A waste of 90 minutes of my life

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Reviews and reputation be damned: I enjoyed Cold Creek Manor and it's chilly, mean spirited thrills at the expanse of a family entwined in nasty decades old secrets. I know it's not the greatest flick, and doesn't quite deliver the freaky effect promised by both trailer and cover art, but it's still a lurid little freak show of backwoods danger and sweaty menace. Dennis Quaid plays Cooper Tilson, relocating his family to the country, where they have purchased a run down mansion which used to be a grand estate. Problem is, the manor has a dark and sordid legacy of danger, the overgrown property hiding a murder already years old. The family's arrival awakens long buried demons among the roughneck locals and gradually starts to threaten them with mounting unease. Sharon Stone is reliable as Quaid's wife, and a very young Kristen Stewart plays their daughter. It's ragged edged Stephen Dorff that gives the film life in his intense portrayal of local lowlife Dale Massie, who grew up in the manor and provides a hanging presence of unease for the Tilson family. Juliette Lewis plays yet another snarky rural skank, and there's an unnerving cameo from a barely coherent Christopher Plummer as well. Sure it's cheap thrills and doesn't contain much substance to flesh out its doom laden style, but it's it's a lot of fun and I revisit it quite a bit.

Originally published on Sept. 19, 2003If one is looking for by-the-numbers textbook Hollywood horror/thriller movie-making, look no further than Touchstone's newest release, "Cold Creek Manor," directed by Mike Figgis, for the basic instincts of the craft. First, there is the hassled city family, the Tilson's (parents Cooper, played by Dennis Quaid, and Leah, Sharon Stone, along with children Kristen Stewart and Ryan Wilson), who decide to move to a small town and purchase a dilapidated farmhouse that looks like something Herman Munster would pass by (it's even named "Cold Creek Manor" for crying out loud).But wait, there are even more clichés - the town's residents who naturally mistrust the newcomers, the creepy house and the mysteries it holds, an enigmatic old man who is the key to hidden horrors, the home's psychotic previous owner, the reluctance of local law enforcement to believe ANYTHING the new owners try to tell them, an invasion of vicious reptiles (which would have been my first clue to something unusual), several accounts of foreshadowing (when a camera shot lingers on particular objects that will play a huge role later in the story) and the climactic struggle between good and evil.Yep, it's all here. Unfortunately, anyone who has seen a horror film in the last, say, 20 years or so, can figure everything out about this one way ahead of time and the whole family-in-peril thing that has been done to death a million times is multiplied tenfold in "Cold Creek Manor."Plus, will someone PLEASE tell Juliette Lewis that her drugged-up, slow- witted slut character from "Natural Born Killers" and "Cape Fear" is getting really old, really fast already? Thank you. The film is rated "R" because of violence and some situations, but it offers nothing new to the genre - and, sadly, no one of any age will be very frightened at the proceedings.

For reasons which don't really matter (which is just as well, because they certainly don't make sense, the Tilson family (dad: Dennis Quaid, mum: Sharon Stone, daughter: pubescent Kristen Stewart, son: some kid) decide to get out of the city, and move out to the sticks where they buy a huge house for chump change because something bad happened and it got repossessed by the bank. They have obviously never seen a film before, because only bad things can happen in such circumstances, right? And so they do, starting when Stephen Dorff, the son of the family who used to live there and newly released from jail (which should be another warning, right?) arrives, talks them into hiring him, and things go pear shaped. Big time.This film rejigs multiple clichés into a not-very-new order, and flirts with the notion of having a supernatural element before dropping the idea. Even if you have never seen a film before, this one is going to hold few surprises for you. It is arguable that it is worth watching for a relatively high profile cast sacrificing art for a paycheck, and for l'il Kristen Stewart sulking away like mad years before she was called upon to do the same thing in the Twiglet movies.If you find yourself with an afternoon with nothing to do, and this comes up on TV (which it won't because of the bad language), find a book instead.

Sharon Stone delivers the worst performance of her career. Dennis Quaid is almost as bad. Stone has one look through the entire film: terrified and mostly for no reason. In a movie where I found myself rooting for the badguy something has gone terribly wrong. I don't blame Dale Massie for being p*ssed at the couple for buying his house and Cooper going through his personal things. I also don't blame him for being p*ssed at Cooper for paying him 50 lousy bucks for fixing up the pool. I also sympathize with Dale killing his mean old dad and his whore of a wife. Everyone he kills deserve to die. Except the sheriff. At the end Dale should have killed Cooper, raped his wife and then killed her. It would have been a more convincing and better ending than the family staying at the house where they have been traumatized and putting up a tombstone for a guy who terrorized them before they killed him. And who would wanna live on a property that has its own creepy cemetery?? And why would Ruby, Dales girlfriend visit his grave and leave a rose, knowing that Dale killed her sister the sheriff?The cinematography is really bad and the way the actors sometimes move around seems too directed and not natural at all. Don't waste your money on this crap.