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Wide World of Horror: ‘Lilasia Psichon (Soul Looting’) – when making a film isn’t good enough

Wide World of Horror: ‘Lilasia Psichon (Soul Looting’) – when making a film isn’t good enough

Lilasia Psichon (Soul Looting)soullooting-poster


Written by George Vouzikis
Directed by George Vouzikis
Greece, 2009

Every cinephile has had the moment where they’ve thought, “I could make this movie.” Most of us let that feeling drift away and we remain cinephiles, become critics, or slowly lose interest in movies altogether. Rare is the cinephile that takes such a feeling and actually starts making movies. Even rarer is the person who follows that feeling and makes great movies. Much more common is the person who rides the wave of that feeling into making mediocre films. Most common of all is the maker of terrible films, the person who thought they could make a movie and only ever succeeded in the actual making part.

George Vouzikis, with Lilasia Psichon at least, falls into the category of someone who succeeded only in making a film. The last five minutes of Lilasia Psichon will be worthwhile to some. In those minutes the film turns gory and the gore is surprisingly well done. Surprisingly is the key word, because in every other regard Lilasia Psichon is a shoddily made film. This is the stuff of the community college filmmaker; the director who has a handheld camera and a few friends who are willing to be in front of said camera. Kýrios Vouzikis managed to make a film, but the film he made is devoid of any of the elements that make a film worthwhile.

It’s a bit of a tired criticism, but to say that not much happens in Lilasia Psichon would not be wrong. A bed shakes, a chair movies, and a murky camera is present to capture all of the non-existent action. The horror that Lilasia Psichon is aiming for is very much in the same realm as say Paranormal Activity or The Blair Witch Project. What Lilasia Psichon doesn’t have that those films do is actual atmosphere or the ability to set up its attempts at scary moments. It’s probably better to say that things do happen in Lilasia Psichon, but they aren’t interesting things.

Without atmosphere, it falls on the plot and characters to save the film. That doesn’t happen with Lilasia Psichon, as every aspect of the film is weakly drawn. The plot makes sense for the first hour and ten minutes. The final twenty minutes throw a monkey wrench into the mix that only serves to muddy up the waters and add a twist to the plot that is nothing but confusing. The characters aren’t able to save anything because they seem to exist for the sake of delivering badly written dialogue.

From the far too grainy, and/or cloudy, camera work to the lackadaisical acting there’s nothing to recommend about Lilasia Psichon. The final five minutes try to spice things up, but by that point the best done gore in the world couldn’t save the film. Luckily there are a lot of other Greek horror films in existence, and hopefully all of them will be better than the dross that is Lilasia Psichon.

-Bill Thompson

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