"Messengers" fails to deliver suspense

Identical-twin filmmakers Danny and Oxide Pang make their English-language debut with "The Messengers," but there's a lot less here than meets "The Eye," the 2002 cult horror film that made them an international success.

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.

Instead we have an unremarkable American Gothic thriller with Dylan McDermott and Penelope Ann Miller playing the novice farmer and his dutiful wife, who have traded life in the big city for anticipated tranquility on a secluded North Dakota farm.