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A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

A few days after his 18th birthday, Johnny Petrie (James) finds out that he was adopted as an infant and has inherited the family farm in Maine. His Father had murdered the entire family in a religious sacrifice. Johnny was hidden by his brother and he survived to be adopted by his aunt (Geraldine Hughes) who raised him as her son. Once at the broken down country estate, Johnny finds Emma (Apanowicz) a stray staying in the house who agrees to help Johnny uncover his dark family history. This original production from the Chiller channel delivers a tense and gruesome opening showing the families' demise. Time is spent developing the characters even though the Emma character seems shoe horned in so Johnny has a love interest. The pace is slow but a few nice chills are sprinkled in to keep you watching. Johnny must repeat part of the ritual to release his dead families' souls and these scenes get quite tense. Certainly nothing special, this movie plays out better than it has a right to with a few scares for good measure.

Beginning tepidly, and concluding with just about the most confusing, ridiculous climax I've seen like EVER, Dead Souls is another big FAIL of a horror film to add to my ever-growing list. It's also loaded with the cheapest scare tactics around, you know... the mysterious shadow in the corner, the girl on the swing... but when you turn round, nothing's there. Once or twice, this might be effective... but this constitutes 90% of the action, and quickly becomes an exercise in tedium.I don't want to get into the dopey story, but I do want to highlight the last 15 minutes or so. Until then, I was ready to label it as a not very good, but relatively harmless piece. But then, the dead started coming back to life, with all other kinds of cockamamie going on... it wasn't big, it wasn't clever and didn't make one lick of sense. It could have worked I suppose if it had been well done, but this segment had more ham than a butchers. Yeesh.Final Note: One thing I've noticed of late: The better illustrated the DVD box of a scary movie, the more rubbish it is. It's like they're saying: "Who cares if it's any good? All that matters is it looks nice on your shelf!!" 2/10

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.

Wow, for a made for TV horror film, Dead Souls really delivered. The first ten minutes of the movie were startling. I really did not expect to see such a horrific series of events. The film had some gore, but not over the the top, it had violence, creepy ghosts, zombies, and much more. I really enjoyed this film. The story is about a crazed minister/preacher who believes that Jesus rose from the dead because he studied Egyptian magic. He attempts the ritual he finds in the bible on his own family, with disastrous results.I am looking forward to reading some of this author's books. I will read Dead Souls, and from what I hear, The Dmeonologist is his best horror novel. Thanks Chiller for a great original film.