Movie Review: ‘The Messengers’

By Nicole Withers

As I strolled out of the movie theater, I thought to myself, “Where have all the good movies gone?” Yet another waste of almost $10 has left me disappointed and broke. I have just gone to see the new movie The Messengers. The first problem: bad script, the second: bad acting. It goes on and on from there.

If you haven’t heard, The Messengers is about a 16-year-old girl, Jess, played by Kristen Stewart, who begins to see ghosts in her new home in the cornfields of North Dakota. After more than half of the movie, I realized that “the messengers” are actually black crows trying to warn Jess and her little brother about the bad spirits of the house.

I never actually figured out why the spirits were haunting the humans … Jess’s credibility when telling people about the ghosts is low. Through flashbacks and implications, the audience can tell that Jess has told a few lies in her past that lead her parents to question everything she says.

Over all, the storyline is confusing. It is written poorly with too many gaps and holes in the plot. While I won’t deny that there are certain scenes that will make you jump, or adequate suspense, there is a predictable plot twist at the end that follows a string of other predictable horror movie maneuvers.

At one point, I was reminded of Brokeback Mountain with the father and a farm hand. It was nice to see John Corbett in something other than a romantic comedy, though. Penelope Ann Miller played a good and believable part as the mom and Dylan McDermott is always nice to look at as the dad, but Jess’s boyfriend needed some serious acting lessons.

The Messengers is rated PG 13, which I think is appropriate. I would recommend this to those intended 13 year olds. Adults can find much better horror movies than this.