An ominous darkness invades a seemingly serene sunflower farm in North Dakota, and the Solomon family (Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller) is torn apart by suspicion, mayhem and murder.

The Messengers, the U.S. horror debut of directors Danny and Oxide Pang, due out in 2006, is cowritten by first-timer Mark Wheaton. Wheaton shares credit with Stuart Beattie (Derailed) and Todd Farmer (Jason X).

The movie was filmed in Regina, Canada (doubling for North Dakota), and Horror.com’s Staci Layne Wilson was on the set.

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Q: What made you decide to seek another film that was a thriller in nature, or where you spend time maybe running and screaming?

KRISTEN STEWART: There's definitely some running and screaming in this one. I'd come off of a comedy, my first one, and prior to that, I'd -At this point, we take care of introductions- "And then prior to the comedy I finished, I'd done two pretty heavy dramatic roles. So, even though the public knows me from Panic Room or something like that, I haven't worked on a thriller in a while, and I enjoy it. But what got me here mainly was the Pangs. I love them. So I wanted to work with them.

Q: Had you seen The Eye?

KRISTEN STEWART: You know what, I hadn't seen it. My mom saw it, They couldn't get the tape to me on time or whatever, but she loved it and told me that I should definitely consider working with these guys. Then a couple weeks into shooting I got to see it, eventually.

Q: What's it like working with the two directors, how they alternate: one on one day, one the next day?

KRISTEN STEWART: Personally, they're two completely different people. But directorally and professionally, they're the same person, so its like working with one director, really. You know, they have the entire movie completely thought out already in their head. Its almost like the movie's already made, and they're just picking up the pieces. They know exactly what they want. Which is nice. Because, trust me, directors don't always know what they want. And it's interesting, because sometimes if a director comes to you with a note or something, and you don't agree it with it, I'll usually say something, you know, like "Well, what about this", or "Do you really want this?", or "I have a couple of questions", or whatever. But even if they come to me with something that sounds just different from what I was thinking, I won't say a word. Just because they know exactly what they want, and you don't want to mess with that, you know? It's like, I want to give them what they need.

Q: Can you tell a difference between them?

KRISTEN STEWART: Well, physically, they look different. I know, when you first meet them, they're twins and you can't really tell them apart, but... you can tell them apart by the glasses, and Danny is a little more soft spoken, and little more sensitive. He tends actually to do more of the dramatic, emotional scenes between my character Jess and her parents, her family and... But they both definitely have the whole scare factor down. It's not that one of them is better than the other in any way, its just that they have their specialties. Or maybe not, maybe that's just something I've noticed.

Q: Regarding scare factor. Where do you stand on horror movies? How do you like horror films?

KRISTEN STEWART: I love horror movies. I love good horror movies, and I hate bad ones. Although, its kind of fun to watch bad scary movies, though. I like- My horror movie, if you could call it that, is The Shining. I love that movie. That's definitely- because people ask me that a lot, is The Shining

Q: Have you seen some really old horror movies, like This Old House? Do you ever go back ? You'd probably think they're lame because you’ve grown up with special effects.

KRISTEN STEWART: I don't consider it lame at all. Because they actually did it. I kind of think that the whole War of the Worlds thing is... not lame, but- Less impressive because it's all done on computer! Those guys who were making movies in the '30s and '40s were getting the shots. They were there, filming it, and it was practical and real. That impresses me more than some dude sitting behind the computer screen.

Q: Well this movie actually has practical ghosts, which is kind of unusual for these days. You'd think they'd all be CGI and kind of transparent. Have you worked with them yet?

KRISTEN STEWART: Yes, I worked with them for the first time yesterday, actually. There's a scene where I'm walking around the house with my little brother, asking him to show me what he thinks he sees, and floating behind me is the ghost, the main ghost. It's a girl, she looks about my age, and she comes right up behind me and looks right into Ben, my little brother's and makes this breathing- weird noise. (She tries to make the noise and fails) My back was turned, but I could hear it! I was surprised too, when I saw on the call sheets, that there were actually ghosts cast in the movie. There's also a lot of flashback sequences, so you can see the ghosts as normal people, and then what they look like after they're dead, and then what they look like after they're at peace, at the end of the movie. Their image changes once they've overcome... the problem. (Trying not to reveal anything)

Q: Asian horror seems to be having this huge popularity surge in America. Do you find a difference in the way the Pang Bros. approach horror and what they find scary as opposed to what an American director will find scary?

KRISTEN STEWART: Some things, really. They're so focused on timing and the beats to a scene. They want the tension in a real sloooooww push. It's kind of contradictory to most American slasher flicks, in that these guys are really subtle. They don't shove scares in your face and they don't throw blood at the lens and have it splatter across and big-titted women just running and screaming. It's not like that. It's more still. Because when you really get scared, you freeze. You want all your senses to be completely open, you want to hear and see. It's more scary to have something shoved in your face after everything is very calm. Most of the scares in this movie are in places that really nothing is happening. I'm just walking around the house very quietly and BOOM! It's also kind of different, because you can see- Well, I can't even say that, because I don't even know what they're going to show in the movie. I'll be just as surprised as you guys are when I watch it. You don't see the ghosts at all, pretty much ever, until the end of the movie. You see little glimpses of them.

