Review of Dead Souls

Dead Souls (2012)
2/10
Would Rather Count Blades Of Grass Than Watch This Again
19 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
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.
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