Ice terror In the small town of Nederland, Colorado, for several years mysteriously missing children. One day, a group of teenagers also lose their friend Audrey. The next day, in class, the seven enter into a dispute about her true whereabouts, and as punishment, they are placed on a team to participate in the festival. With little time to prepare, the teens decide to break into a strange shed to steal parts for their project. There they find a frozen body. Awakening the evil creature, they will learn the true meaning of the icy hell.
Looking at such an insignificant budget, even for an amateur film, you somehow involuntarily think, is it worth expecting something worthy in such a case? Such films quickly disappear from memory as soon as the final credits appear, and the acting is far from shining with professionalism. And yet, despite all these circumstances, the tempting poster and synopsis prompted me to spend the evening with the Guardians of Souls, hoping to get at least some pleasure from watching.
To my surprise, the start was promising. Shocking newspaper headlines, intriguing footage of nature, music setting in a mysterious way - all this resembled classic thrillers and horror films. However, in the first minutes, the clip nature of the shooting was striking: faces and various small close-up objects, a car approaching the club, which was shot from different angles, bright static pictures, a camera filming people somewhere at the level of the belt - at the moment of acting replicas it looks somehow ridiculous. In addition, cut eyes steep joints during installation in a number of moments. If you do not take into account these obvious technical flaws in the rest of the film allows you to relax and have a good time.
The dialogues of the characters are not beaten, and the actors try to put maximum emotions into their game, so that their audience does not get bored. And most of them are quite successful. In fact, I did not notice a single “statist” who would be sloppy in the frame. Even the actors of the third/fourth plan, whether it is a kissing couple against the background of the dialogue of the main characters, a country singer in the far left corner - they all added liveliness and dynamism to what is happening. It would seem a minor detail, but from such trifles a holistic picture of perception is formed. Heroes constantly joke, gesture, even their bored faces and those caused some emotions. At the same time, I was surprised to find that most actors are not professionals and have only 2-4 similar actually amateur films in filmography. For others, the “Keepers of Souls” is the only one. It was funny to watch the antics of good-natured fat Jack, the eternal whims of Heather or the bully Tristan, who seems not quite of a traditional orientation.
“Keepers of Souls” have almost all the moments inherent in the genre: urban legends, alternately changing closed locations, communication with ghosts, an unexpected turn, finally, and an equally unexpected (albeit already traditional) ending. As a result, the film is very good and stands out among the endless stream of similar low-budget independent films.
A few interesting points. The film is based on the book “Only Forever: The True Story of the Body Keepers” (Only Forever: The True Story of the Body Keepers) Filming took place in five different cities in Colorado (including the Netherlands itself, where the film is set in the film) between July and August 2014.
7 out of 10