Movie: Cold Creek Manor
Director: Mike Figgis
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis, Christopher Plummer
Rated: R (violence, profanity, sexuality)
Running time: 135 min.

Cold Creek Manor is as dead as a doornail. Why any director or actor would want to involve themselves with such a predictable, boring screenplay is the real mystery. This film was in trouble before it began because each unfolding event in the story can be read well in advance. Manor is a wannabe thriller that follows the worn out Hollywood formula of a psycho stalking the family. The characters are just as lifeless as the rest of the movie. To make matters worse, the film is close to 40 minutes too long.
Dennis Quaid is Cooper Tilson, a documentary filmmaker living in New York with his wife (Sharon Stone) and two children. The Tilsons agree that life in the city is too hectic and decide to move to a rural area. Their quest for a new home brings them to an old three-story mansion (Cold Creek Manor) on an isolated plot of land. The house is uninhabited but still holds the belongings of the previous family that lived there. There are photographs, books, clothes, and even a backyard cemetery, all previously belonging to a family named Massey.

Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone give flat performances, although the material they have to work with is far less than spectacular. Two other acting talents are wasted in the film. Chrsitopher Plummer plays Dale Massey's ill and delusional father while Juliette Lewis is Dale's weak and abused girlfriend; both are in thankless roles. Dorff is far too obvious as the bad guy. Dale Massey will not be remembered as a memorable movie villain.

Cold Creek Manor will likely bore you. At time, it may make you laugh unintentionally. It probably won't thrill you unless you scare very easily. It's a dead flick that just needs to be buried.

Grade: D