ada
the leading man is my tpye
Phonearl
Good start, but then it gets ruined
Calum Hutton
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
jordilynn
I enjoyed both Messengers and Messengers 2 (although the prequel could've contained less nudity and sex). In my opinion, the original is much better and worthy of watching more than once, unlike its prequel. I came here in search of an explanation of what happens between the two movies (unsuccessfully). Because so many reviewers said the two movies contradicted each other, I created an account so I could clarify.Messengers 2 doesn't necessarily NOT connect to The Messengers. At the end of the movie, we get the sense that they're not going to live happily ever after because the scarecrow, although in pieces, is returned to the room we found him in. I'm assuming the scarecrow comes back, the dad goes crazy, kills his family when they try to leave, and then somehow gets rid of the scarecrow before moving. I do wish there was more of an explanation. Maybe they were leaving room for a sequel to the prequel? However, it is inconsistent in the fact that all the actors are different, not to mention I feel like all the deaths would've been mentioned when the daughter in the original was asking about the family that lived in the house before.
McQualude
Basically The Shining meets Signs meets Children of the Corn but it's better than it sounds. John Rollins is an out of luck farmer, his corn is diseased, crows are eating what's not, he can't afford to fix his irrigation or buy fertilizer, he's on the outs with his wife and an evil banker is foreclosing on his farm. Then he finds a hideous scarecrow that frightens his son but a new neighbor convinces him to put up. Suddenly his luck changes... the crows die, the corn is healthy, the water pump works, he finds a wad of money and even gets laid. Soon bad things happen to his enemies, his family situation grows worse and he starts to worry about the scarecrow.On the face of it, M2 isn't a very good movie but two things save it, Norman Reedus and Heather Stephens. Reedus fully develops John Rollins, in the beginning a good Christian, a tad paranoid and an almost broken man. When things improve his confidence and virility grow as do his bad habits with a little nudging from the new neighbor; and finally desperation when the price of success grows too high. Stephens does a very good job in her supporting role as John's wife, Mary Rollins. Between them, they make the movie believable. The filmmakers allow Reedus to act and don't burden him or Stephens with too many lines. For most of the movie, the scarecrow is just a totem but eventually comes to life and the film loses effectiveness. From other reviews I get that M2 doesn't work well as a sequel but I never saw the original. As a standalone, it's worth a watch.
johannes2000-1
For the first part I actually liked this movie: it's entertaining, has a good pace and the acting of Norman Reedus and Heather Stephens is pretty good. We've seen some scarecrows in horror movies before and although they're all (supposedly) scary by nature, they made this one a real mean bugger to look at! The evil acts of the scarecrow are rather subtle in the beginning, apparently it drives other people to their death from afar, by inducing car-accidents and suicides (unfortunately out of our view). It does this out of some sort of commitment to the main character of the movie, farmer John Rollins, who found this old scarecrow hidden somewhere in his barn and puts it in his dilapidated cornfield (not knowing of course that the hideous thing is evil, although his psychic little son DID warn him!). Where the scarecrow comes from or why it's evil is never really revealed; we do see some strange ghost-like kids wander around, which suggests some prior doom lurking over this shabby farm, but we're never given any explanation. Not that it matters much, in the first part of this movie the horror elements seem to be less important then the psychological developments in farmer Rollins' mind, and the way his family, especially his wife, deals with them. Which by the way made for some fine involving scenes.In the second half of the movie there are some more gruesome details and we see vague images of the scarecrow dragging his scythe behind him. And there's a strange neighbour who gives some free advice-from-hell (and a free roll in the hay with his sexy wife to boot)to Rollins, who doggedly follows this advice and gets more and more into supernatural trouble! Still, up to this point, the movie was more atmospherically creepy then a real shocker. But unfortunately the producers wanted some grand finale, and all of a sudden the menacing scarecrow changes into a preposterously stumbling and shrieking live monster that has to be overpowered (in a surprisingly simple way) by the joint efforts of the whole family. Well, they all must have had a good laugh on the set while filming this epic battle! The final scene (one of the non-identified ghost-like kids gathers the remnants of the defeated scarecrow in a bag and hides them in a secluded corner of the barn) suggests an open ending, and since this movie seems to be a prequel to a prior movie "Messengers", it COULD have made sense, albeit not for me, who did not see this original movie. So what the connection between the two is I cannot say. Knowing the exploitation-routines regarding sequels and prequels, probably no connection whatsoever!
markv-23
With a movie being an hour and thirty four minutes long I like more horror action than just within the last ten minutes of the movie. Yes building up characters in a movie is very essential, but if it is the entire movie, it's not worth watching. I love horror movies, but give me a break. If you have time to kill or you just wanna see it so you can say you did, then go ahead. If you are looking for a movie with an interesting storyline, suspenseful horror, or any other reason to watch a good horror flick then this one is not for you. Save your money and borrow a copy from a friend. It's not even worth the rental fee. I feel as though I have lost I.Q. points just watching this.
