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Cold Creek Manor (2003)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
1/21
1/21:
Not exactly a horror picture, Cold Creek Manor is a suspenseful psychological thriller that's a hybrid of
Burnt Offerings, Liebestraum, and
Cape Fear.
What's gratifying is that there are no cheap tricks or CGI crap. Everything looks realistic, and I initially thought the movie was
going to be of the supernatural type. It's why Mike Figgis is an outstanding director. He keeps the tension high, and the cast
is perfect.
The trouble with Stephen Dorff is that he's always out of tune, but this time, he finally gets the notes correct, giving
the best performance of his career. Therefore, Stephen Dorff is largely the reason why the film works, and I love
what happened to his character at the end. He deserved it for overstepping the personal boundaries through manipulative means
although I understand the family photos and all.
Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone make for an unusual pairing, and they're excellent together, giving authentic
performances. Having aged a lot (ditto for Juliette Lewis who looks way worse and was 30 at the time), Sharon Stone
is almost as good as she was in Intersection. The kids are okay but are still annoying.
If I think deeply about what should've happened, the cracks start showing up. At the beginning, it's an
established fact that Dennis Quaid plays a documentarian, yet he doesn't bother using his research skills to find out about the
history of the house and the family that lived there through library records, interviews with locals, the hall of records,
and newspaper clippings.
Speaking of locals, there's barely anyone around. The husband will have branched
out by contacting a more refined set of people who speak his language. Therefore, this restriction becomes difficult to
accept. I don't understand why Cooper keeps going to the female sheriff whose sister has a relationship with the subject of the
complaint. That's too much bias at play.
At one point, Leah made total sense when she told her husband they should forget about the house and leave right away. I agree
with her 100% although I understand Cooper's burning need to solve the mystery. Perhaps he's thinking of the victims. At the
end, I'm shown images of them that are still at the house after what happened. Um, why? Just get out already and move to a
better location.
The snakes were definitely planted inside the house; there's no way around it. I don't like Mike Figgis' decision to include one
scene of Dale and his father at the nursing home because I'm not supposed to know about it since the film is through
the Tilsons' perspective. By the way, I didn't realize it's Christopher Plummer playing the father when I thought
it was James Coburn because of Affliction (the latter died one year earlier anyway).
All in all, Cold Creek Manor is worth watching.