Sometimes movies end up getting lame titles. Titles that don’t give you much visual fodder to guess what they might be about. I really hate that and that’s the case with The Messengers. I had no clue what it might be about: aliens, postal workers, wartime carrier pigeons? As a result, I put this movie on the backburner for review and almost skipped it entirely. That would’ve been a shame because it’s far better than its title implies.

The first thing I noticed was that The Messengers is a Pang Brothers film. That name proved to interesting for me to ignore, so I did a bit of research. They are Danny Pang Fat and Oxide Pang Chun, twin brother directors from Hong Kong. They’re quite famous for their film called The Eye, a huge hit with Asian audiences (as well as having both an American and Hindi re-make). Before they made it on a global level, they began working in the Thailand film scene starting out with their first film, Bangkok Dangerous, in 1999. They’re an amazing pair that I plan to do a special feature on in the coming future.

Now on to the story. What you’ll witness is a terrifying tale of a teenage girl from Chicago facing up to the ultimate horror: moving with her family to a sunflower seed farm in North Dakota. Okay, I skewed that a touch, but that’s pretty awful, right? The real deal is that The Messengers references the belief that children bear witness to supernatural happenings that adults often ignore and that many times these children are trying to warn us. In essence, it’s the old supernatural thriller angle and it’s done extremely well.

What makes the deal even sweeter is that the feeling that the Pang Brothers are connected strongly to these modern times. Aside from the obvious otherworldly events, the underlying story shows a modern family trying to make ends meet and dealing with the stress that situation brings. Each of the actors in the family of four bring alot of sincerity to their roles and it immediately feels like a genuine family trying to stick together despite very clear emotional barriers due to their roles within the family, emotional baggage from the past and clear generation gap. Instead of confusing the movie by muddying up the story, this genius layering style creates exceptional depth and richness. No wonder Dark Horse Comics brought it out as a graphic novel, it’d translate so well into any medium except maybe video games.

Some "brief" info about the actors I enjoyed most, before we move on. Dylan McDermott, who I found entertaining in Party Monster, Twister and Tales from the Crypt (the episode called This’ll Kill Ya) does well. Strangely though, his work in The Practice tends to sway me away from liking him by association. Nothing personal, just made it tougher to view him outside that role in his newer films. Hopefully that will fade with time because he is a decent actor and played the fatherly role quite well in this movie.

Then there’s John Corbett, a regular from Northern Exposure, plus the star of one of my favorite and sadly gone The Visitor (which I can’t find on DVD so if you know where to get it, please let me know!). There’s a mystical element to this guy that I can’t quite put my finger on. He does extremely well at playing the kind of characters whose eyes seem to gaze past our present reality and into a vast realm of possibility. Maybe it’s because he’s a vegetarian? I don’t know but I do admire his ability to truly "become" the person he’s playing. He’s got some sort of Native American quality to him, as if he’d have made a terrific shaman in a bygone era. Glad he’s able to translate that to the screen so well these days.

In a tie-in to my previous review of The Dark Half, this movie also features a child actor represented as the opposite of her gender. That’d be Jodelle Ferland! Yes, that’s right the star of Kingdom Hospital and my recently reviewed Silent Hill (read if’n ya want). She nails her part once again, even if she is playing "Michael Rollins". What a terrific actress to consistently provide such solid performances in all these horror movies. The girl’s got a bright future ahead of her, I say.

Oh, and lest we forget, William B. Davis makes a characteristicly sinister appearance in The Messengers. I’m always glad to see him because he won me over long ago in his role as "Cigarette Smoking Man" in The X-Files. No one adds that indefinable eeriness that he brings to a scene.

As far as I’m concerned though, the star of this film is Kristen Stewart (of Into the Wild and Panic Room). She portrays her character, Jess the teenaged daughter, so well that most of the time it doesn’t feel like you’re watching a performance, it feels more like voyeurism. The girl’s pure magic from the opening scenes right up until the credits role. Despite the ease with which she could’ve played simply an embittered emo girl, she shades the movie in all the emotions anyone would have in Jess’s situation instead of giving way to stereotypical melodrama. Her chemistry with the Evan and Theodore Turner, who share the role of playing her little brother, shines.

All told, The Messengers deserved a far better title that could showcase what an excellent story it has to tell. Even if you’re not particularly a raving horror fan, there’s so much to like in this movie that I’d go ahead and recommend it anyways. I’ve got no problem handing out a 5 out of 5 for this flick.

Until next time, this has been GlowStormLion, watching even the movies with crappy titles just to make sure I don’t miss anything spectacular. You’re welcome.

-- by GlowStormLion of http://www.happyhorror.com

"You lose the race, you lose your car!"

- Rughead in The Wraith

Maybe all guys have memories of playing with Hot Wheels when they were little boys. Perhaps a few girls do, too. Though I favored action figures far more heavily than toy cars, I had my fair share stored in a Dukes of Hazzard case with a Wheaties sticker on the back. I never developed gearhead syndrome, so I knew pretty much nada about cars. That meant I spent alot of time improvising elaborate storylines for the vehicle’s occupants and all the reasons they’d need to crash in full cinematic glory. The Wraith delivers precisely the sort of tales I had in mind back in those days.

