Psychological thriller? Horror? A statement on religion? I’m not quite sure what kind of film 6 Souls (now available on Blu-ray and DVD) is supposed to be. The press release describes it as a psychological thriller, but while the beginning of the film follows the format of that established genre, the remaining middle and end parts derail into something else.
The synopsis:
“After the death of her husband, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Cara Harding’s (Julianne Moore) faith in God has been shaken, but not her belief in science. In an attempt to open her up to accepting unexplainable psychiatric theories, her father introduces her to Adam (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a patient with multiple personalities, who takes on some of the physical characteristics of his other personalities. Cara quickly discovers that Adam’s personalities are murder victims, and the more she finds out about him and his past, the closer she and her loved ones are to becoming murder victims themselves.”
I have no complaints about the casting. Moore plays an intelligent and inquiring character who tries to explain the inexplicable. She probes into her patient’s past, trying to piece together how he is paralyzed one moment and capable of walking the next.
And Meyers is incredible, at times so sweet-looking and vulnerable that it is hard to imagine that he portrayed Henry VII in The Tudors, king who killed two of his wives. He plays several roles in 6 Souls (quick—guess how many), and each is distinct, with a variety of accents and degree of threat. From kind to menacing, he shows quite a range and is strikingly believable.
But the movie shifts from its clinical analysis to a mystery amongst the mountain people, and then it just deteriorates from there. Not really horror, and not suspenseful, either. Just plain weird. Honestly, I lost interest and just hoped the movie would end. I think the premise is great. I thought this would be a creepy film with exciting plots twists, but it’s slow and drab and poorly executed.
Still, fans of Meyers or Moore may wish to watch. And, with more focus, I think this could have been really good. The story elements are there. But instead of one soul it seemed to have, well, six.