User reviews

Shelter has dealt with an unfair start into cinemas, it was ready for release way back in 2010 and now it's finally being released On Demand and in limited theaters under its new title 6 Souls. The movie starts with the introduction of Cara Harding, a female forensic psychiatrist played by Julianne Moore, who just finished wrapping up her current case, when her father Dr. Harding approaches her with a new case. Cara is hesitant at first but soon agrees to take the job and soon discovers that not only does her new patient has multiple personalities but all of them are murder victims, we are then taken on a tailspin with her to figure out why this is happening.

The movie has its moments of grotesque eeriness that gets under your skin but just not a lot of scares or action. The story just gets lost in its own complexity of twists with not much payoffs. For a movie that is almost 2 hours long it just didn't accomplish that much or had any moments that stood out to me. The film does have a lot of spooky imagery with creepy locations, but just didn't take full advantage of them. The film starts off well as a psychological thriller and character study, and then when the horror elements seep in, the film's effectiveness fades away and becomes illogical.

The intense and focused performances are where this film shines. Julianne Moore can do any role justice and in this problematic film she proves it with her raw emotions and mesmerizing red head beauty. Julianne plays Cara Harding, a forensic psychiatrist who picks up the most challenging cases of her career when she meets her new patient who has a multiple personality disorder. Jonathan Rhys Meyers gives a captivating performance as David/Adam/Wesley and is probably the very best I've seen from him so far. Jonathan's performance could have been an over the top mess if approached the wrong way, but he made it organic and gripping to watch. The supporting actors were not half bad either and also made it watch able.

Directors, Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein prove that maybe two heads aren't that better than one to tackle a flawed story. They do create a certain atmosphere that evokes fear and some stomach turning images but didn't really know how to end the story effectively or answer all of our questions. Writer, Michael Cooney seems to have made the same mistakes here that he did with his other screenplay Identity, which also had a great start but ruined it for me with it's lousy last half that was also illogical, his stories are just uneven to me, but I do like his effort for trying to bring something different to this mostly unoriginal genre.

Overall, I can see why they waited so long to release the film, but it deserves a much better treatment than the crap like Texas Chainsaw 3D, which made its way to movie theaters way to easily than this. The film lacks scares, thrills and the story leads to no payoff, but the performances are solid, the atmosphere, imagery are spooky and the concept is a nice change of pace. The movie as a whole could have been so much better and executed with a more terrifying impact, but it's a whole lot more decent than what it got treated as, so it's granted at least one viewing if you want something different from the norm. Just don't expect too much from this one.

6 SOULS has a compelling and unique storyline that nicely intermixes spiritual and psychological elements: There are some very original ideas here. It's well-produced and cinematized with realistic acting by all. It has the necessary focus but still leaves room for individual interpretation, the sort of film that you can watch multiple times, picking up new details and subtleties with each view. At times it seems pro-Christian, at times anti-Christian, or at least critical of the superstitious-fundamentalist brand of Christianity. Again, the religious elements are clear enough yet also vague enough.

The plot does drag and meander a good bit. There are also some of the usual tired old demon-tropes (people throwing up black goop, etc). Still,this film has a fairly solid mythos behind it and relies more on surprise and suspense than it does raw schlock. While nothing truly special, 6 SOULS is probably worth seeing if you like psychological/supernatural horror and have been disappointed by most other recent films in this genre.

The ending leaves room for an interesting sequel. . .7 SOULS?

Supernatural isn't my cup of tea, but I will give points to Shelter for doing more than just keeping me in my seat. At times, it reminded me of Shyamalan's better days. Though very much a slow mover, Shelter is haunting and gripping, shot perfectly and never too superficial. Julianne Moore, is a compelling lead, and there is enough 'human' in the character to deserve some credit, and earn some sympathy from the viewer. Horror movies almost by nature, don't have a heart, but this is one of the few that has some.

The one problem with the movie, is that the plot is heavy. The first hour may seem a little disoriented, but the scenario brings everything together with enough coherency in the last act. The matter in which it does so however raises some questions that are left unanswered, and could qualify as plot holes.

As a straight to video release, one would not typically set high expectations. Shelter exceeded mine, It's not a film for an impatient viewer, but it's an appetizing ghost story if you are looking for one such film.

Based on a previous review here suggesting that fans of The Ring would like this I went to see Shelter and I think the previous advice needs more clarification. If you liked The Ring then yes, you'll probably like this. If however you thought The Ring had pointless cut aways and sudden close-ups just to try to build tension or make you jump, then you will be as equally frustrated with this film. Still in the latter group, I would assume that you loved Ringu and therefore you will appreciate the story this film is trying to tell despite the occasional ham-fisted way it goes about presenting it.

