There’s not much to say about 6 Souls, out now on Blu-ray and DVD following a brief international run.
It’s a rather lame attempt at a scary, psychological horror film starring some usually great actors including Julianne Moore.
The film centers around a psychologist named Cara (Julianne Moore). Due to a tragic past, she is rather skeptical of not just faith but many theoretical diagnoses from her fellow doctors. For instance, she wholeheartedly believes that multiple personality disorder does not exist in reality.
This is until she meets Adam (Jonathan Rhys Myers). He is displaying symptoms of multiple personality disorder by becoming different people entirely. He does it to such finite and unexplainable detail that Cara begins researching these personas to see if they have ever actually existed as people. Adam may be harboring souls as opposed to differing personalities.
6 Souls clearly has a premise that could work in the right hands, however it is not in the right hands here. From the script to the direction, the film fails to find a personality or a reason for people to watch beyond that of killing two hours (yes, this movie is faaar too long).
Though the script presents an interesting premise and some potential for the characters to work and even some interesting ideas regarding psychology, it can’t hook us as an audience. It also never makes these characters work. Everyone in the film feels flat because the script fails to make them more interesting than the hundreds of other faceless characters embodying similar movies over the years.
The script never makes the personal side of Cara matter because it does little more than introduce it (she has a dead husband and a child) and it presents ideas like faith versus science that seem to be there for no other reason than for the movie to pretend to be more interesting than it really is.
Moore and supporting players like Jeffrey DeMunn are professionals, but there is only so much they can do with their mostly wasted screen time and wholly unoriginal dialogue. Then there’s Myers. He ends up giving one of those fantastically interesting performances that is lost in a terrible movie. He electrifies the scenes he’s in, but he’s not given enough of a character or enough screen time to elevate this movie that much.
The direction is just as flat as the script. There’s no personality to it. The movie never differentiates itself from countless other mediocre horror flicks with similar plots. It’s not that the script is god awful or the direction is cringe worthy, it’s just that they never manage to rise above a level of mediocrity and boredom that this movie seems to happily swim in for its too long run time.
6 Souls is just a waste of good actors, an interesting premise and overall potential. It’s a safe one to skip.
The Blu-ray disc for the film lacks any special features.
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