Cold Creek Manor
Rate Movie[Total: 6 Average: 1.8]
- Directed By: Mike Figgis
- Written By: Richard Jefferies
- Release Date: September 19, 2003
- Domestic Distributor: Disney (Touchstone)
- Cast: Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Kristen Stewart
Box Office Info:
| Budget: N/A | Financed by: Disney |
|---|---|
| Domestic Box Office: $21,386,011 | Overseas Box Office: $7,733,423 |
Director Mike Figgis took a break from his low budget experimental features and helmed this big budget generic thriller for Disney. The budget for Cold Creek Manor has been unreported.
Disney dated Cold Creek Manor for September 19, 2003 and launched a marketing campaign that sold the picture with a horror/haunted house angle, despite being nothing of the sort. There was nothing supernatural, nothing was haunted, nothing was directed to be frightening, but selling this turkey with those elements was easier to package than Stephen Dorff wanting his house back.
Cold Creek Manor landed awful reviews and bowed against Underworld, Secondhand Lions, The Fighting Temptations and Anything Else. Since it was sold as horror, it would have direct competition with Underworld and the second frame of Cabin Fever. Cold Creek Manor pulled in $8,190,574 — placing #5 for the weekend led by Underworld. Audiences gave the movie a toxic C- cinemascore and it declined 46.2% to $4,405,084 in its second frame and had a 43% third session drop to $2,511,141. The domestic run closed with $21,386,011.
The film saw a theatrical release in just a few markets overseas, with a decent $5.3 million from Spain comprising most of its small $7,733,423 total. The worldwide cume was $29.1 million, leaving Disney with about $16 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would not even cover P&A costs. This marked Mike Figgis’ last detour into studio filmmaking.
Just watched this “turkey” and had to look up why. I’m guessing the money stepped in and made some changes to make it just another sad, bland, ‘thriller’ with nothing going for it.
Stephen Dorff turns up and acts all menacing and it’s all down hill from there on in.
Watching the part with the snakes felt very much like a stupid but fun family movie. This movie just felt stupid and pointless. Why would anyone suspect Dorff’s character of planting all those snakes around the house and training them all to appear at once and attack? The score during that scene is also quite something.
The visual narrative of the whole movie is also all over the place. The ending is weirdly out of place and the pull back reveal of the whole house and fade whilst eiree music plays isn’t at all warranted or earned.
The director is obviously competent but here it feels like he had an embolism.
See, Disney makes more than just family films sometimes. That being said, this movie sucks. xD