Dead Souls

source: Dead Souls

Starts a decent haunted house film. About halfway through it starts becoming fairly silly. Definitely a movie for when you have absolutely nothing else to watch.

Great competition going on in this movie to see which was worse: the acting; the script; the storyline; the direction, or; the score. Hard to pick a 'winner' as they were all awful! Life is definitely too short to waste any of it on this dross.... Recommendation- Watch something (anything!) else.

I read some negative reviews but I really liked the movie. It had some scary moments, the ghosts were well made and I finished the movie without being bored or watching my watch. I like the fact that instead of the common cheap gore the movie actually tries to captivate its audience just by the storyline and not by blood and/or nudity. This is much more difficult to do. The only predicable character is Emma. The way she suddenly appears in the beginning of the movie was too obvious. That could have been better. But for the rest it is a very good movie. I will buy the Blu-Ray too...

I can't blame this movie for much. It is a typical horror movie for this age, where the script is a random mix of other films of the genre, the horror is done via camera angle tricks, the bloody scenes or the nudity are removed and most of the movie is people not understanding what is going on or running around like headless chickens when they do. But I've seen so many films like this that it doesn't bother me anymore. It's not scary either, though. I loved the Osiris and Jesus angle and, while the rest of the story made no sense, the idea that modern gods are just knockoffs of the old ones seemed really funny. They could have done something with this other than a bunch of homicidal hillbillies looking for eternal life. I am sure they didn't intend it to be funny, but it was for me. Bottom line: This film is so incredibly average that it becomes mere background noise. There were a few ideas in it that could have made an impact, but I am sure none of the creators of the film actually cared. The highlight of the movie has to be Magda Apanowicz, who is cute as hell, even if her character is a complete mess.

A few days after his 18th birthday, Johnny Petrie (James) finds out that he was adopted as an infant and has inherited the family farm in Maine. His Father had murdered the entire family in a religious sacrifice. Johnny was hidden by his brother and he survived to be adopted by his aunt (Geraldine Hughes) who raised him as her son. Once at the broken down country estate, Johnny finds Emma (Apanowicz) a stray staying in the house who agrees to help Johnny uncover his dark family history. This original production from the Chiller channel delivers a tense and gruesome opening showing the families' demise. Time is spent developing the characters even though the Emma character seems shoe horned in so Johnny has a love interest. The pace is slow but a few nice chills are sprinkled in to keep you watching. Johnny must repeat part of the ritual to release his dead families' souls and these scenes get quite tense. Certainly nothing special, this movie plays out better than it has a right to with a few scares for good measure.

When reviewing movies, it's sometimes hard to judge them fairly by the mediums they were created for. For instance, to come down as hard on a TV-movie created on a small budget as you do a bigger one like the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" remake would be unjust. That's how I tried to look at Chiller's "Dead Souls." Johnny Petrie (Jesse James) inherits an old farmhouse on his 18th birthday from a family he didn't even know he had. Tired of living under the thumb of his overprotective aunt (Geraldine Hughes), he decides to visit his boyhood home and solve the mystery as to who he really is. Upon arriving, he discovers his father (J.H. Torrance Downes) was a local preacher in the small Maine town. He went crazy one night and murdered his entire family, leaving the restless spirits of his mother (Elizabeth Irene) and siblings (Kyle Donnery and Bridget Megan Clark) trapped in the house for eternity. "Dead Souls" is an effective little supernatural thriller from Chiller directing regular Colin Theys. He does as well here with the haunted house genre as he did with the zombie genre when he helmed Steve Niles' "Remains." That might not win many over, but I thought the Las Vegas-set living dead tale was an entertaining entry into the world of Saturday Night straight-to-cable B-movies. Things tend to happen quickly in a 90-minute movie based on a 295-page novel. Yes, character development in the movie feels a bit rushed and it would have been nice to get them a little more fleshed out, but overall I thought director Theys and screenwriter John Doolan did what they could with the time they had allotted. Just like most low-budget horror films, "Dead Souls" has one big genre actor it relies on to help bring in fans. In this case, we have Bill Moseley ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre II," "The Devil's Rejects") playing the retired town sheriff who's privy to the dark secret the old farmhouse and its property holds. Moseley adds a level of legitimacy to the movie, as I'm sure filmmakers were counting on. "Dead Souls" is presented in 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (1.78:1) and both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo. The picture quality is clear, clean, and easy on the eyes. Whether you watch it utilizing the 5.1 surround sound or 2.0 stereo, there are plenty of creepy bumps, screams, and jolting sound effects to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat in anticipation of jumping through the roof. Special features on the Blu-ray release of "Dead Souls" include commentary provided by Director Colin Theys, Producer Andrew Gernhard, and Screenwriter John Doolan. There's also a tour of the set guided by Director Theys. Bloopers and TV spots round out the bonus material. Whether it was his intentions or not, "Dead Souls" writer Michael Laimo did a great job warning audiences what happens when you lose faith in God and begin to think you need something else as a religious supplement to the Bible. I'm speaking as a movie critic who happens to be a Christian, of course. This shows the tragedy the fallen preacher's family suffered all because he didn't fully believe and rely on God to take care of them and their eternal souls. To make a long explanation short, it highlights the dangers of mixing cult and Biblical beliefs together. I'm a sucker for ghost stories and, while not being as solid as theatrical releases like "Sinister" and others, "Dead Souls" still delivers enough scares to make it worth the viewer's time. The film does leave a little too much to the imagination sometimes when it comes to minor plot points. It relies on the audience's common sense to come into play and fill in what we don't see transpire on screen. However, if you can get past its weak points and just enjoy the movie for what it is, you'll find a decent little thriller here to keep you entertained on a Saturday night at the house.