Until glittersoul’s boyfriend mentioned the movie to me I’d not even heard of it. Probably because I grew up in anti-Hollywood kinda family where the boobies and profanity in this flick would’ve sent my mother to the E.R. Once he started telling me about it, it kept sounding better and better. I mean I’m not a "car movie" kind of guy, but a supernatural car and driver? Hell yes!

First things first: The Wraith came out in 1986. Translation? Dangerous hairdos ahead! And a vast soundtrack of music including Lion, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osborne and Robert Palmer accusing us all of being Addicted to Love. Fortunately my generation can’t be blamed for the general craziness of that decade. I weep for those of you who are responsible.

The general story here is that our hero, Jake Kesey (played by Charlie Sheen) misses his old suntanned lover, Keri Johnson (played by Sherilyn Fenn of Dream Warrior, True Blood and Darkness Falls). So he’s back from the dead and stuff to get her cause Packard Walsh (played by Nick Cassavetes of Face/Off, Blind Fury and Assault of the Killer Bimbos) done him up real good. Ole Packard’s quite the cocksure Grease fanboy from the looks of it. He’s all black leather and cold resolve - oh, and switchblades. Keri’s his property as far as he’s concerned, but you know that’s simply because he feels inadequate on the inside. Watch for the scene where he and Keri become ‘blood brothers‘. Total emo sapitude ™. Way before its time.

So we got the hardass bad boy, but what bad boy would be complete without goons? Packard’s got ‘em in droves, man. There’s two in particular though, that really stand out. Skank (played by David Sherrill of Mars Attacks!, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Beast) and Gutterboy (Jamie Bozian of Con Air, Five Aces and She’s So Lovely), both of whom - get this - drink brake fluid. Yeah! Brake fluid swiggin’ and WD-40 snortin’, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Whoo! I wonder how many 80’s teens went on to try that sort of numbskullery ™? You know people try idiotic stuff like that, after all there’s people addicted to frickin’ spraypaint! I know cause I saw it on an episode of COPS.

 

Pictured: Skank’s on the far left lookin’ almost as weird as Rughead who’s chewing him out (The Wraith)… That’s Gutterboy behind them "polishing"

Then again, Skank probably has no alternative but to employ creative substances in his quest for intoxication. I mean look at the guy, with hair and makeup THAT cool you know he spends a fortune on Manic Panic. Speaking of Skank, what exactly is he supposed to be? A groupie for both Twisted Sister and the Dead Kennedys? I’ve never seen glam punk but I guess it could be a legit subculture, right?

Proudly, I can tell you this film was shot near me in Arizona. Appropriate, too, because people really do drive like asylum escapees around these parts. Tuscon, to be precise. I recognized all those gnarly cactuses and nowhere else could the Wraith get away with shooting up a car garage like he does. In Tuscon, people don’t care about that kind of thing. It’s a dry heat. As a side note, the Wraith reminds me a bit of Boba Fett.

The law around those parts gets played by Randy Quaid who I love solely based on his work in Siege at Ruby Ridge, a brilliant piece of television. He’s Sheriff Loomis this time, which reminds me of Dr. Loomis in the Halloween series. Freaky. By the way, he references the Arizona gas chamber, and though we remain the last state to have used the gas chamber, we have lethal injection as of ‘92 so it’s generally the deadly overdose we employ around here. He’s not fond of pickles, either, as you’ll see in one fairly comical shot.

There’s a good deal of general goofiness throughout the film from Gutterboy loading "bullets" into a shotgun down to Charlie Sheen riding around on a profoundly ghey dirtbike. Crap! I mentioned the dirtbike so I feel obligated to bring up the cars. Bare with me because this part could get ugly!

We got Packard Walsh driving a late 70’s Corvette with an (obviously, even to me) custom paint job. Oggie’s driving the 1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z glittersoul’s bf so admires. Skank drove a beat up Barricuda that looked like he might moonlight a Chinese food delivery guy. Minty drove a ‘77 Pontiac Firebird with a fake supercharger. The other car which he really likes is the ‘87 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z with the pop-up headlights. I admit, it’s awfully bodacious.

 

Pictured: The Dodge M4S, an otherworldly ride from The Wraith

The Wraith’s ride is a Dodge M4S, something thrown together by Dodge and the people who make pace cars for the Indy Car industry. The sucker cost $1.5 million to make so if you’re wondering why they went through so many of them to make this movie (due to crash scenes), here’s the secret: they used dune buggies with identical bodies! Slick, huh? Not only was this car a true automotive marvel of its day (able to go 194 miles per hour), it also got a special bronze pearl paint job created solely for it. Exciting, right?

[Editor's note: The film's ending dedication to Bruce Ingram is because he perished while filming of the movie]

Yes, throughout this scene you’ll get to see amazing 1980’s nostalgic icons like Daisy Dukes, the oh-so-prevalent "girl on the sidewalk" shot and Clint Howard’s truly amazing hair style which made me think of Adam Ant. It’s all in crazy fun, Merry Readers. You know I gotta give this one a 5 out of 5 based purely on the insanity of the era its set in and the glorious slow-motion fiery crashes with big orange orbs of fire goin’ all over the place. Fantastic! Or should I say tubular? Either way, if you’ve missed this one I think it’s a must own.

Until next time, this is GlowStormLion remaining grateful he missed being a teen in the 80’s.

-- by GlowStormLion of http://www.happyhorror.com