Deseada y Poseída

Seeing the name Pamela Anderson (or Alyssa Milano) on the back of a video box invariably means b-grade trash. The question is is it GOOD b-grade trash or not? Hard to say with this one. If mad scientists, techno shamanism, a serial killer, thought transference and plenty of naked babes (including the delectable Justina Vail) sound like your scene, then check this one out and make up your own mind. I can't say it'll end up in my top ten, but I found it suprisingly watchable, and it costars DAVID WARNER. Nuff said. Just imagine how cheesy and fun this is going to look in twenty years time!

An elderly, crippled scientist offers funding to a struggling experimenter who is working on a new thought-transferral procedure. He tricks the younger guy by transferring his soul between their bodies. What complicates matters is that the soul of a dead serial killer gets mixed in creating dangerous impulses.

This sci-fi thriller is one of an easily identifiable type of movie whose only real selling point is its nudity. I say easily identifiable because the cover imagery in these films always plays up the presence of the sexy girl who they have hired for the eye candy. In this instance it's the very beautiful Pamela Anderson who the film-makers had at their disposal. She is by a massive distance, the only thing of any merit in this film. Despite what most of us hope for, she isn't naked very often but when she is she is delectable. Actually, come to think of it, even when she is fully clothed she is pretty delectable here too. She may be eye candy but she is premier division eye candy. In this film she plays a performance artist who likes to pour paint onto the bodies of semi-naked girls. As good as this idea is it isn't unfortunately explored in quite enough detail for my liking!

The problem with the movie, however, is that the plot-line kind of gets in the way a bit too much. It's not that a soft-core film can never successfully blend a narrative in with erotic moments – another Anderson vehicle Snapdragon does this fairly well. The main problem here is that despite being top-billed, this film mainly neglects her, choosing instead to focus on the two scientists in their none-too interesting experiments. And once the soul transferral experiment happens, the whole serial killer part of the story is very badly mishandled - it never plays up even remotely closely to its thrilling possibilities. Ultimately, this is a movie that sets up an interesting enough, if unoriginal set of ideas but doesn't deliver much on its early promise. It stars David Warner in the role as the elder scientist and Dean Stockwell in a blink-and-you'll-miss-him cameo. But at the end of the day, the only sane reason to watch this is to see the very lovely Ms Anderson.

...is the best part of a movie is truly scary, but there it is. She and Brian Krause roll around naked, while David Warner and Dean Stockwell do the best they can to save this turkey. However, the basic plot is mediocre at best: even a better actress (meaning...well just about anyone, except maybe Anna Nicole Smith) and Sir John Gielgud would have had their work cut out for them making anything out of this plot.

"Edward" (Brian Krause) is a scientist who is experimenting with capturing memories from dead people. His girlfriend, "Britt" (Pamela Anderson) is an artist. Lately, Edward hasn't spent much time with Britt and this is putting a huge strain on their relationship. Likewise, the fact that Edward has just been denied a grant to continue his research is adding to his stress levels. All of a sudden a famous scientist named "Everett Longstreet" (David Warner) comes along and offers Edward his entire estate. But there is a catch. Anyway, rather than disclose any of the mysteries of this film I will just say that I suppose it is watchable--but just barely. Obviously, the main attraction in this movie is Pamela Anderson and her presence certainly helped. Additionally, David Warner and Dean Stockwell (as "Duncan") also performed adequately. But the main problem with this film was the clumsy dialogue which impacted everyone's performance to a degree but most notably that of Brian Krause. In short, other than Pamela Anderson there really isn't anything remarkable about this film and I rate it as slightly below average.

Naked Souls was described on it's cover as an explicitly erotic thriller, something it is definetly not. It's just the kind of thriller that's made to cash in on Pamela's assets and the kind of wasteful slop you expect to run really late on Monday night television. Still, it does dabble in some really interesting themes and has some surprising plot twists which lift it above the usual B-grade standard. The performances by what could be called a respectable B-grade cast aren't too bad. Krause captures his character quite well, and Dean Stockwell and Pamela Anderson aren't bad in their underused (yes Pamela is underused AGAIN!) supporting roles. Definately NOT an exceptional piece of work, but a vaguely entertaining piece of dismal thriller all the same.