So much average

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

SOULTAKER just proves that you don't have to watch the un-MST3K version in order to give an honest-to-God review. However, the cinematic masochist inside of me has to get this ghoulish feathered fish off my back before it's too late.Martin Sheen's forgotten younger brother Joe Estevez is given a task by the lantern-jawed Angel of Death (Robert D'Zar) to kill five twenty-something actors pretending to be teenagers by 8:00 tonight. The targets consist of Brad the hard-rocking mullet head, Tommy the oldest teenager in cinema history, Zack the C. Thomas Howell-lookalike, Candice the token girlfriend, and last but not least, the rich girl Natalie played by the writer Vivian Schilling.As the last two surviving victims, Zack and Natalie must race against unlimited time to get back into their bodies before midnight. Why is it always midnight? The already-outdated effects in the film are indeed amateurish and laughable. The cinematography is above average, and the editing is just worse. Nevertheless, the female lead's script is the main culprit.Although her script does have an interesting premise, Schilling is way too young and inexperienced to pull off a story such as this. I must say that she is a naturally beautiful-looking actress who deserves much more than this even if she looks like Tonya Harding. On the plus side, Estevez gives a decent performance as a black-clad baddie who sucks the souls out of dead bodies for a living. And what the hell is up with that slow-motion strip-teasing bathroom scene anyway? Outdated special effects, self-important script, bad acting, and '80s hair metal cheese certainly makes SOULTAKER a misfire of bad filmmaking at its worst.My apologies to Michael Rissi.

I have read quite a few comments about "Soultaker" and how bad the movie is or isn't. As a filmmaker myself I can tell you that given the same set of parameters most of the heavy critics on here would have a completely different opinion of Soultaker or most movies done on a low budget if they worked in the business. I had the honor of distributing this film for A.I.P. Studios when it came out. It will go down as one of the most successful selling movies I carried during my time as a distributor. The video stores ate it up, and it rented very well. There was an entire industry devoted to making low budget or "B" movies especially back then. A.I.P. Studios, PM Entertainment, Raedon Home Video, these companies put out product every month that was well received by video stores, the makers of these films had to be clever in giving the audience production value and compared to today were high definition CGI is the norm, that was simply not the case back then and to make a comparison is ridiculous. Can you imagine what these talented filmmakers could do with a big studio budget. I can tell you making low budget movies can be challenging and I believe that is why a lot of us do it, to see how good we could do with such limitations. There are plenty of films that really don't deliver what you think they should with an all star cast and a $50 million dollar budget. The playing field is different and that's part of the magic. I directed a picture called "Meltdown" with Joe Estevez and Robert Zdar in it strangely enough and I can tell you that both of them are not only great people to work with but are excellent actors to boot. That is how "B" movies are done, they have either an actor like Joe who comes from a famous acting family or they are older "A" actors that are no longer at the top of the heap, for example: Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, David Carridine(RIP), Tony Curtis and list goes on. All of these people are fantastic actors and well recognized by the public and a great value to a low budget film. I am glad to see after all this time Soultaker is now a cult classic and has it's place in movie history a time that I wish would come back. Business was incredible back then and Soultaker certainly delivered, so Vivian if you read this my hat is off to you for your efforts and I wish you the best. I know you write books now but it would be great if you would do more movies the business could use your talent.

OK, I saw this film through Mystery Science Theater 3000, but I did see the movie, so I figured I would leave a comment on it. I just love once again how Joe gets stuck with the crummy roles while his brother and nephew's are just getting the Oscar winning roles left and right. Soultaker is technically what you would call the movie that was meant to be good. It seemed like the director and actors just took this movie extremely seriously and had very cheesy effects, a story that didn't make much sense, and not to mention pretty crummy acting abilities. This is one of my favorite MST3K episodes, simple because a lot of what they mention is what we are thinking throughout the film and I'll explain why in a moment.Natalie and Zach are a couple who broke up and are now trying to work things over. But since Zach is in upper lower class and Natalie is in middle class, it just ain't gonna work. But on the way home, they and Zach's friends get into a car accident and now the angel of death/Soultaker is after them to meet his quota of soultaking. But also it seems like he's had some kind of other life relationship with Natalie and just can't seem to move on. So now Natalie and Zach must race against the ever appearing five million times a minute clock to save their souls and lives.Well, I guess Zeppelin was wrong when he sang that there was a stairway to Heaven, I wonder if Black Sabbith was wrong too, lol. Basically there are a lot of plot holes in this movies, like no one can see the characters and they can't be killed, yet somehow they can still press buttons and open doors? The Angel of Death had a very strange face and was a bit distracting from the story itself. Soultaker was just a lousy film that was rushed and makes you just feel so bad for Joe, the under-appreciated Sheen/Estovez brother.2/10

Soultaker was written by and starred Vivian Schilling. It also starred Joe Estevez, Gregg Thomsen, and Robert D'Zar as the Angel of Death.The story begins with introduction to Soultaker, played by Joe Estevez. We quickly learn what Soultaker's role will be in this movie.Next the college aged young people are getting ready for a summer festival, aptly named "Summerfest". In this film, the battle of the classes is omni-present throughout the film. The girls come from a wealthy class, and the guys come from roughly middle or lower class. The class roles seem to play a role in the film for some reason which isn't really clear or pertinent to the story.At Summerfest we learn more about the apparent class struggles of why Zach isn't encouraged to date Natalie. Soultaker makes an appearance as well, with apparently his boss the Angel of Death. Here D'Zar's character points out who is to die and who's souls are to be taken. It's revealed as well, that Soultaker will have a character conflict regarding Natalie, and how he deals with her because of someone in his past.Meanwhile Natalie is ditched by her ride to Summerfest, and Zach convinces her to ride home with them. During the ride home, Soultaker takes an active role causing them to wreck horribly at high speeds.The rest of the story surrounds the Soultaker collecting the souls of the dead passengers, and Zach and Natalie trying to outwit him to return to their bodies so they can continue to live. The class and character conflicts lay in the story, but are really never brought to the forefront or resolved.There's an attempt towards the end to drag out some of the drama, there's a lot of chasing and running which does tend to be really boring. It's not really acceptable, and it would've been nice had this been dealt with differently, somehow to maybe increase the drama but not bore the audience.The story and acting are decent. The soundtrack is OK, and even the production values are good.Robert D'Zar in his brief on screen appearances does a nice job as the Angel of Death. Joe Estevez does OK, however sometimes his role acting a bit flat. Vivian is pretty and does a decent job as Natalie, although perhaps over acting a bit in a few scenes.This may sound odd, but this movie definitely could've benefited from some pointless nudity. Vivian teases us a bit but that wasn't enough.In my opinion this was a pretty serious attempt at making a movie. The results, it's worth watching. Just don't expect a perfect production.3/10