The Messengers
Encyclopedia
The Messengers is a 2007 American horror film, directed by the Pang Brothers, and produced by Sam Raimi
. It stars Kristen Stewart
, 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—the owners of the farm—who are torn apart by suspicion, mayhem, and murder
.
The film was released on February 2, with the DVD
released 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
. The prequel, Messengers 2: The Scarecrow, was released on June 21, 2009.
Five years later, a small family from Chicago
move into the house, hoping to start a sunflower
farm. The main character, the teenage daughter in the family, Jess Solomon, is upset about having to move away from her friends. Prior to the events in movie, she had driven drunk with her younger brother, Ben, a toddler at the time, in the car with her. In her intoxicated state, she got into an accident. Her little brother was injured and as a result, was hospitalized and does not speak
. Also due to the accident, her father, Roy and mother, Denise, have a hard time trusting their daughter. The father, Roy Solomon, who grew up in the next county and has previous farming experience, moves his family to the farm believing the move will heal his family.
Ominous events gradually build. The house always seems to have crow
s flying around it. Some crows even attack Roy, but are driven off by a drifter named John Burwell, whom Roy then hires to help him work the farm. Ben sees the ghosts of the mother and children in the house, although they do not seem to scare him. Jess is aware of their presence but cannot initially see them until they attempt to drag her into the cellar. The adults have no perception of them at all. Jess has an encounter with one of the ghosts, the sister, in the cellar. Afterward, she calls 9-1-1
and the police arrive, but find nothing. They find 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. One encounter in particular, an attack that occurs in the barn, results in Jess acquiring some cuts and bruises. While in the barn, Jess sees a little boy, arms around his legs, his back toward Jess. When she tries to ask him if he's okay, he does not reply. She then comes closer to the boy. The boy turns around and reveals his face, his eyes white, his skin pale and with grey cuts on his face. Later, Jess is rushed to the hospital. Her parents think that her wounds are self-inflicted because she wants to leave the house and return to the city, and they will not believe that ghosts are haunting it. Because her parents do not believe her, tensions rise and Jess becomes determined to fix things.
Jess later finds out more details about the previous owners of the house, the Rollins family. According to the locals, the Rollins had lived in the house, but left suddenly six years before. However, at a local store Jess sees a picture of the family, with the father revealed to be none other than John Burwell, who has always been kind to her. As it turns out, John Burwell is actually John Rollins, the head of the Rollins family and the man who, in a fit of madness, killed his family. Frightened and anxious, Jess takes Bobby back to the house to warn her family before it is too late.
Back at home, Jess' mother, Denise, is putting Ben to sleep when she notices the blood spot on the wall coming back even though she has already cleaned it. This is the spot where the mother, Mary Rollins, was thrown against the wall. Suddenly Denise sees the spirit of the mother coming out of the bloodstain on the wall. Terrified and determined to leave, Denise packs suitcases and places them on the front porch. John, after being attacked by crows, is confused and believes Denise is his wife Mary, trying to leave him in the same way Mary had, years before. He runs to the house to attack Denise, believing that she is his wife. Denise grabs Ben and runs into the cellar to hide from their attacker.
Bobby and Jess arrive and Jess calls for her mother and father. John attacks them from behind with a pitchfork
, knocking Bobby out in the process. Jess runs into the cellar and bolts the door. While John is looking for some way to get into the cellar, Jess finds Denise and Ben and together further barricade the door, block all the windows and breaks the light bulbs so they can stay hidden in darkness. John is able to get into the cellar and looks around for the three, still believing they are his family. Roy arrives to help Ben and Denise, but is stabbed by John with the pitchfork. However, John's ghostly family arise from the their graves beneath the cellar and grab their patriarch. As his family vengefully pull him to join them underground, John grabs Jess' leg to save himself from sinking below. Jess' parents work together to save their daughter by pulling her free from John's grip before he sinks beneath the cellar with his family.
Thanks to Bobby, the police and paramedics arrive shortly after the attack ends. Roy is loaded into the ambulance so his wounds can be tended to and both he and Denise apologize to Jess for not believing her and promise to never doubt her again. As the film ends, things return to normal. The crows no longer attack, the ghosts stop appearing and Ben starts talking again. The family appears to be normal once more and the house and land look better than ever.
, it holds a 5.2 out of 10.
and Australian actress Claire Holt
.
Sam Raimi
Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...
