Movie Reviews: 6 Souls

6 Souls
directed by Mans Marland

This older (2010) horror film also known as Shelter had a real movie star attached to it in Julianne Moore but unfortunately was hobbled by bad writing, a little too much of a European sensibility, and a really crappy and predictable ending. 

There are a lot of horror movies that are just excuses to show blood, gore, mammary glands, and special effects budgets. I've mostly grown past those as I've aged but this is a film that might have done better to have some of those things on display.

In other words this was a very low energy film. Low energy is good if you can still manage to deliver some creepiness. This film only did that intermittently before sputtering to a denouement which was cliched even by the often low standards of horror films. 

Still, if you are someone who doesn't like horror movies with geysers of blood or naked horny young people doing incredibly stupid things before being slaughtered in inventive ways you might tolerate small bits of this film. But I can't imagine that you would like it. Dr. Cara Harding (Moore) is a confident non-nonsense psychologist and widow who is both devout and scientific. She's also convinced via her experiences and the scientific evidence available that multiple personality disorder is almost always a con. 

Her father (Jeffrey DeMunn) is also a psychologist, who despite the fact that his daughter is clearly well north of forty, thinks that he still has quite a lot to teach her about life and their shared profession.

To this end, Daddy invites his little girl to consult with him on and help treat his patient Adam (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who does apparently have multiple personality disorder. Adam is a disturbing fellow. Cara makes contact with the other personality inside of Adam, someone named David who's apparently disabled. The process of doing this doesn't feel right to Cara.

Wondering if her father is setting her up, Cara does some research. "David" was apparently a real person, not just someone Adam made up. Tracking down David's mother, Cara learns that David was murdered many years ago. There was no point of contact between Adam and David. 

When Cara brings the mother in to talk to "David", "David" demonstrates that he knows personal, private, intimate things that only the real David would know. More ominously Cara finds that Adam has other personalities. They have nothing in common other than having all been real life murder victims. How can this be explained?

I liked the movie's dim and dark look. But otherwise this is a muddled remix of Fallen, Seven, and Shocker among other films.

 

6 Souls drags because of wild inconsistencies in character motivations and intelligence. I'd say the final third was quite bad. This movie chose to spend time on interminable chase scenes instead of investigating what would seem to be life changing events. Moore wasn't necessarily phoning it in but the script didn't require a lot from her. It's a shame because I think the horror genre would benefit from more A-list stars taking roles. Moore has a young daughter Sammy (Brooklyn Proulx) and a musician brother Stephen (Nathan Corddry).