David Arnold 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.

spoken !!! SPOILERS IN POST !!! First off, the beginning is so low-grade in every aspect I can think of that I nearly stopped watching. But if you can stick it out until the mother goes to the hospital then things pick up nicely. And, too, a lot of little background facts are embedded in that awful start, so you need to listen.Secondly, the wonderful orchestral music was not presented properly; although I did not hear any of the irritatingly loud "jump" sounds, I also couldn't hear it when it should have been a tad louder. So some of the opportunities for adding suspense went right out the window, and I felt let down.On the other hand, I found the characters generally believable, and there wasn't one instance of awkward acting bringing me out of the movie other than in the very beginning. And you do need to remember that this is a horror movie, so it's short on artsy character development and the like.The ghosts creeped me out, but not as much as could have been had the beautiful music been a better presence at times. And their story is something new to me, unique.I can't say anything about the end without giving it away, but if you pay attention it has an interesting little twist on the "you won't believe me" thing.I will buy the DVD, pre-owned, if it ever comes out, because I know I would watch it at least once per year thereafter. If something can be done to improve the volume of the background music (not the songs) for DVD then I will buy it new.And last but not least, the soundtrack of songs should be something worth owning if you're a fan of such, which I am. But as of this writing I haven't found samples to listen to.So sit back, pretend the beginning will be on the exam, and enjoy the rest.

Horrific_Jungle I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and must admit I tend to be a bit jaded when it comes to some of the newer horror (esp. made for TV) movies. Dead Souls has a good, solid plot and it moved right along in the right direction. The dialogue was well done, the acting great. The eerie atmosphere of the old farm was excellent. I loved this movie because I felt something for the main character, for what he was experiencing, which must have been terrifying. The connection to Osiris was well researched. Michael Laimo, the author of the novel 'Dead Souls' upon which this movie is based, is one of my all-time favorite writers and I'm looking forward to his next book and, I hope, another movie adaption. Great job, Michael, the actors, actresses, director and film crew (make-up artists did an outstanding job as well). Thank you all for helping make this Halloween extra scary.

GL84 Arriving at his old family farmhouse in the country after inheriting the property, a man learns of his hidden past as the only escapee of a blood sacrifice to a powerful demon and must try to get away before the lingering spirits finish the ritual.Overall this one was a disappointedly disjointed effort as this suffers from too many problems. Among the most notable of the films' glaring problems to be displayed here is the ever-irritating ploy of several characters here maintaining a secret that, once revealed, ends the nightmare early on before anything terrible can come to pass. As everyone in town that interacts with the couple seems to know the truth about the original incident except for the lead, the decision to beat around and hide it from him rather than revealing the truth and letting it play out naturally so all the stuff they feared came true since they never got warned. Instead of the film generating any kind of suspense over the budding imposition over what happened, it all comes undone by them hiding it and wondering why he never listened to them in the first place. As well, this toys with the pacing here as the extended amount of time this spends hiding away the truth causes the beginning of this to become extremely slow-going and rarely gets any kind of energy going along, consisting of his stumbling around the house and not doing anything to discover the curse so it takes a while to get going. These two issues here really slow the film down but there's a ton of potential to be had here to make this rather enjoyable. One thing it does get right is the appropriate air of menace present at the house, which is suitably in disuse and riddled with dirt, dust, cobwebs and an aura of creepiness that only comes about through the years of inactivity. It definitely creates an impression of unease and dread as it goes along unraveling the curse, especially when the creepily closing door, demonic whispering and shadows passing by on the walls into the story that it creates even more of a creepy feeling. The story here, involving a series of spells needed for resurrection and family curses is also rather enjoyable once it finally gets revealed as there's some pretty chilling supernatural work at play. Still, the fact that the barnyard finale with the reanimated bodies being possessed, chasing around the house and barn while focusing on finishing the resurrection ceremony is fun and gets some nice gore in here, but unfortunately can't overcome the damaging flaws.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.