Soul Searcher

...faith, determination and guts producing an interesting indie movie against all odds. Some of the shots pulled off in this are flat-out incredible for such a low-budget flick, and the breakdowns of how these were achieved on the DVD make for fascinating viewing. I don't think I've ever seen someone try and pull off this kind of movie on this kind of budget before, and it's something to behold. The plot feels a bit muddled in places, (especially in the final third), but the pace never flags and neither does the level of invention. Anyone carping about rough edges has missed the point by a mile. I'm looking forward to seeing if the crew have enough energy to try this again further down the line, as I'll pounce on the DVD straight away if they do.

Just rented this, another low budget British action martial arts… yawn. There are so many of these out there now that to be honest I'm starting to get bored. In the past two years a rash of badly acted and poorly shot British and even US low budget actioners have been released.

Working as I do for a cross Atlantic review site I get screeners of these and being that my speciality is action (and that I'm British) I get the dubious pleasure of reviewing an ever growing stack of DV features.

Soul Searcher is okay, a solid 2 ½ star movie. It's not badly acted, or badly directed, or badly shot but at the same time there was little to stand out. The central lead was dull and lacked life, and the film just felt like it needed something more to make it stand out.

As for the extras, it's an impressive pack to be sure but for my money the director should have been stopped from making his rather self involved behind the scenes documentary. If I hear how hard is was once more I will scream.

I found myself amazed at what Neil Oseman managed to squeeze from his tiny budget with Soul Searcher. It's a shame that critics and the industry in this country didn't leap on it with enthusiasm in the same way that the American's did with El Mariachi because it's just as big an achievement.

As for entertainment value, I was expecting something incredibly badly acted from what I've read. This just isn't the case, the acting is competent, the cgi effects are of the lower end but for me this did not remove me from the experience. In fact on many occasions I thought. "Wow, how the hell did they do that and how ambitious where they for even trying it in the first place!" And the work with miniature's is amazing. The train sequence is simply brilliant.

I think for any film students, filmmakers, or anyone getting into film-making this is an absolute must. However for the casual viewer this also comes recommended. It's a fun, effects laden low budget adventure with a lot of charm.

For a film that I have just read cost £20k, it was brilliant. however, i feel that certain areas not to do with how much it cost needed some attention! The script needed a bit more clarity and development. I thought the editing wasn't as tight as it could be - there needed to be more pace. But the sound, camera work/lighting were fab for its budget. Generally he got some high production values in - The fight scenes were choreographed pretty well too. I feel filmmakers like this should be encouraged, and I hope he finds a good team to help him out next time - he does deserve some decent funding. It's a very imaginative first attempt - well done! People like him should be helped out in the British film industry more. It's refreshing not to see yet another boring low budget drama or 'gritty' movie - they always seem to get made. It just goes to show that in this case low budget doesn't have to mean boring

More distinguished film critics than myself have determined that you should judge a film in terms of what it sets out to achieve. Director Neil Oseman set out to make a SFX laden action/adventure picture on a budget of around £20,000. You can't get a half decent four door saloon for that. So in my opinion the films existence should be applauded alone. But there's a lot of other good stuff going on. Above all else the film has a strong and consistent visual style which is complemented by some surprisingly good Harryhausen influenced special effects.

Obviously there are issues, but there are always going to be with a twenty grand extravaganza. They are mainly down to narrative issues, overall the story works very well, young man is trained to be grim reaper whilst falling in love and trying stop a madman for opening up the moat of souls. The problems lie with tiny things like ezekial just up and leaving before the big battle.

At the end of the day, if you read the directors journal, Neil Oseman Had to do EVERYTHING, co-write the script, and produce. All this on the tiniest of budgets with no help from the BFI or Screen West Midlands who are probably at this moment handing out cash for another gritty urban drama about something controversial. or a cockernee gangster film. Nobody makes this kind of film in this country anymore.

In the end, Soulsearcher is a great, entertaining movie that harks back to the likes of Back to the Future and Ghostbusters. If you can't see past the flaws to see whats been achieved then clearly low budget movies aren't for you.