'Cold Creek' marred by shoddy filmmaking

By Philip Wuntch
The Dallas Morning News

COLD CREEK MANOR Grade: C- Starring Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff and Juliette Lewis. Directed by Mike Figgis. Rated R (violence, sex, language, nudity, drugs). In wide release. 119 min.

Forget for the moment that Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone and Stephen Dorff are the thriller wannabe's stars. The bloody film's main casualty is director Mike Figgis.

Figgis' last quality film was 1996's "Leaving Las Vegas," which won Nicolas Cage an Oscar and Elisabeth Shue a nomination. Previously, his "Internal Affairs" contained some of Richard Gere's and Andy Garcia's best work. Ditto for Melanie Griffith in "Stormy Monday." The rest of his resume is littered with pretentious trivia, and "Cold Creek Manor" tumbles into that category.

Quaid plays documentary filmmaker Cooper Tilson, whose wife Leah (Stone) is a rising force in Manhattan's corporate jungle. They long for a simpler existence and worry about how living in New York affects their two children. They opt to move to a large if desolate house in the country.

Soon Dorff's Dale Massie makes his presence known. With a slick smile, he informs them that he's the son of the former owners. They invite him for dinner, and his bad table manners are only the first of his nefarious traits. Leah is remarkably slow to take offense, but Cooper, with a filmmaker's sharp eyes, suspects that Dale is up to no good.

Soon the new multistory house crawls with poisonous reptiles. Dale has clearly plotted vengeance on the Tilsons, but few in the community are willing to acknowledge his villainies. Apparently, the townspeople are reluctant to disclose some chilling secrets.

The film contains some adequate boo! scenes, and some of the snakes make you shiver while they sliver beneath a bedsheet. But the suspicion remains that Figgis simply considered the movie an exercise in genre filmmaking. The movie's choppy rhythm also suggests extensive last-minute editing, and the ending is a major disappointment.

The performances are perfunctory. Quaid constantly furrows his brow. Stone looks worried and weepy. Dorff occasionally impresses as a fun-loving psycho. Juliette Lewis, as Dorff's weary girl friend, seems a victim of either bad writing or clueless editing. Her character is poorly motivated, and there's never any semblance of psychological sense.

The film has attractive footage of a handsome horse, but for the most part, "Cold Creek Manor" is a dog.