Cold Creek Manor (2003)

BUYER BEWARE
To begin with, don't go in expecting this movie to be about a haunted house or another Amityville horror. It doesn't go that direction nor ever intends to. Instead, go in expecting a movie that features a more psychological bent and you'll enjoy it more.

The film begins in New York where yuppie couple Cooper and Leah Tilson (Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone) have decided that they need to lose the rat race and the destructive properties of the big city. She takes a sabbatical from work (where she was just offered a promotion by an exec looking to bed her) and he continues his work as a documentary film maker.

Where they do this is in a small town where they pick up a huge house called Cold Creek Manor for next to nothing due to a foreclosure. Along with their two kids, they move in, selling off the apparently abandoned belongings and beginning restoration work on the battered home. Among these items, Quaid comes across a number of things that relate to the house and its previous occupants. Ever the inquisitive researcher, he begins to look into the history of the house and its owners.

One day they find a young man in the house who claims to be one of these past owners. Dale Massie (Stephen Dorf) seems a bit rough around the edges, exhibiting terrible table manners. He lets them know he's been in prison for 3 years and asks if he can get a job working on restoring the house. They agree and all goes well. At first.

Odd things begin to happen and Cooper begins to feel a bit jealous at what he perceives to be a flirtatious behavior exhibited by Dale towards his wife. In his research, he tracks down Dale's father to a rest home and finds more about Dale. When the house is over run by snakes, Cooper believes it to be the work of Dale and fires him.

This sets off a chain reaction. Dale turns out to be the town tough guy, not quite respected by the locals but intimidating enough to have them stay out of his way. Dale also has a secret that his hid well for a number of years. One that may lead to the Tilson's finding themselves in grievous danger.

Before we got to this point, and after having viewed perhaps far too many mysteries, I figured out what that secret was. And that Dale would do anything to prevent anyone from discovering it.

As I sit here a day later, thinking back on this film, I realize more about it than I did when I first left the theater. Thinking back, I find that there wasn't a character that I related well too. There was no one that I sympathized with nor that drew me in enough to care for. And that is one of the linchpins that holds a movie like this together. You have to care so much about the victims that you hate seeing anything happen to them. I never seemed to feel that while watching this movie.

And the suspense just wasn't there either. At least not enough so. Everything felt predictable to me. I kept thinking see that? This will happen next. And it did. And for a movie that is supposed to be full of suspense that just doesn't cut it. The set ups to look for later as the film progresses are all blatantly obvious to the viewer. Too much so.

In the long run, the movie isn't bad. It's just not as good as it should have been. I'd love to say that the performances were well done. But the fact that I never felt drawn in to care more than I did for the characters says that that wasn't the case. If there's little else on or you don't like what else is showing, you might enjoy this one. Otherwise, wait for the video.

Will leave you cold
This movie stinks. There, I've said it. This movie stinks. Do not watch this movie because it stinks. I trust I make myself clear.

I was going to write all sorts of clever and witty commentary in getting across the idea that this movie stinks, but this stinking movie does not warrant the effort.

The End.

Boring and predictable
I expected a little more out of `Cold Creek Manor'. It had the potential to be a decent thriller. The plot is spine tingling, but then again it's executed so comically that it turns into a spoof before you have a chance to be scared. The script is full of corny dialog, clichéd sequences of events and predictable plot twists, and the direction by Mike Figgis is horrid. The acting for the most part is awful and don't get me started on the music which is so obnoxious it kills any ounce of tension. The snake scene alone is so over the top it made my laugh.