Friday, June 28, 2013

Blu-ray Review: 6 SOULS (2010)

6 SOULS (2010) 

Label: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Release Date: July 2nd 2013
Region Code: A
Duration: 112 Minutes
Rating: R
Audio: English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English and Spanish Subtitles
Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Cast: Julianne Moore, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jeffrey DeMunn, Nate Corddry 
Director: Mårlind and Stein 

Ginger-haired fox Julianne Moore is the faith-challenged forensic psychologist named Dr. Cara Harding whom loves to dissect, dispute and disprove cases of so-called multiple personality disorder. When she's brought in on a case by her psychiatric father (Jeffrey DeMunn, The Walking Dead) she's introduced to a patient named Adam (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Mission Impossible III)) whom is wheelchair bound and supposedly afflicted with multiple personalities. Strangely the personalities seem to be those of deceased people and not purely creations of his fractured psyche. When Adam's other personalities begins to manifest he convulses violently, his demeanor changes as does his accent, more shocking is that he regains the use of his legs, it's pretty weird and I gotta say that at this point I was sucked in, really thought this one was going somewhere interesting, and it does to a point.   

Seeking answers to case Dr. Harding ends up tracking down one of the family members of "David", one of Adam's personalities. She finds the mother (Frances Conroy, The Woods) in a rural part of the state and invites her to come see the patient to help disprove the diagnosis of multiple personality disorder, but the encounter is unnerving and would tend to lend credibility to it's legitimacy. Returning to the rural mountainous region Harding seeks a witchy persona knows as "Granny" and then things get weirder while the story quickly loses cohesion and what started as a promising psychological thriller devolves into a rather attractively-shot supernatural Lifetime Channel movie, but attractive though it may be it's still a Lifetime Channel movie, and despite what Mythbusters has taught me you just can't polish a turd, which may be why this feature film sat on shelf for three years before being dumped on Blu-ray without a theatrical release. 


Blu-ray: 6 Souls (2010) gets a very decent 1080p transfer on Blu-ray presented in the widescreen scope aspect ratio (2.35:1) from Anchor Bay Entertainment. It's an attractively shot film with some spooky atmosphere, it looks quite good in 1080p with strong colors and some decent fine detail, some crush artifacts do show up during the many low-light situations from time to time but overall this is a very solid hi-def presentation. 

The  5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is very nice, the 5.1 exports creepy score and effects to the surrounds creating an enveloping audio experience. Dialogue is always clear and crisp and John Frizzell's stinger-laden score comes through with some nice depth and clarity. 

This straight-to-VOD release gets no bonus content whatsoever; no trailer, no commentary and no alternate ending, it gets the classic straight to video release from Anchor Bay. 

Verdict: There are some interesting ideas hatched onscreen here and  I was really holding on for something special but the script and execution are quite a mess. Props to Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers for strong performances but even their valid attempt to breath life into this is indecisive thriller can't resuscitate it. On the plus side, my wife, who sorta hates horror but loves generic thrillers,  found it quite entertaining. By no means am I suggesting this is a purchase but should you spy it on Netflix or Redbox and need something to watch with the wife that won't make you wanna gouge your eyes out, if not exactly satisfy you, just maybe... 2.5 Outta 5