13 Nights of Hallowe'en: Night #5 The Messengers

Tonight we have a movie that isn’t going to immediately
find comparison to something else based on just the title or a trailer. The movie is “The Messengers” directed by the Pang brothers. Oxide and Danny Pang are Hong Kong film creators responsible for the original “The Eye” and two sequels--a new one is schedules under someone else. Despite that, this movie does not appear to be a remake of any Hong Kong or other Asian film for that matter. This is immediately a good thing since that particular kind of remake is generally not more than just an alternate version, and subbed versions of the original are the preference amongst the English-speaking fans of the original films. This is also a good thing because it means it is the first run at the movie’s concept.

“The Messengers” is a haunted house story. The first thing anyone needs to know is in the lengthy movie tagline itself, “There is evidence to suggest that children are highly susceptible to paranormal phenomena. They see what adults cannot. ...” This idea is a common parapsychological tenet, though it does get a little lost in the movie, causing unnecessary confusion among some viewers as evinced by their comments about the film. The Solomon siblings are aware that their new house is haunted, but of course for their parents to understand this fact things will have to get pretty wild and crazy. One of the working titles for the film was “Scarecrow”, which explains some things. The crows are indicative of more than meets eye to anyone who knows what a psychopomp is.

Mood: relieved.
Music: Haunted by Evanescence of of Fallen.