A
group of teenagers are returning from an
outdoor party driving along a long narrow
road. The driver Brad
Deville (David Shark) is heavily
intoxicated and is driving at full speed.
Two mysterious men in black who are evil
spirits taking victims souls cause the
car to crash in a tree and their bodies
are in critical condition leaving their
own souls apart from them while the
bodies are towed away in an ambulance and
sent to a hospital.
These teens do not realise that they are
temporarily dead but encounter one of the
mysterious men in black called the
Soultaker (Joe Estevez) as they witness
him taking the spirits souls away.
The Soultaker notices one of the teens
Natalie McMillan (Vivian Schilling)
who resembles his wife from the past when
he was alive whom he murdered for
cheating on him.
He kills all but her and her boyfriend
Zach Taylor (Gregg Thomsen) as they try
to escape from his evil wrath. The
Soultaker wants Natalie back in his world
even if his boss the Angel of Death
(Robert Z'Dar) wants her soul too as he
gets him to do the deeds for him.
Zach and Natalie both realise that they
have only till 12:05 am till they can
recover back in their own bodies.
They try to escape from the Soultaker any
way possible to return to the hospital so
they can return to their lifetime.
The film starts
off with a nice beginning as a Soultaker
appearing and disappearing while walking
in a hospital hallway and going into a
patient room as well using his hand to
take the patients life which I must say
is a great beginning for a horror flick.
However it seems to slump a bit after
that with the teens getting ready to go
out for a party or when the party happens
it looked way too cheesy as it took place
in total daytime too as usually parties
take place at night.
Some discussions with Natalie McMillan between Anna and Mayor Grant McMillan about an event
she wants to go to and some disagreement
on it which looked slightly rough on how
everything was done as it looked a
bit too planned out and not natural enough.
Many great different camera shots
on both the Soultaker and the Angel of Death walking up a hill of a road. There's a good discussion with the Angel of Death questioning the Soultaker by who he
sees with nice shots on the two of them.
There's lots of cheesy camera shots on
the partying teens dancing to some music
outside along with the others which also
looked unnatural and too wooden on how these scenes were done.
But yet it does pick up with one of the
drugged out teens
Brad Deville going at full speed with his car along with his friends on a long winding road in which this looked incredibly suspenseful knowing if anyone drives this fast a deadly accident is guaranteed to happen. This moment was totally psychological. Then there's a great shot on the Soultaker stepping in the middle of the road.
Nice shots on most of the teens lying on the ground and then getting up
trying to figure stuff out which looked
pretty good.
Then there's the fun horror touches with
the Soultaker chasing after the teens who
are souls at the moment and trying to
talk to a store clerk in which this was
well written in on someone not seeing or
hearing them talk but yet can see the
door opening and closing. The ghostly
moments were a perfect touch making you
wonder if someone was really lifeless
could do that since many have witnessed
ghostly events.
A good shot between Natalie and Zach Taylor telling him off
about what has all happened which looked
highly energetic.
Then there's a moment with the surviving
teens named Zach and Natalie returning to
Nat's mansion as well as her talking to
her Mom in which you wonder why she can
see them and no one else can which makes
this film incredibly mysterious.
Eventually you do think to yourself that
she is not who she says she is and still
bringing on the action used here.
A good serious interaction with Anna talking towards Natalie about
her boyfriend which this moment certainly brought some good twisits by
what was about to unravel as well as Anna herself wickedly telling her that
her bath is ready which really brought a
good mysterious situation.
A nice camera shot on Natalie taking off her clothes getting ready to
go in a bathtub as well as a good camera
shot on Anna peeking through
the crack of the bathroom door.
A nice evil approach by the Soultaker charging into the bathroom with Natalie freaking out and trying to gently talk to
her about not wanting to hurt her and
being tempting towards her. This looked
quite good and convincing.
There's more great terrifying moments
with the Soultaker kidnapping Natalie and
taking her up on an elevator to a floor
that doesn't exist which is incredibly
imaginative.
There's also alot of struggling moments
on Zach trying to help him and Natalie
get to their bodies on time which makes
you keep watching wondering if they will
succeed in time before their deadline is
up.
A nice moment with a family man in a hospital
crying about his son of his along with a
nice interaction on Grant and Anna talking to him and acting sympathetic
which looked believeable and emotional as
I found this to be one of the best moments.
