Why So Blu?

6 Souls (Blu-ray Review)

We all love a good psychological thriller from time to time.  One that has us guessing and trying to piece together clues while at the same time keeping us in suspense and trying to get a good scare out of us.  Then we get some wonderful twist and our minds are blown.  6 Souls does a decent job of taking us for that kind of ride.  The film deals in multiple personality disorder.  It very much follows the same kind of subject matter as a thriller from the 90s, Primal Fear.  This one is a bit loose in its playground however and deals more supernaturally.  The film is a 2010 release, but I can’t remember it getting any sort of big theatrical run.  It seems like it could have had a solid September or October run had it been marketed appropriately.

Film

Forensic psychologist Cara Harding is a woman set in her ways and finds multiple personality disorders to be a thing of myth.  Following her analysis being the final nail in the coffin for a death row inmate, Cara’s father challenges her to a new case.  This time, a man is taking on the personas of murder victims from years past.  The case is strange and haunting, with the man intruding into her own personal life.  Cara must find whether this is real or a hoax before more people are murdered and her family put in danger.

6 Souls is an engaging little thriller, but it’s about 20 minutes too long.  The film goes good for about the first 90 minutes but then you start to feel the drag a bit toward the end.  A little tighter, more focused, and a little quicker to get from point A to point B would’ve made this a much better movie.  As is though, it’s pretty good.  It doesn’t bring many scares but manages to put forth an eerie sense of dread.  Most of the settings in the film are wonderfully haunting and make you feel a bit uneasy.

The cast here is a pretty good roundup of people.  Jonathan Rhys Meyers gets to run the gamut as he displays many a different personality throughout the films length.  I’ve never really been high on him before, but this movie gets to really show you what he’s made of.  He’s a bit loose, but very good swapping person to person.  The fact that he’s British and none of that pours out into any of his many dialects displayed quite impressive.  Julianne Moore gives, as always, a solid performance in the film’s lead role.  Nathan Corddry lends a nice supporting turn, adding a little charm to a dreary feature.  Rounding out is Jeffrey DeMunn who can’t help but be so darn likeable as Cara’s father.

The movie spends its time in a fair amount of interviews and investigations.  It’ll have you engaged throughout and winds up being a solid thriller.  The film is a little too heavy on the “impactful dramatic death” department, making some of them seem tiring before the film is over.  However, you still want to see what this is all leading to and how it resolves.

Video

Anchor Bay once again delivers a great 2.35:1 picture in their 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encode.  There is a complimentary layer of grain and tremendous amounts of detail.  Fabric, hair and facial definition are all accentuated beautiful in the picture.  The walls and surfaces show every little bump, nick and wood grain.  Colors are very bold and climates are fitting and adaptive to each scene.

Audio

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is serviceable enough for the feature.  It’s a bit front heavy, but the audio is clean and the levels are good.  There is one line of dialogue in the film that does peak the center channel.  Aside from that, everything is mainly just decent.  There’s no real extravagance to this track, but it’s not awful either.  Its there and it works.

Extras

6 Souls contains no extras.  Trailers for Dark Skies and Scream 4 appear before the main menu.

Summary

6 Souls at a shorter length may have been a great under the radar thriller.  As it is, it’s a solid rental with a good presentation.  There’s no bonus material to dig deeper into this and the disorders it’s based on.  This one could have used a featurette or commentary track with a forensic psychologist discussing these sorts of things.  Or maybe you get the writer discussing the research with which he used to come up with this idea.  Just a little bit of something to wet your appetite if the movie caught your interest.  You get the movie and that’s it.  6 Souls is solid and definitely would make for a good rental or streaming experience.