Soul to Keep (2018) Movie Review
Written By: FR
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Directors: David Allensworth, Moniere
Writers: David Allensworth, Eric Bram
Producers: David Allensworth, Eric Bram, Bears Rebecca Fonté, Joe James, et. al.
Date Released: 6 October 2018
Cast:
Sandra Mae Frank as Tara
Aurora Heimbach as Erin
Jordan Theodore as Brandon
Derek Long as Toby
Kate Rose Reynolds as Grace
Tony Spitz as Josh
Jessie Jordan as Kimberly
Craig Fogel as Freddy
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
After their uncle dies two siblings Erin (Aurora Heimbach) and Josh (Tony Spitz) inherit his remote property. They decide to head there, along with a bunch of their friends that include among them deaf Tara (Sandra Mae Frank who is deaf in real life), jokester Freddy, jock Brandon, and Wiccan Grace (Kate Rose Reynolds), with the aim to have a weekend full of drugs and alcohol. During their partying on the first night they discover a secret room down in the basement that is set up with the necessary items to summon a demon from Hell, thinking it will be fun thing to do, they perform the spell. Unknown to the others Grace ends up getting possessed, and one by one the demon within her sets out to consume the souls of her friends.
Gore Factor
Once the possession has taken place, the pace of Soul to Keep (2018) moves faster, with very little down time. The demon appeared that it really seems to be enjoying having a body, going on a sex, drinking and eating frenzy like it was starved for all of those things. The make-up effects for the possessed were not bad, milky eyes and blood soaked mouth. Its main form of attack was by putting a large fleshy tongue into people’s mouths to draw out their soul. This seemed to be done via CGI and uniformly looked terrible. Thankfully that was the only bad use of CGI as elsewhere it looked good. Small details like little bugs crawling on the walls, and one effect of a character getting part of their ear bitten off looked believable so just the demonic tongue when it comes to dodgy effects. The demon has an over the top feeling to the way it is shown, but this fitted quite well rather than bring you out the moment.
The Grave Review
To start with, the film has one too many (boring!) sex scenes that build on all the tropes we are so over.
The cinematography has a lot to be desired for. The camera is all over the place and from the very beginning, that the viewers may find this find it annoying and distracting.
The only issue with the (admittedly impressive) amount of ASL used, was the fact that it didn’t seem believable. How can a group of friends learn the ASL unless they must have been a very tight-knit group of friends for everyone to use sign language while talking in a group? Only one person in the group is hearing impaired and it’s awesome that they all use sign language to keep her included. However, these friends don’t seem all that close later. So why the hell is everyone so good and natural at using ASL? This has somehow not been explained.
As it stands now, Soul to Keep takes itself way too seriously with characters that are all over the place. The actors do what they can, but the movie is not one that many people will enjoy.
Soul to Keep (2018) has its heart in the right place, but is ultimately – excuse the pun – soulless. The film wastes no time in establishing its stereotypical characters, from the dim-witted jock to the kooky Goth girl, and the completely insufferable internet vlogger. The rest of the characters don’t particularly fall into any identifiable tropes, but it does mean they are mostly quite boring. Character development doesn’t make itself known at any point and, while the film isn’t a difficult watch, it all feels a little too rushed.
Once you get to the meat of the film, it’s trope after trope the same. Along with the many blurry shots of partying, drinking, smoking weed and some boring character moments, the evil among them makes its presence known and… it does not excite at all. It’s quite bland and quite forgettable, with no real scares or thrills in sight.
When it gets down to it, Soul to Keep fails to be more than the sum of its parts, serving as more of a cliché checklist rather than putting to them any good or exciting use. The cast’s best efforts are wasted on characters that are either far too much or far too little, and the biggest threat adds little to the film.
Because of the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Soul to Keep (2018) two graves out of five graves.
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