Jonathan (male lead) is really quite good, although Julianne comes across far too much as if she has been cast as Dana Scully. In truth this whole film would have been more believable if this had of been the story line for the X Files 2 movie. Knowing that going in will probably help get past the weird opening 30 minutes where it swings from place to place until we settle on the story it is wanting to tell. Despite the plot holes and some questionable decisions by the characters, I did leave the film feeling pleased and positive about the whole experience.

It's really rare for an American film to open in Japan before America, so I rushed to see it. Well, I might not have rushed had it not been for Juliana Moore who does deliver despite huge gaping plot holes littered throughout the film.

I won't give anything away about the story. There is a lot of development in the first half of the movie which might make the film seem s l o w for some viewers. When the mystery is revealed it is surprising but even given the careful buildup you might still have to make an effort to suspend your disbelief if only because of the plot holes (which I can not mention with out enumerating spoilers).

There are quite a few logical disconnects, too. In a age of cell phones when you're a busy psychiatrist why would you drive across town to do something which would take ten seconds by phone? Because it's a plot device.

Still, I enjoyed the film. I can not recommend it to my Japanese friends as there is a lot of talk about God and Faith which is lost on a truly secular country; but I can recommend it to people who like films like The Ring or The Exorcist. There are some interesting characters and a lot of good acting especially by the male lead who, well, you'll see.

I caught this film on Netflix the other night in the "recommended for me" section. It certainly looked promising: a taut psychological thriller with Julianne Moore as Dr. Cara Harding, a forensic psychologist trying to disprove a diagnosis of multiple personality disorder in mental patient David/Adam/Wesley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).

But it quickly morphs from the cooly clinical and scientific to hillbilly voodoo and fundie religious hokum replete with a hot, steaming, incomprehensible -- some of it kind of fun in its incoherence -- compost heap of plot elements: the 1918 flu epidemic; skin rashes; chronic coughs yielding -- ughh -- dirt; slip-and-falls; spinal injuries; atheism; Catholicism; faith healers; vaccines; curses; snake venom potions; apparitions on video; and a suddenly discovered -- and quite laughable -- silent film, replete with +90 year old narrator. There's even a test for red-green color blindness.

And, like the antagonist, this film suffers from an identity crisis. Is it a psychological thriller? A slasher / stalker film? A medical mystery? A serial killer whodunnit? A witchcraft / occult movie? I enjoyed just trying to figure out what the producers had in mind. This is like a film made my committee (or someone with multiple personality disorder).

Saving grace: A good faith try at making the crazy script work by Moore. And an enthusiastically evil performance Meyers, though he needs to take an intensive "American accents" workshop. That southern twangy thing was the worst, and so not right for upper Apalachia.

But all-in-all, I actually like really bad, messy movies, especially those that try so hard. Maybe Netflix knows me afterall? Hence the six -- how appropriate -- stars rating.

I can't easily recall a movie that started better and ended worse.

During the first few minutes, I kept thinking, "Man! what are all the negative reviews about?" The camera-work was not only good, but stylish and captivating. The framing, the acting, the dialogue, the plot — everything was firing on all cylinders. It had interesting characters with real relationships who said things that made sense, whose lines were delivered by actors who could act...

And then the darned thing just went off the rails. The more Julianne Moore's character went off on her own investigations, the more meandering and "Huh?" the story became. Then by the last half-hour or so, you're just waiting for the whole thing to be over. You've lost hope that it will make sense. Which is good. Because it doesn't.

Pity. It had all the elements for a really first-rate movie; but instead of coming together to form a coherent whole, they all scattered and left the viewer gasping for sense.

There's some great acting in this movie and that helps most of the way through.

However it gets to a point where the acting isn't enough to make up for the story which stops making sense about 2 thirds in.

The amount of questions left unanswered and the sudden lack of sense coupled with plot holes stops this being a great movie and drops it into mediocrity.

Not recommended as it feels unfinished.

I've watched 6 Souls a few years back, before starting my project of documenting, rating and reviewing a list of Horror films. I can summarize this review for you TL;DR lazies by saying - wow, I'm so glad I've watched it again, stop reading and go watch it now.

The story, plot and script, while original and innovative just the way they should be, are far from being perfect, but even as the shortcomings of this great film they deserve more than the rate this film currently has here on IMDb (6.1? An atrocity, a travesty of justice, and pretty much BS). The film starts up and builds up as an Insanity Horror-Psycho Thriller flick, dealing with Multiple Personality Disorder (or lack thereof). Only towards the second half does the film expose its supernatural motive, as was shown in its trailers. The only other Horror film I recall using this rather cheap and redundant "deception tactic" is Insidious, and in my book comparing any film to insidious is a huge complement for it. The problem with 6 Souls is that the start up and build up lead us to a very disappointing (in my opinion) "highlight point", and since the turning point it's nothing but plot holes and lack of logic... Without these, the end would have been far less anticlimactic, and would have spared this film the Curse of Anticlimactic Endings, which has been ravaging the Horror genre for the last decade or so.

