‘The devil is coming…’
Hunting Souls is a 2022 American supernatural horror film about a couple that discovers a demon is hunting their sick child.
Written, produced and directed by Diego Silva Acevedo, making his film debut. Executive produced by Tatiana Silva.
The Seven Studios Productions movie stars Sunny Mabrey (Snakes on a Plane; Species III), Aiden Turner (Mindcage; To Have and to Hold), Chloe Garcia-Frizzi, Matt Borlenghi, Adelle Drahos, Charles Green, Liz McGeever and Alpha Trivette.
Plot:
Mike and Angie Jones are determined to keep their seven-year-old daughter, Sophie, out of a demon’s hands.
They will do everything in their power to make her safe and to bring an end to the turmoil the demon is causing their family…
Review:
Hunting Souls is yet another ‘horror’ drama film that over-focuses on social issues – in this case, parental abuse of their own child – with minimal horror until well over an hour into an already overlong running time.
That said, the film’s biggest failings are British actor Aiden Turner’s monotone delivery in the central father role and an overall Lifetime channel vibe that has no thrust forward until its overdue climax. Unfortunately, Hunting Souls is mostly just bland.
Ironically, considering Turner’s wooden delivery, seven-year-old Chloe Garcia-Frizzi is great as the innocent girl seemingly being pursued by a demon. The rest of the cast is fine too. Unfortunately, the lacklustre plot and poor pacing will lose most folks well before the feeble exorcism that doesn’t even involve the usual OTT Catholic priest mumbo jumbo. A coda in a psych ward just reinforces the feeling that the entire production was just a jaded tick box exercise.
Perhaps the scariest scene is when the troubled father’s ignorant boss declares he’s about to be sacked for taking time off to deal with family issues. The true horror of uncaring capitalism without any compassion.
Adrian J Smith, MOVIES & MANIA
Other reviews:
“The director of Souls (Diego Silva Acevedo) is a full-feature rookie. He wants to creep you out but ultimately can’t. I mean he inserts a few Hitchcockian moments (the actual evil spirit doesn’t show up for a while) and his actors while unknown, are pretty much committed. Too bad his film veers almost into SNL parody territory, what with its cheap special effects, choppy editing, cringed comic relief, and weak costuming.” 2 stars out of 5, Views on Film
” …there’s a grand total of one death in the whole film and you can guess who it is as soon as you see them. When we see the demon it looks like what you might get if you ordered Hellraiser’s Skinless Frank off of Wish. A failure on every level, it’s not even so bad it’s amusing, it’s so bad it’s painful.” One star out of five, Voices from the Balcony
For YouTube content and more movie info click the page 2 link below
MOVIES & MANIA provides previews, our own film reviews and ratings, plus links to other online reviews from a wide variety of trusted sources in one handy web location. This is a genuinely independent website and we rely solely on the minor income generated by internet ads to pay for web costs and cover yet more movies. Please support us by not blocking ads. Thank you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn a very tiny amount from any qualifying purchases.