Many great takes with Zach and Natalie running through
the hospital hallways with high
adrenaline which was impressive while
there's a nice camera shot looking up on
the Soultaker with an evil expression walking
through the hospital hallways.
There's a great close up shot on Natalie lying in a coma on a hospital bed and
then having the camera rotate on both Grant and Anna sobbing which looked
greatly done.
There's a great additional touch with
Brad now as a soultaker explaining to
Zach as to what happens after a soul is
taken which was well written in and
greatly entertaining by all that goes on
making it a nice key moment to the whole
story of the film.
A nice shot on the Soultaker coming face to face with Natalie and convincing her to be with him which
sounded very soft and peaceful like.
Bottom line is although this film was
made on quite a low budget it's very well
paced with a great storyline. I loved the
visual and sound effects in the film and
the adventurous plot. I give this film
two thumbs up!!!
The acting is
fairly good but at times cheesy. Yet this
was a low budget film so what do you
expect?
Joe Estevez (Soultaker) really
brought out a great evilness to his
character as well as a nice serious type
of speaking too. He also showed a nice
versatality in his part by trying to show
a sympathetic type of attitude. He
brought out alot to what he had to do and
proved that he can be just as talented
and equal to his brother. There's a great moment with him grabbing two of his fellow actors and pointing a gun towards him which looked
pretty powerfully performed. This film
marked him to lead a successful career in
other cheesy low budget films.
Vivian
Schilling (Natalie McMillan) had the
nice lustful and beautiful looks to
portray a rich girl in the flick and also
brings out some nice characterisitcs in
her role too plus shows some descent
aggressions when she needed to along with
some great terrified behavior too. All in
all she really had it all for a horror
film type of innocent character.
Gregg Thomsen (Zach Taylor) had the
perfect good looking guy appeal as one of
those teenage type of jocks and shows
some good energy in his role too. A nice shocked expression after what he spots on TV which looked
quite natural. A good sobbing reaction when he tries to revive someone in the hospital bed which looked not too
badly. He
really knew on how to be heroic quarter
way through the film and could easily get
work playing these types in other films.
David Shark (Brad Deville) seemed to
be just a line reader as a troublemaking
drunken teen with a drug addiction to top
it all off in which he had the looks for
this role but that seemed to do most of
the talking compared to his performance.
He was a little too wooden but later on
when he returns as a soultaker he
improved a tiny bit but not much. Yet he
did appeal well to the camera.
Jean Reiner (Anna McMillan) seemed
to have the evil looks but yet comes
across as a nice caring family woman into
the film and made her part very
believeable in which I found her to be
the best actress in the film. She also
really knew on how to bring a coldness to
her part when she is portrayed as a
disguise too. Plus she also knew on how
to cry emotionally well. She was the
best.
Chuck Williams (Tommy Marcetto)
seemed to have the right looks at those
geeky partying type of teens and showed
off alot of spunk into his role on set.
He definetely proved himself to be a
worthy character actor in his first
co-starring role before landing more work
in low budget horror films as well as
working as a producer and writer on the
side.
Robert Z'Dar (Angel of Death) had
his voice overdubbed to sound robotic and
demonic like so it was tough to tell his
acting skills but with his looks is just
convincing that he was a scary type of
horror villain in the film or any of his
other work in low budget horror films for
that matter.
There's many cheesy
synthesizer playings but it sounded quite
neat with low music and at times high icy
effects too. Plus there was the odd
tinkling sounds in certain areas along
with a southern type of twanging too.
Plus there's some interesting chanting
sounds after the teenage cast awakens
after the car accident along with a nice
piano playing and violin type of music
with one of them undressing to take a
bath. There's other moments with this too
all done by John McCallum
There's also a great soundtrack by 80's
type bands such as Karen Lawrence (I especially loved her song during the
closing credits which is called
"Somewhere in Paradise") with
her nice singing voice and guitar playing
along with of course the keyboard music
too. However it sounded cheesy at times.
The songtracks were played throughout the
film which makes it enjoyable to watch
too. In which there were many effective
guitar playing which adds a nice touch to
the scene's used in the flick whenever a
song started playing.
Angel
of Death: You must restore the
balance or pay the penalty.
The
Man: You can't kill a man who's
already dead.
Brad
Deville: Led Zeppelin was wrong, man.
There is no stairway to heaven. |