Soultangler (1987) watch online HD

"The Soultangler" is a very low budget film with an intriguing premise that takes a while to get where it is going but pays off spectacularly in the end. Dr. Anton Lupesky invents Anphiorum, a drug that allows the user's soul to leave their body and inhabit any corpse that still has eyes (yes being the window to the soul after all). The side effect is horrible, maddening hallucinations that kill most of the drug's users.

Though the beginning is slow going as to be expected from a lot of trash horror films of this era, the story builds nicely and has a fantastically gore-soaked climax that makes the previous 70 minutes entirely worth it. Every ounce of the tiny budget is on screen and though the actors might not be professionals and the camera-work is shaky, there is a passion and a heart to this film that movies will hundred million dollar budgets cannot match.

If you don't go in expecting constant action or thrills and accept that this is a micro-budget film determined to tell a surreal, dream-like story of science gone horribly wrong, you will enjoy it. Trust me though, stick with it till the ending and you will love this film.

I know that at the heart of it all AGFA is trying to rescue films from obscurity, trying to offer them with the best presentation possible and saving movies that might otherwise be lost to the world forever. But there is also a large part of me that gives credit to people who at least attempt to make a movies, a large part that says ALL films should be saved from disappearing to the ravages of vinegar syndrome or the trash heap, at the same time a small part of me says maybe there are some movies that with the exception of friends and family of those film makers the world might be a better place for not being exposed to a particular film. Case in point THE SOULTANGLER.

Promoted on the box as similar to RE-ANIMATOR but shot in New Jersey I found so little of it similar that I couldn't comprehend the comparison. I saw some green fluid but there were other colors as well. During the commentary track the director said his lead actor looked like Jeffrey Combs but I've seen people on the street who looked more like him. And the similarity of creating zombies of the dead is not limited to RE-ANIMATOR. So ignore the claim and look at the film on its own...merits?

The story involves a Dr. Anton Lupesky who is kicked out of the hospital he works in for doing experiments deemed unworthy of such an institute. Coming back to the same town a few years later Lupesky has developed a serum that transfers the souls of one person into the deceased body of another. Except that they come back as zombies. A reporter is doing research on the story and, as with all good reporters, eventually finds herself with the possibility of becoming a part of the story she has no desire to be.

In reading that description, and not giving myself credit, it is much more entertaining than the actual film itself. I am a lover of low budget films but this movie transcends low budget and delves into the world of no budget. When your secret lab looks like what it is, the basement of someone's home, then you know you have a problem.

I've tried to think of something positive to say about the film but there isn't much that deserves it. Beginning with the script we have a terrible amount of bad story telling going on here. Far too much of the story is being told to us via narrators or letters being written and read. One entire segment is a letter being read while images of an abandoned institution is on display with boarded and broken windows. Uh okay how about a little more explanation than that? I just finished watching Hitchcock's DIAL M FOR MURDER in which almost all of the film takes place in a single room. Plenty of exposition is in the script as characters discuss possibilities of what actually happened. Five minutes of that film rivals anything seen in this film's entirety.

The acting is subpar throughout in spite of the director in the commentary track giving praise to different cast members. A recent high school production of ANNIE I saw which had some terrible acting on display (not all but some) showed more potential than the actors here.

The film was shot on 16mm and it shows. I've seen some films shot on 16mm in the past that were blown up and transferred and they actually looked pretty good. This is not one of those films.

The special effects, the mainstay of any gore fueled horror film, are for the most part weak here. Far too many images of just blood smeared on someone or squirting into the face of Lupesky are used. But at least there were two segments that allow me to say something good about the movie. One involved a dream sequence in which the reporter peels away a portion of her own forearm that was well done. The second involved the doctor's henchmen having had his head not quite severed from his body who stands up and pursues the reporter, head hanging on by a thread. While it wasn't amazing to see it was well done and kudos to the make-up man for that image.