. It stars Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She has also starred in films including Panic Room , Zathura , In the Land of Women , The Messengers , Adventureland and The Runaways .- Early life :Stewart was born and raised in Los...
, John Corbett, William B. Davis
William B. Davis
William Bruce Davis is a Canadian actor, known for his role as The Smoking Man on The X-Files. He has also appeared in Stargate SG-1 as Damaris, a Prior of the Ori and as Mayor Tate on Smallville...
, Dylan McDermott
Dylan McDermott
Mark Anthony McDermott , better known by his professional name of Dylan McDermott, is an American actor, known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the television legal drama The Practice and his role in the series Dark Blue as Lt. Carter Shaw. McDermott currently stars in FX...
, and Penelope Ann Miller
Penelope Ann Miller
Penelope Ann Miller , sometimes credited as Penelope Miller, is an American actress...
. The film is about an ominous darkness that invades a seemingly serene sunflower farm in North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
, and the Solomon family—the owners of the farm—who are torn apart by suspicion, mayhem, and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
.
The film was released on February 2, with the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
released 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
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The graphic novel adaptation was published in January 2007 by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
, written by Jason Hall, and illustrated by Kelley Jones
Kelley Jones
Kelley Jones is an American comic book artist best known for his runs on Batman with writer Doug Moench and on Sandman with writer Neil Gaiman.-Biography:...
. The prequel, Messengers 2: The Scarecrow, was released on June 21, 2009.
Plot
At the movie's beginning, a mom says to her son that he has to be strong and that everything is going to be okay. They are packing a suitcase, when she hears something coming towards the door and makes her son hide under the bed. The door bursts open and something throws the woman against the wall. The son, terrified, runs out of the room and into his equally scared sister. 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 and is obviously injured. She then crawls to the boy and tells him to run, and soon she is dragged to the cellar as her nails scratch on the floor. The boy runs into the kitchen and hides in a cabinet. He is in the dark except for a crack of light that goes down the middle of his face. The light gets wider as he is found and pulled out. The sequence then ends.Five years later, a small family from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
move into the house, hoping to start a sunflower
Sunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...
farm. The main character, the teenage daughter in the family, Jess Solomon, is upset about having to move away from her friends. Prior to the events in movie, she had driven drunk with her younger brother, Ben, a toddler at the time, in the car with her. In her intoxicated state, she got into an accident. Her little brother was injured and as a result, was hospitalized and does not speak
Selective mutism
Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder in which a person, most often a child, who is normally capable of speech is unable to speak in given situations, or to specific people...
. Also due to the accident, her father, Roy and mother, Denise, have a hard time trusting their daughter. The father, Roy Solomon, who grew up in the next county and has previous farming experience, moves his family to the farm believing the move will heal his family.
Ominous events gradually build. The house always seems to have crow
Crow
Crows form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-size jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents and several...
s flying around it. Some crows even attack Roy, but are driven off by a drifter named John Burwell, whom Roy then hires to help him work the farm. Ben sees the ghosts of the mother and children in the house, although they do not seem to scare him. Jess is aware of their presence but cannot initially see them until they attempt to drag her into the cellar. The adults have no perception of them at all. Jess has an encounter with one of the ghosts, the sister, in the cellar. Afterward, she calls 9-1-1
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
and the police arrive, but find nothing. They find it as a false alarm and Jess' parents do not believe her either. While Ben saw what happened, being very young and mute
Muteness
Muteness or mutism is an inability to speak caused by a speech disorder. The term originates from the Latin word mutus, meaning "silent".-Causes:...
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. One encounter in particular, an attack that occurs in the barn, results in Jess acquiring some cuts and bruises. While in the barn, Jess sees a little boy, arms around his legs, his back toward Jess. When she tries to ask him if he's okay, he does not reply. She then comes closer to the boy. The boy turns around and reveals his face, his eyes white, his skin pale and with grey cuts on his face. Later, Jess is rushed to the hospital. Her parents think that her wounds are self-inflicted because she wants to leave the house and return to the city, and they will not believe that ghosts are haunting it. Because her parents do not believe her, tensions rise and Jess becomes determined to fix things.
Jess later finds out more details about the previous owners of the house, the Rollins family. According to the locals, the Rollins had lived in the house, but left suddenly six years before. However, at a local store Jess sees a picture of the family, with the father revealed to be none other than John Burwell, who has always been kind to her. As it turns out, John Burwell is actually John Rollins, the head of the Rollins family and the man who, in a fit of madness, killed his family. Frightened and anxious, Jess takes Bobby back to the house to warn her family before it is too late.