Yet again, as a horror/thriller/suspense fan: The movie starts off really well, and the first hour is very enjoyable. For those who read the plot, it's just that, and until that hour you may even be wondering about the low score on this movie. I watched it with pleasure until it crumbles down, like soufflés do sometimes. At some point, i don't know if someone ran out of ideas, the budget was downsized, or what the hell happened!!! This could have been a very cool movie (not top-notch but pleasant to watch for the genre fans), but it flopped in a really big way for the last 30 minutes. I feel sorry for this, but a movie, like a book, should be solid from page one until «THE END». So in my opinion, i'd give it a solid 6.5 until minute 60 or so, and then a solid 2.

This movie almost made my veins pop at least twelve times in the duration of watching it. The actions and decisions made by the characters more than once made me ask the following questions: a) What is he doing? b) Why would you run there, straight into the lion's mouth when there's a whole open country around you? c) Why do the MC has such a romantic notion on ghosts? d) Why is the MC so annoyingly naive? e) Despite there being a whole lot of open country, 3 cars and a good road, your only method of escape is to run inside the vicinity of the farmhouse? f) How is that logical or even follow basic human behaviour? And what's with everyone's obsession with picking up crow's feathers? They're crow's feather, not exactly rare like a pheonix's feather. One would simply ignore it, won't they? Escuse me? You have vengeful ghosts trapped in limbo trying to kill you and crucify you, so you choose to summon another vengeful ghost to help you? What kind of reasoning is that? Where is your justification? Did the screenwriter drank too much whiskey and forgot to include that one part? Unlike the other commentors, I have no problem with the ending. It's the road towards that ending which caused me to rage. All in all, it's a fine movie to watch with your family and a popcorn in hand on Friday nights, as long as you don't pay attention to it.

Johnny Petrie, a young man who's just turned 18, learns that he has inherited a farm house in a small rural town in Maine. Johnny travels to Maine (against his mother's wishes) to tie up a deal with a realtor that will allow the property to be sold off, but when he arrives, he decides to stay at the house and look into why he was left the property and why it's been deserted for so long. As the day turns into night, Johnny starts to witness strange happenings around the house, and before long, he learns of the horror that went on there 18 years prior. Dead Souls has got to be one of the most boring movies I've seen for a good while which is a pity because it comes across as being a really decent supernatural horror. Nothing could be further from the truth, however, as the film just ambles along without any real direction, going about as slow as a snail in treacle. The story itself isn't that bad, even if it is unoriginal, but it's the execution of it that makes it a lot less interesting that it could have been. The whole movie just lacked atmosphere, lacked any real tension, was not scary or creepy, and was pretty poorly acted in some scenes. If it had a better ending then it might have been saved, but even that ended up being a damp squib. As for the characters, well, they were pretty much your run-of-the-mill annoyances, especially Emma who went around acting like the whole world owed her a favour or three. Actually I don't know what was more annoying...Emma's attitude when she's caught in a house that's not even hers, or Johnny for just blindly accepting her attitude and acting like it's him that's in the wrong. The only real decent part of this movie were some of the special effects that were used, but that's obviously not enough to save this guff. I'd only suggest watching this film if you're suffering from bouts of insomnia, otherwise it's best left well alone.