6 SOULS – The Blu Review

Not always the peppiest or scariest creation to shoot down the pipe, 6 SOULS holds attention with thick mood and a finale that’s surprisingly satisfying. An entertaining film with flashes of competency, 6 SOULS is hardly groundbreaking but a good time nonetheless. Julianne Moore stars as Cara Harding a female forensic psychiatrist who begins treating a young man named Adam (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) and discovers that all but one of his multiple personalities are murder victims. The more she finds out about him and his past, the closer she and her loved ones are to becoming murder victims themselves.

I must admit admit that 6 SOULS, while somewhat what I expected in terms for the aforementioned “chills,” was really a very well crafted movie with the first 15 minutes dedicated to an engrossing therapy session between Cara and Adam that cleverly foreshadows much of the horror to come. Directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein do a very fine job of creating a mood that didn’t get bogged down by all of the “impending doom,” yet was also rich with the day –to-day life of these Pittsburgh-based professionals.

Since 6 SOULS, doesn’t require acting hysteria, the film attempts to carefully balance performances all around, mostly with success. Julianne Moore earns her genre stripes with her performance, achieving a weird mix of sensuality and skepticism as Cara’s nightmare becomes progressively worse. Rhys-Meyers nicely straddles a fine line between creepy and sympathetic.

6 SOULS  never indulges too much in terms of cheap scares or nonsense, and the final act of the film is where the beauty of the production is found. While far from mind-blowing, Mårlind and Stein have committed to an ending that I didn’t think could exist anymore in today’s seen-it-all marketplace. Bravo. 6 SOULS might not be the most riveting sit or the most frightening experience, but in a rare moment for the genre, it does get better as it rolls along, and that’s good enough for me.

The 2.35:1/1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is very natural and film-like presentation that is free from any noticeable compression artifacts and other nasty video anomalies. Color fidelity is exceptional and I found that many of the darkly lit scenes in the film still had a nice colorful pop in the occasional wash of color that pops up from time to time. Black levels are also outstanding in 6 SOULS with a truly remarkable amount of shadow detail.

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack does a surprisingly effective job of creating the spooky atmosphere necessary in a tension-based thriller.

There are no other extras on the Blu-ray disc from Anchor Bay