Having said that, I have nothing but praises for this film to add. In regards to the acting - main actress Julian Moore is excellent, and has received a much better film to star in after the disappointing Forgotten. However, the Oscar definitely goes to the exquisite, profound and awe-strikingly amazing Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Throughout the film, Meyers plays no less than 4 different characters, and gives each a different body language, voice intonation, facial expressions and acting personality. His role, even if nothing else, makes this film worth watching (and as far as other Horror actors are concerned - watching and learning!). In addition, the character of Granny (more than Joyce Feurring's acting, though not half bad) involves some remarkable ideas!

All in all - the frame story, the acting and some of the ideas presented in the script are no less than exquisite, and definitely compensate for the average (and below) plot and ending. Definitely worth watching, definitely worth more than 6...

Adding together the presence of Michael Cooney as the writer who gave us 'Identity', which boasted originality and a fast paced story AND with the addition of Julianne Moore who eats this genre for breakfast, my expectations for this were high. The movie starts off well, 'on the edge'; with Jonathan Rhys Meyer's character being introduced perfectly. Plenty of reason to call it a horror/thriller at this point with excellent use of sound to create the jumpy vibe. However the direction from the Swedish duo Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein soon starts to really let the grip of the film slip. OK admittedly there are plot holes and the pace is slow after the initial quick start which covers a lot of explanatory material for the theory behind the story. But to have taken the obviousness out of that, the direction could have been so much more original and less armature looking, with close ups and set ups for jumps so obvious and dull. The first 30 minutes or so of the film has the horror edge, after that a Sunday paced drama with a frankly ridiculous set of ideas behind Meyers character which are not overly original sets this up to mainly let moviegoers expectations down. Meyer's brilliant acting including his shift in accents and characters and Moore's usual type cast brilliant acting make this watchable and average. This could have been so good and does not fit into the horror/thriller genre well and do it justice. An average supernatural thriller with a couple of jumps at best as horror. What a shame.

This is a very enjoyable entertaining and enthralling suspense film to see. Definitely not a horror film but it does have its horror moments for sure. Starts out as a horror thriller but as others have commented before me, by the end we have an undoubted supernatural drama thriller.

Julianne Moore and Jonothon Rhys Meyers are excellent in this movie and deliver the story very well indeed. You wont be bored with this movie and if you want compare it with The Ring and Identity, that is upto you. this had the same impact on me as 'Orphan' and had me jumping out of my seat at the scary bits! Sometimes suspense is created in the movie without it being explained later and perhaps the director was exploiting our curiosity to overload and then leaving us a touch disappointed. I am not at all disappointed with the movie, I loved it and I am still trying to work out 'who' Mr Jonothon was really playing.

Those affected by the 'cough' clearly receive their'fate' during the movie. We don't hear of the preacher until quite late in the movie and the same can be said about the 'Granny'.

If there is a message in the movie, I guess it is that - don't lose faith or there will be consequences. I was expecting a connection with the execution of Kilkirk with Bernberg but I did not see it in the movie. At the times Caroline (Moore) was a paranoiac doctor psychologist but thats not her fault.

Shelter, as I now understand it in this movie, is interpreting protection for those who do not keep the faith. It is not however a religious film in any way, we have to think a little bit why the victims who became victims during the movie and who were reported as victims , why it should happen to them.

So who was the real killer?

Actress Julianne Moore to me seemed an actress who chooses her projects carefully. This movie proves that it is just random. For the love of god I can't think of a reason for an actor or actress to do this kind of role other than money. There is no challenge at all. The story had a strong start but then took a deep dive. I understand that it is hard to come up with new angles on certain psychological issues but why use them in the first place. The writers and the director didn't know to solve their problem either and took the easy way out. While in the first half there is room for more interpretations in the second half there is only one interpretation left which asks too much of the viewer especially with the whole hillbilly nonsense. Jonathan Rhys Myers was adequate enough although there wasn't a moment he was menacing enough to be taken seriously. People kept dying in the movie and only in one scene did it seem to affect me since the drama was laid on so thick there was no escaping it. The slow pace and the loud sound effects ruined the creepy ambiance that was created. Loud sound effects usually are effective if it is followed by a strong scene in which something bad happens. In this movie we only have the loud sound effect,which is a very cheap trick to attract attention especially when nothing is happening on the screen to justify these sounds. I wished I could be more positive about the movie. But sadly the whole movie felt like a complete waste of time. Don't bother watching this movie!

SHELTER It's hard to review this film too much without giving away the whole thing. It is a psychological suspense thriller of two halves and the film has a real feeling of schizophrenia, not just from Meyer's lead character but it's direction from Swedish duo Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, the first half is tense and gripping, the second half becomes more action and fabled story telling. This schizophrenic nature is reflected in how I received the film, I thought Jonathan Rhys Meyer's performance including his shift in personality was brilliant but detested the crass narrative at the end when watching faux sepia film footage in the library.

