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Eastern promise falls short of the mark in The Messengers, a mishmash of Asian frights and Hollywood hogwash that does nobody any favours. Flying Stateside, stylish Hong Kong directors The Pang Brothers (The Eye, Bangkok Dangerous) try to inject some real terror into this tale of teenager Jess (Kristen Stewart), who starts seeing ghosts when her family downsizes to rural North Dakota. But judging by the evidence of studio tampering, the Pangs have their own Hollywood horror story to tell...

"Being out here will be great for her," says dad Roy (Dylan McDermott) about his troubled teen daughter. Drip-feeding us clues about this family's past, The Messengers starts off as a claustrophobic, enigmatic chiller. The Pang Brothers know how to craft old-fashioned jumps (it's all in the camerawork), chilling us to the bone as Jess and mute toddler brother Ben (Evan Turner) are threatened by jerky CGI ghouls and (less convincing) Hitchcock-style homicidal crows.

"GAPING PLOT HOLES"

Then, without warning, The Messengers' tightly wound spring uncoils into utter nonsense… It's as if the directors were kidnapped at gunpoint and forced to re-edit their work by a disgruntled studio suit who knows more about Sesame Street than horror films. You don't need to have heard the rumours about reshoots and creative differences to appreciate what a bodge job this is, it's all up there on the screen: gaping plot holes, a tacked-on ending and a twist that belongs in a different movie. "There's something about the land out here, it gets people, then won't let them go," threatens a character early on. Chances are the Pangs now feel the same way about Hollywood...

The Messengers is released in UK cinemas on Friday 6th April 2007.