Back at home, Jess' mother, Denise, is putting Ben to sleep when she notices the blood spot on the wall coming back even though she has already cleaned it. This is the spot where the mother, Mary Rollins, was thrown against the wall. Suddenly Denise sees the spirit of the mother coming out of the bloodstain on the wall. Terrified and determined to leave, Denise packs suitcases and places them on the front porch. John, after being attacked by crows, is confused and believes Denise is his wife Mary, trying to leave him in the same way Mary had, years before. He runs to the house to attack Denise, believing that she is his wife. Denise grabs Ben and runs into the cellar to hide from their attacker.
Bobby and Jess arrive and Jess calls for her mother and father. John attacks them from behind with a pitchfork
Pitchfork
A pitchfork is an agricultural tool with a long handle and long, thin, widely separated pointed tines used to lift and pitch loose material, such as hay, leaves, grapes, dung or other agricultural materials. Pitchforks typically have two or three tines...
, knocking Bobby out in the process. Jess runs into the cellar and bolts the door. While John is looking for some way to get into the cellar, Jess finds Denise and Ben and together further barricade the door, block all the windows and breaks the light bulbs so they can stay hidden in darkness. John is able to get into the cellar and looks around for the three, still believing they are his family. Roy arrives to help Ben and Denise, but is stabbed by John with the pitchfork. However, John's ghostly family arise from the their graves beneath the cellar and grab their patriarch. As his family vengefully pull him to join them underground, John grabs Jess' leg to save himself from sinking below. Jess' parents work together to save their daughter by pulling her free from John's grip before he sinks beneath the cellar with his family.
Thanks to Bobby, the police and paramedics arrive shortly after the attack ends. Roy is loaded into the ambulance so his wounds can be tended to and both he and Denise apologize to Jess for not believing her and promise to never doubt her again. As the film ends, things return to normal. The crows no longer attack, the ghosts stop appearing and Ben starts talking again. The family appears to be normal once more and the house and land look better than ever.
Cast
- Kristen StewartKristen StewartKristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She has also starred in films including Panic Room , Zathura , In the Land of Women , The Messengers , Adventureland and The Runaways .- Early life :Stewart was born and raised in Los...
as Jess Solomon - Dylan McDermottDylan McDermottMark Anthony McDermott , better known by his professional name of Dylan McDermott, is an American actor, known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the television legal drama The Practice and his role in the series Dark Blue as Lt. Carter Shaw. McDermott currently stars in FX...
as Roy Solomon - Penelope Ann MillerPenelope Ann MillerPenelope Ann Miller , sometimes credited as Penelope Miller, is an American actress...
as Denise Solomon - John Corbett as John Burwell/John Rollins
- Evan Turner as Ben Solomon
- Theodore Turner as Ben Solomon
- Jodelle FerlandJodelle FerlandJodelle Micah Ferland is a Canadian actress, best known for her portrayal of Sharon and Alessa in the 2006 horror film Silent Hill, Mary Jensen in the 2004 miniseries Kingdom Hospital and her portrayal of Bree Tanner in the The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.-Life and career:Ferland was born in Nanaimo,...
as Michael Rollins - Dustin MilliganDustin MilliganDustin Wallace Milligan is a Canadian film and television actor known for his role as Ethan Ward on 90210.-Life and career:...
as Bobby - Brent Briscoe as Plume
- Tatiana MaslanyTatiana Maslany-Acting career:Maslany is one of the stars of the Canadian TV series 2030 CE and is best known in her role as the character Ghost in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed...
as Lindsay Rollins - Shirley McQueen as Mary 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. As of February 23, 2008, the film had grossed $54,957,265.Critical response
The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. It holds a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus being "The Messengers is an atmospheric but derivative rip-off of countless other horror movies.". On imdb.comInternet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
, it holds a 5.2 out of 10.
Prequel
A prequel titled Messengers 2: The Scarecrow was released on July 21, 2009. The Rollins Family are the film's main characters. It stars Norman ReedusNorman Reedus
Norman Mark Reedus is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal as Murphy MacManus in the 1999 film The Boondock Saints as well as its 2009 sequel The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day and for the character of Daryl Dixon in the AMC television series The Walking Dead...
and Australian actress Claire Holt
Claire Holt
Claire Holt is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Emma Gilbert on the television show H2O: Just Add Water.- Early life :...
.