4 DEAD GIRLS: THE SOUL TAKER

Becky (Bianca Lopez) screams for mercy as she runs around her labyrinthine apartment, fleeing from a reaper-type hooded character. He finally corners her at the end of a corridor.

"You were a very good servant ... but it's over" he whispers as he crouches over her sobbing frame and slashes her wrist open. The scene culminates with Becky dying, her soul leaving her body in a mass of glowing energy only to be sucked into her aggressor's yawning mouth.

Cut to four bubbly college graduates arriving at their first off-campus home. Prim Lily (Katherine Browning), her lesbian sister Lori (Ashley Love) and her lover Pam (Leah Verrill), and their slutty straight pal Bianca (Tiffany S Walker) are greeted by slimy middle-aged landlord Devlin (Mike Campbell). When asked where their fifth housemate is, he informs them that Becky had to "move on".

No matter. They love the place, maximum security sensors and automatic locking and all. They quickly settle in, forgetting their initial reservations about Devlin's offbeat nature (they don't see him turn into a cloud of black smoke after his first meeting with them!).

Bianca likes having her muscular boyfriend Jonathan (Ryan Peavy) and frisky college professors round to fuck. Lori and Pam like to pleasure each other noisily in their bedroom. Lily, on the other hand, is the puritanical one whose idea of fun is cooking dinner for the household.

All the while, the girls are being watched over by a mysterious hooded figure via hidden cameras in the house...

Whoever could it be? Hang on a mo, Lori is doing a thesis on modern folklore and in particular studying a figure known as "Nalusa Chito". This nefarious being feeds on the souls of 'evil' women. "How weird" Lily remarks, recalling that Devlin's surname is also Chito...

Yes, okay, it's hardly a mystery as to what's going on here. The bigger question is "is there anyone in the house who's innocent enough to take on this demon and win?" Think you know the answer?

This is a real curiosity. It starts off looking like it's going to be a comedy horror. There are elements of both, especially the latter. But there are also sizeable passages of the 95-minute running time where the focus drifts to relationships drama as long-simmering rivalry between the sisters comes to the fore, the lesbian couple struggle to find acceptance within their families, and Bianca reveals there's more to her than being a brainless spunk bucket.

These conversations don't help the film's tension any, but they do afford the capable actresses the opportunity to flex their acting muscles. Co-written and directed by Campbell with Todd Johnson, the pair have taken a very simple, classical premise (promiscuity/sexual 'deviancy' equals death) and invested their film with a surprising depth outside of the obvious.

Fair enough, the drama can't quite sustain the feature running time. But that's a minor quibble - 4 DEAD GIRLS is ambitious in a paradoxically intimate setting; it pays off, because by the time the pace eventually ups, you believe these girls are close. And they're quite likeable protagonists too, which is something you rarely find in latter-day American horror films.

I'm not suggesting 4 DEAD GIRLS is a classic. During the first 15 minutes or so I was convinced it was going to be shit. But there's a lot more on offer here than initially meets the eye, and it's all down to the writing, acting and deliberately unfussy direction.

Breaking Glass Pictures' screener DVD presented the film uncut in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio, nicely enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Shot on digital and clearly made on a low budget, the film nevertheless looks fairly good with deep blacks and stable colour schemes. A little too reliant on natural lighting, perhaps, but overall the film is shot fairly well and is well rendered by this DVD's transfer.

English stereo audio is clean and clear consistently throughout.

Unfortunately this preview disc didn't come with menus or extras. The press release dictates that the retail disc will also include cast interviews, deleted scenes ad a featurette on the film's FX work.

4 DEAD GIRLS: THE SOUL TAKER took me by surprise. While it's nothing particularly outlandish, its attention to character detail and conversational drama was not something that terrible title hinted at. It may, as a consequence, be a tad slow for some tastes. But it's definitely worth checking out, if you don't mind your horror being shot on a very low budget.

Review by Stuart Willis