Cold Creek Manor (2003)

the audience applauded

Simply A Masterpiece

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Despite the presence of Juliette Lewis, Dennis Quaid, and Sharon Stone, Cold Creek Manor just comes off as a made-for-TV movie. A boring made- for-TV movie. It's predictable and unforgivably dull. The plot is as cliché as it is thin. A husband and wife move from the city to a large house in some unspecified rural area, because they think it will be good for their relationship and their two children. The house they move into has an unknown, sinister history that puts the entire family in danger. Blah, blah, blah. It's marketed as sort of a mystery/thriller, but there is precious little mystery or thrills to be had here.I'm not going to waste a lot of time with this review, because I already wasted more than enough watching the movie. There was no reason for it to be made, let alone watched.

Watching this movie made me think of a small motel in Mount Shasta, California. I was a little surprised to see Juliette Lewis in this movie too.More or less I had the feeling that I was a part of this movie, mainly the scenes where snakes inhabit this newly purchased home: I can like totally recall having something to do with that, or maybe I just remember having had seenlike an HBO special regarding that sequence within the film. So that scene was more vivid than most of the movie just because the editing and narration of a possible Behind the scenes trailer made that so..or, I was actually a part of this film unknowingly when this happened. So like the rest of the narrators stated..Sharon Stone and Dennis Quaid are husband and wife that move to Bellingham from New York. I couldn't tell...I actually thought that the city might have been Chicago. and they do..they move and look into purchasing this new home with the intent of PUTTING MONEY BACK into The Community. What seems to be pretty funny is that law enforcement seems to only need to heed Stephen Dorffs' characters antics.His antics being that hes' upset that his sisters and mother are gone while his pop is in a nursing home eating chocolate cherries. So, here they are, DENNIS and SHARON. Moving in, because they bought the home and are now ready to remove previous contents as well as get it working because the pool wasn't kept up.So Stephen wanders on into the home looking at pictures of his childhood and ends up landing a job assisting the cleaning up of the pool and water pump on property.Sharon and Dennises kids don't like Stephen.Stephens girlfriend pumps gas at a local gas station. Stephen went to prison for three years because of manslaughter. At some point in time there is a vehicle found in the woods with a new York license plate.By this time there is no concrete evidence that all the weird freaky things happening that Dennis Quaid is accusing Stephen of doing is actually any of his fault...but I guess its supposed to be obvious.At one point of time a drunk Dennis Quaid messes up his vehicle by accidentally hitting a deer or goat. But the next morning there winds up a dead animal inside the pool.Its Stephens fault! that is what this movie turns out saying over and over again.

Cold Creek Manor (2003): Dir: Mike Figgis / Cast: Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Stewart: One of the worst haunted house movies ever filmed. Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone play a married couple with two children who are tired of city life and decide to move into an oversize outhouse. They hire the former owner to touch up the place and continually scare the sh*t out of them. His name is Dale Massey and the mood swings unexplainably during the dinner scene. Then snakes infest the house, and Quaid sees Massey's true nature at a bar where he smacks his girlfriend who happens to be the Sheriff's sister. Then a dead horse appears in the pool. Quaid suspects Dale of killing his family, etc. If we waited patiently then perhaps the kitchen sink would have made a cameo. The climax regards one factor falling through a skylight because that was the best dimwitted solution the screenwriter could muster up. Director Mike Figgis previously made Timecode but provides none of that artistic talent here. Quaid is flat and Stone is reduced to cardboard. Stephen Dorff gradually shifts to overacting as he becomes more psychotic. Juliette Lewis plays Dale's airhead girlfriend. Kristen Stewart has an early role as the daughter and this memory is one she will hopefully erase. Pointless bore should be buried under a ton of rock. Score: 0 / 10

I am not used to horror thriller films and only watched it because it was starting on TV the moment I sat on the couch. It is rather good, a good surprise, and I'm used to watch Bergman, Godard, Hitchcock, Kubrick, etc... not that that matters.Everyone seemed to get the idea from the trailer that something supernatural was going to happen, I didn't get that idea.The scenarios and the props were realistic, didn't had bad camera angles, no major or noticeable flaws, one particular shot of a window was actually very good. The dialog wasn't bad. The psychological behaviors, actions and reactions give the proximity of the real emotions one must feel under serious pressure and fear. The personalities of the secondary characters correspond to those of cliché movie personalities, the kind that are really uncommon in real life and very common in other movies, so that's a down point. Another down point is the focus on the dark figure of Dale as soon as he appears, I think it is real, it is there, his psychotic personality is there from the beginning if one is paying attention but it shouldn't have been mystified. That way it would give the thinking viewer the realization that everyone can be a murderer or a crazy person.Some say there is meant to be a connection, a spark so to speak, between Dale and Leah and it is not well portrayed. Wrong! Dave gives her the sweet talk, the concern and the attention, he gives her dirty looks. She on the other way is completely innocent on account to her guilty conscience on saying yes to sleeping with her boss but never actually doing it and realizing she loves her family.It was surprisingly good and it left me tied to my chair. Some said the not having the supernatural haunted house factor took the scary part away. I think the fact that it might actually happen makes it more scary.