Psychiatrist Cara meets her latest case, a man named David Bernburg, at the request of her father, who is also in the field. She gives him a series of tests and asks, “Bernburg. Is that German?” David doesn’t know. She steps out to consult with her father. He calls the room David is in and asks for Adam. David erupts in a violet fit, then picks up the phone: “This is Adam.”
Cara (Julianne Moore) pins David as a creation of Adam’s (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, FROM PARIS WITH LOVE), and soon finds out that David Bernburg died nearly thirty years ago. Cara, under the watch of her father (Jeffrey DeMunn, AMC’s THE WALKING DEAD), tries to find out all she can about Adam and his multiple personalities, which also include a rock star named Wes who committed suicide. See a pattern?
6 SOULS (originally titled SHELTER) is directed by Swedish natives Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, who also helmed the fourth UNDERWORLD movie, UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING. It is written by Michael Cooney, who also penned the screenplay for 2003’s IDENTITY, which also leaned on the multiple personalities angle. But where IDENTITY used them in a clever (or gimmicky, depending on your view) way, 6 SOULS uses them in a way that makes it seem they were just scrapped bits from James Mangold’s movie.
The purpose of 6 SOULS isn’t to examine multiple personalities or those with them, but to keep adding layers until the audience gives up and is forced to wait for the big explanation. Its biggest theme seems to be that, if you lose your faith in God, you will…what exactly? Fall victim to some sort of spell and be recycled into different bodies for eternity? Mårlind and Stein even thank God in the credits. Why? To let him know that they haven’t lost their faith and totally shouldn’t be inhabited by dead souls in the near future?
It’s a thin script pretending to be complex. But really, what 6 SOULS amounts to is a supernatural horror-thriller without any thrills or genuine scares. So much energy has been spent on lame and lazy gotcha! moments and thievery, like the random bursts and flashes of various faces or the night vision security camera footage ripped right from PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. We start to wonder if Cooney forgot to write in all of spooky parts and so the directors had to add them in on their own in the editing room.
Despite how badly 6 SOULS wants to seem like it is saying anything of importance, it’s an incredibly hollow effort. There are flashbacks that do nothing to make the characters interesting, scares that never feel earned and themes that come off as selfish and eager.
Video: 2.35:1 in 1080p with MPEG-4 AVC codec. This high-definition transfer maintains the intended look of 6 SOULS, presenting dark blacks and accurate colors in the interiors and exteriors.
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The audio transfer does its job of spooking the viewer when necessary.
There are no special features.
