The Messengers
I didn’t come into “The Messengers” expecting very much and I didn’t come out caring much either way.
Review by Sirus

“The Messengers” has had a fairly decent ad campaign leading up to its release. The team behind the marketing blitz must have thought that children seeing scary stuff in a cliché ghost story movie would save it from being subpar. In a way, it did save the movie from being a complete failure. The little boy in the movie, who is the first one of the family to see the things haunting the house they move into, has a cute look about him even when he is pointing out ghosts to the rest of the family. Apparently the boy was in a car accident a while back after which he stopped speaking. His older sister was the one driving at the time of the accident leading to some animosity between her and her parents. The arguing within the family really just detracts from the experience. It is not in one bit interesting to see a couple arguing about things like children.

The rest of the movie has quite a few good scares but a good portion of them are jump scares and truly creepy moments are short lived. I didn’t come into “The Messengers” expecting very much and I didn’t come out caring much either way. I was on the edge of my seat for a small portion of the movie in one of the two haunts. A good number of high school aged girls sitting in the rows behind me screamed at a lot of the scares but I don’t know if they were really, truly scared. If you know girls who get clingy when they are scared and want to go with them for a strange sort of date, I can see how this movie would suffice. Otherwise, there is no real horror to be found here unless jump scares still make you jump and no gore for the horror fans who’ve been brought up on the recent gory entries in the genre. I give “The Messengers” a 3 only because it did have a few good moments to keep it from totally failing and I wouldn’t feel good rating it lower than Pulse because it was just as fulfilling as that unfulfilling movie. If this movie looks like another formulaic, made-for-teenagers horror movie to you, then follow your gut and stay away. I doubt I will even remember this movie next month.

Final Score: 3/5