Kristen Stewart, Graham Bell, John Corbett, William B. Davis, Dylan McDermott and Penelope Ann Miller. The film is about an ominous darkness that invades a seemingly serene sunflower farm in North Dakota, and the Solomon family is torn apart by suspicion, mayhem, and murder. The film was released on February 2 with the DVD release to commence on June 5. Although the setting of the film is in North Dakota, filming actually took place in the Qu'Appelle Valley near the small community of Abernethy, Saskatchewan, Canada. The graphic novel adaptation was published in January 2007 by Dark Horse Comics, written by Jason Hall and illustrated by Kelley Jones. A prequel film is currently in development.

Plot

At the movie's beginning, a frightened woman is with her son, telling him that he has to be strong and that everything is going to be okay. She hears something coming towards the door and makes her son hide under the bed. The door bursts open and an unseen figure throws the woman against the wall. The son, terrified, runs out of the room and into his sister, who is also scared. She grabs him and runs down the stairs. The boy hides under a table, but his sister is caught and pushed over the stair railings, then she crawls to the son and tells him to run, and soon she is dragged to the hallway to the cellar as her nails scratch on the floor. The boy runs into the kitchen and hides in a cabinet, but he is soon found and pulled out.

Five years later, a new family is moving into the house from the city, hoping to start a sunflower farm. The main character, the daughter in the family, Jess Solomon (Kristen Stewart), is upset about having to move away from her friends. Previous to the events in movie, she had been driving drunk with her younger brother, Ben, a toddler at the time. In her intoxicated state, she caused an accident and since then Ben has been mute. However, her brother sees things the other people cannot see, including the ghosts of the family killed in the movie's opening scenes. To round out the characters, Jess' father, Roy, hires a man by the name of John Burwell to work on the farm. But they never realize that he is the killer of the family before.

Ominous events gradually build: First, the house always seems to have crows flying around it; some crows even attack Roy. Then, Jess has an encounter with one of the ghosts, the sister, in the cellar. She calls 911 and the authorities come, only to find a terrified Jess. The police dismiss it as a false alarm and Jess' parents do not believe her either. While Ben saw what happened, being very young and *mute he cannot confirm her story. Only Bobby, a teenage boy from town whom Jess befriends, supports her.

Jess and Ben have more encounters with the ghosts haunting the house and Jess acquires some scars and bruises from one of them. Her parents think that her wounds are self-inflicted because she wants to leave the house, her life there being so much different from her old one, and will not believe her that ghosts are haunting it. Because her parents don't believe her tensions rise and Jess becomes determined to fix things.

Jess later finds out more details about the Rollins family. According to the locals, the family had lived in the house but left suddenly. However, Jess sees a picture of them, with John in it. It turns out the man who killed the past owners of the house in a fit of madness is actually John, who was the head of the Rollins family. Jess takes Bobby to the house to tell her family before something happens. Back at home, Jess's mother, Denise, is putting Ben to sleep when she notices the blood spot on the wall is coming back even though she has already cleaned it. Turns out, this is the spot where the mother was thrown against the wall, and suddenly Denise sees the spirit of the mother coming out of the wall, right where the blood spot is. She then packs suitcases and starts putting them on the porch. This upsets John, who is having flashbacks of his wife Mary trying to leave him in the same way after he is attacked by a huge murder of crows. He runs to the house to attack Denise. Denise grabs Ben and runs into the cellar to hide. Bobby and Jess arrive and Jess, calls for her mother and father. Then they are attacked by pitchforks. John surprises them from behind and knocks out Bobby. Jess runs into the cellar and bolts the door. While John is looking for something to get into the cellar, Jess runs down to her mother to try and help her. She further barricades the door and blocks all the windows and breaks the lightbulbs so they can stay hidden. John gets into the cellar and looks around for Jess and Denise and Ben. Roy comes home and, following the noise, makes his way into the cellar. Jess calls out to him in warning but, again, John surprises him and stabs him in the back. Denise hides Ben in a box and attacks John but he knocks Denise out with a shovel. He nearly stabs Jess until she rolls away. The three spirits then appear, sinking John into the cellar floor. He then come out and grabs her ankle but she is saved by her family.

At the end of the film things return to normal. The crows stop attacking people, the ghosts stop appearing, and Ben starts talking.

Cast

*Kristen Stewart as Jess Solomon
*Theodore Turner as Ben Solomon
*Evan Turner as Ben Solomon
*Dylan McDermott as Roy Solomon
*Penelope Ann Miller as Denise Solomon
*John Corbett as John Burwell
*William B. Davis as Colby Price
*Brent Briscoe as Plume
*Dustin Milligan as Bobby
*Jodelle Ferland as Michael Rollins
*Shirley Mcqueen as Mary Rollins
*Tatiana Maslany as Linsday Rollins

Box Office

"The Messengers" placed first in box office receipts for the weekend of February 2-4, 2007. In its first weekend of release the film grossed $14,713,321. [http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/] . As of February 23, 2008, the film had grossed $54,957,265. [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=messengers.htm]

External links

* [http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/themessengers/ Official site]
*imdb title|id=0425430|title=The Messengers
*rotten-tomatoes|id=the_messengers|title=The Messengers
* [http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/themessengers/ Movie's site at Sony Pictures] Box Office Leaders USA
before = Epic Movie
date = February 4
year = 2007
after = Norbit