Cold Creek Manor (2003)
psychological thriller
directed by : Mike Figgis
featuring : Dennis Quaid - Sharon Stone - Stephen Dorff - Juliette Lewis - Kristen Stewart
running time : 1 hour 59 minutes
New Yorkers get a crash course in the more dangerous aspects of moving to the country and buying a "handyman's special" in this thriller from award-winning director Mike Figgis. Cooper and Leah Tilson (Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone) are a wealthy couple who have grown tired of the high stress of life in New York City and are looking to move to someplace with more breathing room. Upstate, they find a mansion in the village of Cold Creek which has fallen into disrepair after it was repossessed. Convinced the house has great possibilities, The Tilsons buy it, and with a little hard work Cooper, Leah, and their two children are soon living in their dream home. Unknown to The Tilsons, the house used to belong to a lifelong Cold Creek resident named Dale Massie (Stephen Dorff), a ne'er-do-well who ended up behind bars. After he's released from prison, Massie makes it clear to the new owners that he wants his home back, and before long Cooper and Leah begin learning the disturbing truth about the history of the mansion -- and that many Cold Creek residents don't take kindly to new arrivals. Cold Creek Manor also stars Juliette Lewis and Christopher Plummer.

Somewhere in this high-concept muddle of class warfare, yuppie angst and aborted infidelity lurks a fun little gothic chiller. Lewis and Doff provide pitch-perfect trashy victim/villains, while Stone and Quaid hit all the right notes as an upper middle-class couple seeking some respite from go-go New York. The problem with Cold Creek Manor, then, is that instead of relegating all of its cultural baggage to the background, it brings it forward and, eventually, over the top. It's a romantic drama masquerading as a horror story rather than the other way around. How else to explain the generally limp haunted-house set-pieces and the focus on run-of-the-mill relationship angst? If screenwriter Richard Jefferies and director Figgis trusted more in the conventions of psychological horror and focused on executing them with understated flair, this could have been an edge of your seat delight. As filmed, though, Cold Creek Manor is more like warmed-over One Night Stand, all clever contrivances and pat resolution.