COLD CREEK MANOR

US, 2003, 118 minutes, Colour.
Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis, Christopher Plummer, Kristen Stewart.
Directed by Mike Figgis.

This thriller is an update of the old haunted house genre. A busy couple moves their family from New York and its paranoia to the New York countryside and its particular paranoia of strangers moving in. They buy an old house in need of refurbishing and set about it happily. All should go well. However, the couple have not seen enough movies like this one, so they do not realise that their contentment is to be shortlived. In fact, they could be short-lived.

Enter the owner of the house who had to sell it when it was reclaimed by the banks. He seems nice enough at first but we know that this is only surface charm. We really do not know the half of it - and the rest of the film is his making mischief, then damage and then homicidal attacks.

Dennis Quaid is effective as the father trying to defend his family. Although any actress could have taken the role, the mother is played by Sharon Stone, rather matronly and minus make-up. The deranged owner is played by Stephen Dorff who has done this kind of thing often enough (Blade, feardotcom). His bed-ridden father is played by an unrecognisable Christopher Plummer. Juliette Lewis is Dorff's girlfriend. The cast is good and play to the conventions of the terror genre.

However, the pace is perhaps too sunny and leisurely for mounting tension. Director Mike Figgis has been doing experimental films with video and split screens, so it is a surprise to find him making a conventional film (also writing the musical score). It is not exactly nothing startling. It's just that it could have been much more startling.

1. The title, its tone, expectations?

2. The haunted house tradition, the Gothic houses and violence tradition? A modern adaptation, American adaptation?
3. New York City as ugly, dangerous? The contrast with the countryside and its openness, healthy? The small town, welcome/not?

4. The manor itself, the appearance of the house, the locked gate, the Gothic overtones, the need for repair, the family looking through the house in detail, the audience examining the house, the sudden shock of the sheriff being there? The decision to buy, setting up the house as a home, the renovations, moving the technology into the study? The repairs, the pool, the interiors? The move to danger, the corridors, the rooms, the roof, the chases throughout the house? The house becoming threatening?

5. The portrait of the family, Sharon Stone as the mother, waking up, the early flight, not setting the alarm, her business acumen, her partner and the proposal for her advancement, the sexual harassment? Cooper, his being a documentary film-maker, getting the kids up, their behaviour on the way to work, his wanting his daughter to hold her brother's hand, his running away, his being knocked down by the car? The mother returning, anxious, the decision to move to the country? The mother giving up advancement in her job?

6. Driving, arrival in the town, going to the diner, Ruby and her offhand remarks, people's general hostility, the friendliness of the sheriff, the owner of the diner and his wife, inviting them to talk, their being comparative newcomers to the town, the horses? Their welcome, their daughter and the friendship and the horse-riding?

7. The family settling in, Dale's arrival, the situation of his having lost the house, the bank foreclosing and selling? The family getting it at a cheap rate? Dale's initial charm, talk and explanations? The invitation to the meal, Cooper and his wariness, the reaction of the children? His offering to work, his knowledge of the house, the refurbishing of the pool, his flirting with the mother, friendly with the kids? The men and their work, the criticisms of the work, his anger, his being fired?

8. Dale, his character, the mystery about him, his appearance, the death of his wife and children, the wealthy family, his father? His relationship with Ruby and his violence towards her? In the bar, the ultimate fight with Cooper after the drinks?

9. Cooper and his visit to Dale's father in the hospital, the father and his badmouthing his son, Cooper and his taping the old man? The information, the puzzle about the family? Dale's anger when he learned from the nurse that Cooper had visited his father?

10. Cooper, the search for information, the documents? His decision to make the documentary, his equipment, his working at it? Dale and his reaction? Dale and his destruction of the technology? Cooper confronting Dale, the drinks in the bar, trying to be civilised, the fight?

11. The mother and the growing tensions, her telling the truth about the proposal? Her going back to the city with the children? Her realising where the well was, her return, going to find it, being pushed in, Cooper getting her out, their going back to the house, locking it, confronting Dale, the fight on the roof?

12. The children and the boy being fascinated by the devil incantation and the well, their playing games, his discovering the well? The girl and her girlfriend, happiness with the horse, its being killed, her blaming her father?

13. The growing tension about the well, the pursuit of Dale, the confrontation in the house, the roof, the fire, the destruction of the past? Dale and his madness?

14. Dale, murderous, the sheriff, and killing his father after visiting him, their discussion about the chocolates, smothering him?

15. Ruby, her relationship with Dale, with the sheriff, her work at the diner, her criticisms, her watching the fight, Dale's treatment of her in the bar?

16. The diner, the family, their friendship?

17. The leisurely pace of the film, too leisurely for this kind of horror story? Or a more leisurely approach to an old genre and its conventions?