Product Details

• Actors: Ryan Barrett, Karen Boshart, Buchanan Elliott, Matt Kowall, Pete Soltesz
• Directors: Chad Archibald, Gabriel Carrer
• Writers: Chad Archibald, Gabriel Carrer
• Producers: Chad Archibald, Gabriel Carrer, Adam Koebel, Irene Loewy
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: October 4, 2005
• Run Time: 84 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 1.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ARTMTI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,882 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Desperate Souls" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

An ancient druid book of unspeakable power has survived for centuries protected by the dark shadows of the natural world. But when discovered by a group of spiteful young orphans they maliciously unleash it onto a group of unsuspecting teenagers on a weekend camping trip.System Requirements: Running Time 90 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 031398182436 Manufacturer No: 18243

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Evil Dud, January 13, 2006

By 

Ghoulie Guru - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desperate Souls (DVD)

WARNING: possible spoilers ahead...

In DESPERATE SOULS, a bunch of teenagers who go for a hike in the woods are possessed by demons and they start killing each other. The basic storyline is like EVIL DEAD but this movie has no style whatsoever and doesn't have the benefit of Sam Raimi's direction. This is more like Evil Dud.

I'm surprised that this awful movie wasn't made and distributed by the Asylum. It had all the shoddy production values, cardboard acting and horrible video camera quality of most Asylum movies. The storyline was extremely hard to follow, and after a while I just stopped trying to make sense of it. I'm not even sure exactly how or why these teens were possessed by demons. There's a vague reference to an ancient book of Druidic magic, which I guess serves the same purpose that the Necronomicon did in Evil Dead.

To give you an idea of how flaccid and forgettable this movie is, I can't even tell you how it ended. This should be filed with every movie from the Asylum and CreepFX under Complete Waste of Time and Money.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars do not buy, do not rent, you will thank me, February 22, 2006

By 

K. Customer "gmucsg" (albany, ny) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Desperate Souls (DVD)

oh my god this was a bad movie, my friend and I rented it and watched it all the way through just to laugh at the acting(and camera angles, and special effects and plot) this was not worth my well earned $2.

and for those who saw this movie, i feel your pain.(that dude never put down his shovel! what the hell?)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How did mankind survive before there were shovels?, August 4, 2007

By 

Music Lover in Omaha (Omaha, Ne) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desperate Souls (DVD)

Okay, here goes. These orphans, who all look to be in their twenties decide to escape from the cruel orphanage. They work out this clever plan. The clever plan? Get out of bed and walk out the unlocked door then wait for the security guard to come out and beat him to death so they can then walk away. Yeah, that was clever. So they escape the orphange and they go into the woods where there is this book, passed down from the Druids. So they won't be caught and returned to the orphange, (even though they are all old enough to be holding down real jobs), they commit mass suicide, using some Druid spell, so that they can come back some time in the future when some unsuspecting souls wander into the woods and step into their magic circle. One guy and I have no idea where he came from, becomes the guardian of the circle and it is his destiny to defend the circle and make sure no one ever goes into the circle and be possessed by the orphans. So what does he do to make sure no one ever steps into the circle by accident? He builds a wall around it. Unfortunately, the wall is only about one inch high. Really..I'm not making this up. So a group of hikers (woo-hoo! unsuspecting souls)wander into the woods and all but one of them walks or trips or stumbles into the circle (I'm having trouble going on because this is so stupid) and they become possessed by the deceased orphans. The guardian, who was apparently sleeping on the job when this happens, decides he has to hunt down the now possessed people and destroy them to protect the Earth. He enlists the aid of the one guy from the hiker group who was not possessed to help. (And this guy is dumber than dirt) The guardian and the idiot hiker guy then enlist the aid of some young woman who is just a random friend of the guardian. So how do you track down these demons from the pit? I guess the plan was just to run in mindless panic, hiding in stupid places and hoping the demons find you, which they did with incredible ease. So after the demon orphans, one by one, never as a group find our three heroes, they are then dispatched by the guardian's secret weapon. Again, I'm not making this up. Now when I'm fighting demons, my arsenal consists of things like holy water, wooden stakes and silver bullets. A nice sharp sword that might behead one of the demons might come in handy too. Maybe carry a small Bible in a pocket. What does our hero use? A shovel he gets from a hardware store. With his trusty shovel, Excaliber, he beats the demons back to the burning pit. The only thing worse than the plot of this mess is the acting by an entire cast, and particularly the guardian guy. I have never seen such horrible acting. This guy should be the poster boy for bad acting. If you don't pay attention in drama class, this could be you. Anyway, if you want to see some incredibly bad acting in a movie that makes absolutely no sense at all with poor make-up and terrible camera work, this might be for you.