Q: So the movie is visceral, then?

KRISTEN STEWART: Visceral, yes it is.

Q: So with this scene that you're about to shoot where everything goes crazy in the house is an example of that?

KRISTEN STEWART: Yeah, exactly. I'm watching my little brother and everything's fine and then the lights start to flicker a little bit, and then there's slight noise upstairs. I walk around the corner and call to see if this dude is up there, because there's another guy in the house. Then, what happens is the banister of the stairs… almost as if something, if I were to push you and you were to crash into the banister and it shatters, but you don't see anything pushed into it. (She's trying very hard not to reveal anything at this point)  It's like this one instance is happening over and over and over, and I'm seeing the effects, physically, of what happened to the house in the event that has happened. (Laughter)

Q: Some of the scary parts take place out in the sunflower field. is that also part of it? And have you shot there yet?

KRISTEN STEWART: Yeah, we've shot out there, and we go back in a couple weeks. Boy, I don't know how much I should talk about that. There are crows. These crows play an enormous role in this movie. They are a constant factor, they're always there watching. What I think is kind of cool is that they were also there years before, the same ones. And they remember what happened at the house and throughout the movie when everything seems to be fine but just a little off, Jess looks up and there's a crow. They're just always watching. There's a part in the movie where she's in the house, and she sees a huge... A huge swarm, I guess you'd say. An enormous amount of crows outside the window, and they're not there. And then in the sunflowers... A few sunflowers start moving around and her dad is way on the other side of the field, so it's not like he's- She looks to see what's going down and she goes in [to the field] and then "it" walks behind her and then it chases her into the barn and there's this huge sequence in the barn that I haven't shot so I can't really…

I don't know what's going to happen, so... And that's another cool thing is that we're not really shooting the script at all. We just shot the end of the movie, the whole climax, everything that happens at the end is in the cellar, the infamous scene 191. This movie could be called Scene 191. It was not scripted. When we were down there they told me to do things that were just completely out of nowhere, but so awesome. Every setup that they would do next, I would stand there waiting. It was like they were reading me the script before shooting. And trust me, it was all changing for the better.

Q: It doesn't make you nervous to work on the fly? How do you prepare when you don't know what you're going in for?

KRISTEN STEWART: I don't really prepare, that's the thing. I just- I don't. I find that if you think about it too much it gets old, and you lose spontaneity. Sometimes if I 'm really debating, "How am I going to do this?" and I'm going around and around in my head and I don't know how its going to play, its sometimes easier for to just wait for 'Action' and let whatever happens happen. Because I don't have the control that you'd think I have. Things just happen naturally. I probably would not want to work with me, as  a director because sometimes, if things don't work, I can't do them. I'm not sure if I should say that, but…

Q: Well, were you like that on Panic Room too?

KRISTEN STEWART: That was only my second movie and I was really young.

Q: Wow, because you did an amazing job and those scenes were unbelievable.

KRISTEN STEWART: Well- [She modestly trails off at this point] The only thing about that was that I had to do a lot of research about diabetes and seizures and stuff like that, but other than that...

Q: For this movie, do we see much of what else your character does aside from being haunted? Is she a student or does she help her dad on the farm?

KRISTEN STEWART: The thing about that is that she was taken away from the city and there's some animosity between the parents and the child in that she doesn't want to be there. There's nothing here. It's kind of because they hold a... I don't want to say this word, but they hold a grudge [laughter]... Because something happened when they lived in the city and she lost her parents' trust.  She's slowly trying to get it back but she can't do anything to do that, you know, nothing works. So Jess is kind of just hanging.

There's nothing to do, she's not going to school, she doesn't know anyone, and she's pissed off about it. So, no. She's basically just coping. As she's trying to do that, weird stuff starts to go down. When she tries to voice what is happening, no one believes her. They think that she's just trying to leave the house. You know, like, "God, why are you doing this, Why are you doing this to this family, What are you trying to do, Why can't you help us to make this work?" Stuff like that.

Q: Tell us about working with your co-stars.

KRISTEN STEWART: My co-stars. Hmm.. Okay, John Corbett. John Corbett is the funnest guy I know. He's HUGE. He's like [points to the ceiling] this high. It's actually, the scene in the cellar, he's- oh, wait. I can't talk about that scene. [laughter] Never mind. No, he's awesome. He's really enthusiastic and he comes up with all these ideas that totally work. He loves to work. He's totally into it and when you're working with someone who's really having fun and that really cares about how the scene is going to turn out. It makes it a lot easier to play off of them and its really natural, he's just a fun guy. Personally, he's awesome too.

Q: Do you have a lot of scenes with him?

KRISTEN STEWART: Not too many. I'm alone a lot, well with my little brother, Ben. I'm the youngest in my family, so I'm the baby. I don't even have any younger cousins, really, that I've spent a lot of time with. So at first it was kind of, not awkward, but... I didn't know how to talk to him, you know. Like, "I don't want to baby talk you" and started to talk to him like, "Hey man, what's up?" The cool thing about these kids is that they aren't the type to go romping around and getting all rambunctious and throwing things around. They're quiet, not shy but reserved. They like it when you just talk to them and you're interested in what they have to say because they do talk. I find that, I'm always treating like babies, you know? I wouldn't like it if I was a baby.