The first half of the movie concerns itself with character and plot development, there's a well studied and crafted build up. Meyers is excellent in helping this aspect along, and what is appealing with Julianne Moore is that by being completely normal and not at all the first person who comes to mind for this role, makes her somewhat perfect for it. Moore's character Caroline makes some questionable decisions, the kind that make you say " no… why would you go in there.." but they're not running in your underwear through the woods holding a toothpick when Jason's around type decisions and actually it doesn't hurt the film but create real moments of suspense. The first half is a both entertaining and an enthralling suspense film, bordering on horror as it does have its horror moments.

The second half of the film then moves into a supernatural thriller. You are never behind the plot, always a step or two ahead but again this doesn't hurt the film. As our main characters head into Appalachian mountain country they seem to get trapped at the end of a lane and possibly directors Mårlind and Stein didn't know how to get out from deep in the Pennsylvanian woods. They make an effort to put in a twist or two and so wriggle their way out of a corner, unfortunately up to that point I was engrossed in the film but it rather loses it's way a little. I will say that it does end well and is worth watching, it's just because of the midway turn it takes from suspense thriller to supernatural drama it's hard not to compare the second half of the film to 'Skeleton Key' which ultimately is a much better film all round.

7/10

I'm giving this 1, simply because the first half built the expectation that this movie may be halfway decent.

Julianne Moore's performance is great as usual, the cinematography and score are above average for Hollywood and Jonathan Rhys-Myers gets to overact in a variety of different characters... sounds OK right?

Wrong! The second half of the movie descends into an oozing morass of nonsense and bible-bashing claptrap. I'm not even objecting to the overly religious theme per se, it's that even this is completely incomprehensible in this movie. I could drive a bus through the holes in the plot.

What's worse, the ending leaves way for a sequel... please NO!

At the end, my partner and I both started shouting expletives at the screen.

With Shelter we wasted four hours total of our lives and I am writing this so that you don't have to.

I had never heard of this film until I found it a few days ago. I had enjoyed Identity a lot and was expecting more of a psychological thriller - the first half of the film was exactly that and then turned into a pretty good supernatural horror.

Julianne Moore is as gorgeous as ever and plays the part very well - a bit like Tally in The Forgotten. Jonathan Rhys Meyers was excellent - the only film I've seen before with him in it was Alexander and can't remember him in it but this role was a revelation - he actually reminded me of a young Daniel Day Lewis. The always underrated Jeffrey DeMunn was good too.

This film is no Omen or The Shining so 8/10 is a pretty fair rating in my opinion.

Agreeing to take on a strange case for her father, a psychologist finds that her charge is harboring the souls of murdered victims together under the guise of a personality disorder and must race to stop him when his true plans are revealed.

Overall this one was quite a decent if altogether flawed effort. What really works here is the fact that it manages to maintain a rather impressive air about it that allows for this one to really get some effectively creepy scenes throughout, which is mostly due to the practice of this one attempting to come off as a character study and researching the different personalities associated here. While the different investigation techniques aren't all that impressive or enjoyable, there's the manner in which these bring about the different shocks here with the different personalities appearing at unwarranted times in order to keep things guessing as it goes along in trying to detail how he managed to accomplish this feat and slowly unravel the truth about his identity as he continues to play a great cat-and-mouse game to torment her in this half of the film. That leads into the second half here which is almost better with the film really going all-out to make the suspense work in unraveling the truth about his identity which is quite chilling and helps with the discovery of the different bodies throughout here that are found which enable this one to turn into quite a fun time here with the attacks on her friends finally bringing about the big chase into the finale where the action manages to make for quite a rousing time in the end. These here are enough to make this hold out enough to compensate nicely for the few flaws here, as this one does manage to make a few small blunders. The biggest here is in how this one goes about wasting so much time here on the different personalities that are clearly not that interesting, as once it's learned who they are it drastically reveals quite a lame and rather unappealing style of events that really bring this one to a halt here as she travels the countryside digging up the different people that are never once brought back to light as proof of his misleading them as the first one who died years before he was actually alive should've been enough to lock him up on the spot and then rendered the stalking as irrelevant based on that alone, which is where this one does tend to fall somewhat by not being all that truthful about the source of his secret. The other part that lowers this one is the fact that there's a rather lame reveal here for each of the identities, merely causing him to tilt his head back and snap into a new persona in a series of rather lame scenes that are supposedly terrifying but instead come off as laughable, especially when it happens in the final half during some of the more intense sequences where he's trying to get at them and renders this a little more comical than expected. These here are what keep this one from what it could've been.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and children-in-jeopardy.