Darkest Soul

Director - Doug Ulrich (Scary Tales, 7 Sins of the Vampire)

Starring - Al Darago (Screen Kill, Scary Tales), Jeff White (The Prophet of Oz, 7 Sins of the Vampire), and Heather Brown (Not Another Teen Movie, In God We Trust)

Release Date - 1994

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Some people search all their lives for buried treasure... Tommy and Mark re about to find theirs."

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     I know that the AGFA releases are not for everyone.  While most people are pissing their pants over the 8th release of Evil Dead, I often find myself looking for movies I've never seen before with the trashier the better in my opinion.  I've been collecting the AGFA releases for a few years now and they have released some seriously underrated flicks on blu.  What makes these releases so much fun for me is that almost all of them are double features with a bonus film in the special features.  Scary Tales is no different with a second Doug Ulrich release stashed away in the bonus features.  Once I finished Scary Tales I immediately hit play on Darkest Soul.  

     The film follows two best friends, one very timid and loyal while the other is very short tempered and often hostile.  As they bounce from job to job they soon find themselves employed as grave diggers.  Being a day laborer soon reveals it's perks when they uncover that those being buried are often done so with valuables.  Grave digging soon turns to grave robbing as a quick way to make some extra cash.

     I'm not blowing smoke up anyone's ass or trying to be a movie hipster but my AGFA collection is just as important to me as my Vin Syn and Troma collection.  These movies are trashy, cheap, and fun which, ironically, is what I look for in a woman.  Scary Tales was a fun anthology that I can see myself revisiting but I didn't know what to expect from Darkest Soul.  Considering I couldn't find anything on the film including the trailer I assumed it would be a dumpster fire.  Surprisingly, it wasn't.  In fact, I enjoyed it as well.  The acting in this one is a little better than Scary Tales.  The characters, at least the two protagonists, are well developed with a lot more personality written into the roles.  The cast seems to have more to work with and does a fairly decent job with it.  There is a few scenes that were a little awkward to watch but no unintentionally funny scenes like it's predecessor.  The story for this one is not as macabre or horror driven as I was hoping for but I did enjoy it.  Grave robbing is not often depicted in horror stories anymore so it was cool to see it in this one.  However, the film is very character driven which left the story partially underdeveloped.  At least 30 minutes could be trimmed from this one and the story would still remain intact.  Finally, this is not a bloody one.  The ending does feature a death scene but it's not that memorable.  In fact, it's fairly cliched and forgettable.  The practical effects are decent for the death scene, however.  Overall, Darkest Soul is far from perfect but some will like it.  I enjoyed it and I can see myself spinning it again in the future.  Fans of J.R. Bookwalter would appreciate this one.