True enough, the town is peaceful and pleasant ... however, the Solomons' new house is anything but. It's little Ben who first spots the undead inhabitants of the secluded country home. He laughs and points at things that no one else sees; horrifying creatures that crawl across the ceilings, materialize through the wallpaper and help make the beds (they even do windows!). Once the trio of specters are done with the household chores, they set their sinister sights on a more cognizant family member: Jess.

According to The Messengers' tagline, only children are susceptible to the wiles of phantoms; Jess is young enough to see them and fall prey to the creepy creatures' clutches, yet she is old enough to understand what's happening and to tell her parents about the haunting of their home. Unfortunately, they don't believe her. Even after she is scratched and bruised by the beings, Roy and Denise suppose that Jess is only making these things up because she hates living on the farm.

Sure, the sunflower patch is not exactly a hotbed of fun—Jess' only friends are a laid-back local boy named Bobby (Dustin Milligan) and the affable new farmhand, John (Corbett)—but nobody could make up supernatural encounters quite this horrible for that reason alone.

Hardly the Caspers of their kind, the ghosts in The Messengers shatter glass, manipulate crows to attack, claw at Jess' flesh and pull her down into the dark depths of the basement whenever she ventures too close. In order to save herself and her family, Jess has to get to the bottom of the mystery of what the ghosts want.

Down on the farm, the crop is horror

The Messengers is directed by Danny and Oxide Pang, twin brothers who made a splash in Hong Kong with their 1999 bloodfest Bangkok Dangerous. The pair later made even more fans across the world with their low-budget but effective ghost stories—it was 2002's The Eye that attracted American horror master Sam Raimi and led to this, the Pang brothers' first English-language film. Since the directors are Asian and everyone else behind The Messengers is Western, it makes for an interesting mix of sensibilities that leads to a movie that feels scarier than it really is.

What that means is ... Asian horror is well known for being big on tension and jolts, but making sense isn't all that important. Having answers is very important to American audiences, so while the script and story wrap everything up and explain all, the end result is a fright flick with a little bit of an identity crisis. It's spine-chilling and effective while you watch it, but it unravels later when you think about it.

While the story could have been a little tighter and it's by no means an instant classic, The Messengers does deliver on jump scares, compelling characters, top-notch acting from the entire cast, nice atmosphere and excellent cinematography augmented by a lush color palette. The set pieces are quite elaborate, and hardcore genre fans will instantly recognize the homage moments to The Birds, The Shining, Poltergeist and more.