Cold Creek Manor (2004)  

Review: written Apr 2009

Derivative Stalker-in-a-mansion movie

This movie smells of class, with a decent cast (Sharon Stone, Dennis Quaid) and respected `character' director, Mike Figgis. So what went wrong..? The result is not exactly a mess, it's clearly carefully crafted.. but carefully crafted into something that is simply not exciting, and manages to squander the moments of occasional suspense that do build up. A fatal flaw in a movie that lies in the stalker / thriller genre.

Dennis Quaid, his wife Sharon Stone, and their young son and daughter, uproot from the city to find a quieter safer life for their family. They buy a run down manor, which still has the possessions from the original owners. Then one of those former residents turns up - recently released from jail - and he wants to help in the house renovations.... Of course, things start to go south, tensions mount, and the history of the house threatens to engulf the new owners.

There are some nice scenes with the cast, including Christopher Plummer almost unrecognizable as a curmudgeonly old foul mouthed man, and Juliette Lewis, as trailer trash girlfriend... however, the sum of the parts adds up to something less that it should. In fact, when the ending comes, you're liable to be happy for all the wrong reasons.

Not a complete disaster, but by no means a success either, this should appeal to genre enthusiasts only.