Dead Souls [Blu-ray]

Dead Souls
Made for TV movies are tricky business. Those Sci-Fi Channel originals are never going to be confused with quality entertainment, that's for sure. Sometimes it seems like they're reveling in the cheapness of their productions. But what about that other genre channel, Chiller? They're producing their own movies, too. Are they of the same non-quality or have they learned from the other channel's mistakes? The initial assumption would be that, yes, their made for TV movies are going to be just as cheesy. So when I first heard Michael Laimo's novel DEAD SOULS was being adapted for Chiller, I wasn't sure if I my reaction should be "Wow, that's awesome" or if it should be, "Dude . . . Good luck." And while I have the novel on which the movie is based, I haven't read it yet, so I can't speak for the faithfulness of the adaptation, only what I thought of the movie as its own entity.

Not bad, actually. I was somewhat surprised, and at times impressed, by the movie...

Blu-ray Review: "Dead Souls"
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...

Movie was not what I expected...
I didn't mind the fact that it was made for TV. It just wasn't a good movie. The pacing was slow. The story was predictable. The main character was weak and didn't have half the backbone that his female counterpart did. I wouldn't recommend this flick to anyone. The Blu-ray picture and sound was decent though. It was because of the that quality that I did not give this movie 1 star.

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