In the prologue to "The Messengers," creepy things happen to a family on a dark night long ago. Then, in the present, a family moves to a huge, forlorn house in the middle of nowhere, and strange things start to happen. Why, it's as if an evil presence still lurks there....

Does it sound familiar? Maybe that's because it's the same set-up to every horror film released in the last five years. If you've seen "The Grudge," "The Amityville Horror," "The Ring," "Dark Water," "They," "Boogeyman," or a dozen other titles I could name, you've seen "The Messengers."

The story follows the Solomon family as they move into a dilapidated North Dakota farmhouse and start raising a crop of sunflowers. Roy (Dylan McDermott) has been out of work for a while, Denise (Penelope Ann Miller) is at odds with their sullen teenage daughter, Jess (Kristen Stewart), and li'l toddler Ben (Evan and Theodore Turner) ... well, he's fine. Except he doesn't speak. But hey, a silent toddler, who's complaining?

Anyway, Roy wants to be a sunflower farmer, going so far as to hire an itinerant laborer named Burwell (John Corbett) to live on the property and help him cultivate the land. Meanwhile, Jess and Ben start seeing strange apparitions and hearing eerie noises -- the standard supernatural phenomena you find in old houses in scary movies. Oh, and there are a lot of crows outside, and they're agitated about something. And so forth.

Apart from being completely derivative and lacking even one original idea, it's not a bad movie. "Unnecessary" is more the word I would use. Directed by brothers Danny Pang and Oxide Pang, the Hong Kong duo behind 2002's effectively creepy "The Eye" (watch for a bad American remake next year), "The Messengers" achieves a few genuinely spooky moments, often by eliminating all but the ambient sound, making us feel the silence of the house. This plays particularly well at home on DVD, with all the lights off, without a cinema audience to distract you.


THE DVD

There is an alternate French-language track, as well as optional English and French subtitles.

VIDEO: The anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) transfer is good and rich. The blacks are dark and consistent, the contrast is good.

AUDIO: Dolby Digital 5.1. It's clean and clear, particularly in the many quiet moments.

EXTRAS: Leading actress Kristen Stewart provides an audio commentary for the film. She's joined by writer Mark Wheaton, supporting actor Dustin Milligan, and special effects guy Bruce Jones. Producer Jason Shuman shows up for a while. They all introduce themselves at the beginning and then pretty much immediately clam up. When they do talk, they don't have much interesting to say, just some bland observations about what's happening onscreen or how cellars are inherently scary. (Though there is a funny point where they cringe and laugh at Dylan McDermott and Penelope Ann Miller's sexy talk.) I assume the directors didn't do a commentary because English isn't their first language and their accents are fairly thick.

"Exhuming the Messengers" is a subsection with seven little featurettes (37:50 total) covering the directors, the script, set design, visual effects, animal wrangling (ravens, specifically), and stars Kristen Stewart and John Corbett. (The title of one of those featurettes is kind of a spoiler, so don't look at the menu if you haven't seen the movie.) Identical-twin co-directors Danny and Oxide Pang come across as a fascinating pair, indistinguishable from one another to cast and crew due to their unified style -- except that in the commentary, they talk about how it's easy to tell them apart by their personalities. Not sure about the inconsistency there.

The commentary makes reference to scenes that were shot but omitted, yet none of them are included on the DVD.


IN SUMMARY

This is a good back-up plan movie. Don't rent it on purpose, but if you've seen everything else and there's a copy of this within arm's reach at the video store, go ahead and get it. Just don't expect a lot.

(Note: Most of the "movie review" portion of this article comes from the review I wrote when the movie was released theatrically. I have re-watched it in the course of reviewing the DVD, however.)