The Messengers
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: February 2, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
34
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
8
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The trouble isn't just that this haunted-house story, written by Mark Wheaton and directed by Hong Kong filmmakers Danny and Oxide Pang, is both formulaic and derivative. It's that it's completely free of atmosphere, the very thing that their 2002 "The Eye" had in such creepy abundance. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The Messengers, dutifully cobbles together a pastiche of successful horror films past--"The Grudge," "The Sixth Sense," "The Birds," "The Amityville Horror," and "The Shining"--without asserting a single original idea of its own. Read full review
50
The New York TimesMatt Zoller Seitz
Like too many horror pictures, The Messengers becomes more boringly prosaic as it goes along, and there's an 11th-hour plot twist so dumb and poorly articulated that it destroys the movie. That's a shame, because shot for shot, the Pangs might be the most terrifying filmmakers alive. Read full review
50
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Though the Pangs prove culturally adaptive on a visual level, they seem completely clueless as to the tonal modalities of Mark Wheaton's admittedly undercooked, all-American script. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Earns points for its set and sound design, eerily desaturated color palette, able cast, and one really good special effect. Sadly, the movie just doesn't deliver chills. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyGregory Kirschling
There are a few decent jolts in The Messengers, but every one of them is accompanied by a cheap freak-out on the soundtrack so you know to be decently jolted. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesSam Adams
The Messengers is at once ruthlessly efficient and shamelessly distended. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
This spook story is a surprisingly mediocre Hollywood debut for Hong Kong's Pang brothers. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The Messengers is textbook, and the course it's teaching is HSL: Horror as a Second Language. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's a little sad that The Messengers is ultimately a good candidate for burial in a toxic waste dump because there are some good elements contained herein. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad Derakhshani
A predictable, by-the-numbers TV-movie-sized affair which will break your heart - especially since it also contains brief flashes of horror greatness. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
A tepid ghost story filled with all the usual things that go bump in the night minus the somewhat crucial element of suspense, this bland effort from Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert's Ghost House Pictures is surprisingly devoid of the creepy, claustrophobic atmospherics that haunt the brothers' Asian work. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyJim Ridley
The end result looks heavily doctored: The Sam Raimi-produced feature is a badly acted, nonsensical patchwork of fake scares, crow attacks and wall-crawling CGI spooks, capped by a DVD extra of an ending that must have the real resolution gagged somewhere in a closet. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
It's nicely photographed but slow-moving, dull and utterly predictable. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Extremely boring. Read full review
10
Film ThreatMark Bell
The story is so ridiculously obvious it's not even remotely enjoyable. Read full review
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