I will, in the end, still believe that all films should be preserved and saved from obscurity. Films like this one may make it difficult to believe that and continue to encourage it but they do. Some people will watch this and love the low-budget of it all, the attempt to create something from nothing, to make a horror film that intends to frighten even if it inspires raucous laughter instead. For those people this will be an item to pick up, to watch while incredibly drunk as you roll around on the floor in spasms of laughter. For the rest of is it does have one beneficial aspect to it. When you're facing a night of insomnia put this one in the player and I can almost guarantee you that within minutes you'll find yourself dozing off.

Extras include the commentary audio track with director Pat Bishowl, an unseen 62 minute alternate director's cut, behind the scenes footage, trailers for this film & DEAD OF NIGHT TOWN, a music video for "Wave" by Hypnolovewheel and liner notes by Bleeding Skull's Zack Carlson. I'm stunned that a movie like this has this many extras included while some great movies are being released with none. View at your own risk.

A crazy scientist called Anton Lupesky develops a drug called Anphorium, which makes the soul leaves the body and enters in any corpse with eyes. It affects the nerve center, causing madness as side effect.

I was able to watch exactly fifteen minutes of this crap. This thing is so awful that I was tempt to watch more, to see how far is the mental incapability of this moron amateurish Pat Bishow. I do not know who the worst is: this director, the writer or the producer, maybe all of them together. These guys deserved to be sued for such a horrible crap. It certainly is the worst flick I have ever tried to see. I borrowed this VHS from my friend Ricardo, and I advise him: get rid off this garbage, do not waste your time on this trash. My vote is zero (one in IMDb lowest rating).

Title (Brazil): "O Embrulhador de Almas" ("The Soul Wrapper")

... for I thought this movie fell out of another dimension. A dimension of horrible movies, that is. Some dimension where Redneck Zombies is Four Star or greater. I am sure it was a weekend diversion for some of no talent to create this film. That it was released to the public... unreal. I have better films of my dog rolling in dead rabbits.

Funny thing is that I still own my copy and will likely never part with it. Why? Who knows. Life is like that. I bought a VHS copy for three dollars. Judging from the packaging alone, I paid too much. Once viewed however, I was sure I should have been paid to watch it. The use of Edgar Allan Poe's "Dream Within a Dream" was very disturbing. Not that it was being spewed by a spooky doll head, but that I like E.A.P., and am quite saddened they could not choose a worse poet to hack.

Highlights? Well, in one scene, after the first bloody scenes, two characters are walking through a basement and you get to see a large box hastily marked "Ketchup". Now, with such poor effects (and no budget for Karo Syrup or even one of Raimi's recipes) I am sure that box belonged to whatever fool was in charge of FX. Not even cute, useless and boring as hell... ensure you are paid to watch this movie if ever at all. You have been warned.

this was a headache inducing B o R I N G very slow paced and stupid flick sure it was Extremely gory but the fact is it was too inane for me to enjoy it it has awful acting laughable dialogue a very weak script and a very lousy finale avoid this piece of cow dung at all costs you have been warned BOMB out of 5

Soultangler (1987)

* (out of 4)

Anton Lupesky is a scientist who of course turns out to be mad. He creates a drug that will allow the users spirit to leave their body and posses corpses but of course there's a major side effect.

SOULTANGLER is a film that I had never heard of before it came out onto DVD. I must admit that I had never heard a thing about it and after watching it I'm even more confused because there's really not too much here. I mean, was the company releasing this trying to pass it off as a cult movie? Perhaps as a movie that's so bad it's good? I'm really not sure what they were trying to do but it seems the filmmakers were going for something like RE-ANIMATOR but they didn't have a budget.

For me the worst thing about this picture is that it just couldn't keep me entertained or glued into what was going on. Every once in a while we'd get some bloody deaths but there's not nearly enough to keep you entertained. As you'd expect the performances are pretty bad but this here can be forgiven. The film also features some pretty weak special effects but I will say that I enjoyed them for what they were. At least they tried to give us some practical effects with gore.

I guess there might be some people who get some laughs out of the picture but it just didn't work for me. SOULTANGLER just didn't grab me or hold my attention.