It's been awesome, though. We have a baby wrangler, which makes our lives easy. They're happy guys. And they're really good Bens. It's funny, actually. When the ghost is coming up behind me, this was at the end of the day, we'd been shooting all day. So it was kind of tense. My character was scared, and so the Pangs were like, "breathe harder and look faster" and whatever, so all day he's been looking at me really getting worked up and... My face wasn't even on camera, it was on him. So I start to feel his body start huffing a little bit and he starts [breathing heavy] and I thought, "Oh my God this kid is learning how to act!" So it was awesome, I was really excited. So he's kind of into it and he's doing everything. He has a few lines in the movie and he's saying them and he's reaching, and doing everything he's supposed to.

Q: Is it a drag shooting in Regina [Canada’s “Prairie Province”)?

KRISTEN STEWART: Um... Yeah, kind of. [laughter] I'm from L.A. It's not bad, I mean, the skies are so beautiful and.. I mean, now isn't a great day to be here, [the day we got there was cold and rainy] But the first couple weeks we were out here, we'd be driving out to our farm location, and its really in the middle of nowhere, and its flat land. So its just patchwork, just farm after farm. There's no tall buildings or trees, so there's no obstruction of vision so you can see literally 360 degrees around you. Just clear sky. And then at sunset, its just burning, its on fire. And then the next day it'll be like pinkish, and then the next day it'll be purple. It's just gorgeous. As for the city of Regina, I have to say that all I've seen is my apartment. And maybe... There's a mall down the street. That's a huge attraction. I was there yesterday.

Q: They have a music festival here every summer.

KRISTEN STEWART: Yeah, I caught that, that was okay. But they have a drive-in movie theater here. I think its south on Albert. But that was the coolest experience in Regina. Just being able to go to the drive-in. They don't have them in L.A. There's no space.

Q: What'd you see?

KRISTEN STEWART: I saw Lords Of Dogtown, which was such a great movie to see at the drive-in, I saw The Island. They have double features, too, so before The Island, I caught the end of Madagascar. [laughter] Hey, it was pretty funny! The first movie I saw there was Batman, so that was awesome. You know, being on location, though. If I could work seven day weeks, I would.

Q: How are the days? You said that there's a lot on the fly, are you finding that it's very efficiently run and every day goes according to plan?

KRISTEN STEWART: Oh yeah. I think we've only been behind one day, and we're making it up on Saturday, and we wrap on September 2nd thank God! Because I'm home on the 3rd. [laughter]

Q: Do you have a lot of scenes in this movie by yourself? And is it hard when its all on you?

KRISTEN STEWART: I do. There's not really- [the kids playing Ben are screaming in the other room at this point] They're not really-

Q: You said they were well behaved!

KRISTEN STEWART: They- [She's interrupted by a particularly loud, "No!", followed up by laughter from us] Oh, well... There's a pressure to.. I just want to make the directors happy. They have such a clear idea of what they want, if they don't get it, that's on me. So I'm constantly asking them, "Is that it? Did I get it?" They'll answer "Yeah, it's fine, its fine". "Are you sure?" So... I've done a lot of work by myself. I did a movie called Speak where I was pretty much alone for the whole movie. It's different, but not really. You're just not playing off of anyone. So not really.

Q: I noticed downstairs when we were watching, there was a line that you didn't want to say, something like, "Who's up there" or something. You said , "that's too movie". Is that part of your technique, to not be conventional?

KRISTEN STEWART: Well, to be real, you know? There are a few lines, especially in the horror genre that are a little cliche. The first time rehearsal, first take, I'll totally say it the way its scripted, but if it doesn't sound natural, if it sounds very... cinematic, it's lame, it shoots you out of it. So, yeah. I don't want to say things that don't sound natural.

Q: But you do what's comfortable for you?

KRISTEN STEWART: Usually, yeah. Unless its a critical point in the script that needs to be- that the audience needs to remember. But no, they seem pretty cool. When you're in scary situations, you don't say much, unless you're asking "Why" or "What" or "Who". There's a lot in this movie where you're asking, "Who is that?", "Why are you doing that", so sometimes it gets a little hokey. But we're doing our best to keep that to a dull roar.

Q: Your parents in the story...

KRISTEN STEWART: Penelope [Ann Miller] and Dylan [McDermott]. They're awesome. Penelope is really funny. And very maternal, which is really important in this. It's a big issue with my little brother, she doesn't quite trust me with him. And that just kills my character, you know, "How could you not think that I'd be okay with my little brother?" But she's very challenging. A lot of times, she'll say things like, "I don't know if I would do this as a mother, I don't know if I would put my kid there" and it makes the scene better.

And Dylan's awesome. [laughter] What can I say about Dylan. Dylan's really focused. We've done a few of the more dramatic scenes and he's always there. That's really nice, cause I'm not.[laughter] No, he's great.

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