Horror on the farm

Take equal parts "The Sixth Sense" and "The Birds." Add in "The Shining" and garnish with Grant Wood's painting "American Gothic," and you have yourself a tasty horror cocktail called "The Messengers."\n"The Messengers" opens with the Solomon family moving from Chicago to North Dakota to begin new lives as sunflower farmers. There's the obligatory teen female lead Jess (Kristen Stewart), the overly optimistic father Roy (Dylan McDermott), the doubting mother Denise (Penelope Ann Miller) and the mute little brother Ben.\nWhen the family moves into the dilapidated house, they meet a well-natured drifter (John Corbett) who agrees to help Roy in the fields in exchange for a place to sleep. Everything is hunky-dory until Jess and her brother begin to see and be tortured by ghosts.\nTwo things stuck out to me while watching this film. First is the great performance turned in by Kristen Stewart. The way she is both a strong protector and a weak little girl is hard to pull off for any actor, let alone one so young. Corbett's performance was also brilliant. In the first part of the film, he is a great worker and good friend to the family, and in the second act, he is terrorizing them with a pitchfork (what a great weapon by the way).\nAs all great horror films, the mounting tension with music and rapid editing keeps the audience on the edge of their seats the entire film. What is on screen is scary, but what is left off the screen (and in the imagination of the viewer) proves to be the more terrifying than anything special effects could produce. \nThis film is inspired by the classic horror flicks I mentioned before and that's great. However, there is a fine line between paying homage and ripping off, and "The Messengers" dangerously flirts with the latter. But to be fair, whenever an audience sees a flock of black birds attacking a person, it can't help but think of Hitchcock's 1963 masterpiece. Does that mean the premise should never be used again? No, but it should be done sparingly and creatively, and I think overall, the Pang Brothers did a good job with this balancing act.\nAs far as horror movies go, this is never going to be classic, but it is genuinely scary and is worth the price of admission.