This review of B-Movie Enema will claim your very soul!

This week and next, I’m going to review a couple of movies tied to writer, director, producer, and actress Vivian Schilling. I don’t expect too many people to immediately see that name and think, “Oh, yes… Vivian Schilling. I am intimately aware of her work.” Generally speaking, she has not really worked in film for nearly 15 years. However, she has a few movies in her filmography that are definitely worthy of coverage. This week’s is likely her best-known film. That’s because the fine folks on the Satellite of Love lampooned this movie on the final season of the original run of Mystery Science Theater 3000. That’s right, it’s 1990’s Soultaker starring Schilling, Joe Estevez, and Robert Z’Dar.

As for Vivian Shilling, the co-writer and star of this film, she was born in 1968 in Wichita, Kansas. She went to study acting in New York City at the famed Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. In 1986, at the age of 18, Schilling appeared in The Adventures of Taura: Prison Ship Star Slammer. Not only is that a title that just rolls off the tongue, it’s a movie that I could see myself reviewing on this very site, but it also appeared on one of this year’s episodes of Best of the Worst from RedLetterMedia. Her first taste of actual scripting and leading a film is going to be the focus of next week’s review. It would really be Soultaker that would likely be her most famous movie.

Again, a lot of that has to do with MST3K. It’s important, though, to understand something about MST3K and the movies they featured, especially once they moved to The Sci-Fi Channel. They began getting some movies that were more recent and contemporary. That’s how movies like Werewolf, Hobgoblins, The Final Sacrifice, Time Chasers, Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders, Future War, and Soultaker ended up becoming staples and some of the most loved episodes of the later years in the life of the series. In fact, the Soultaker episode is often seen as one of the best shows in the entire run.

Here’s the thing, though… the problem with viewers of the show getting introduced to movies by way of the show is that it tends to give the movie a reputation that isn’t exactly always fair. If you look at reviews for Soultaker on IMDb, many of them seem to either be reviewing the movie through the perspective of the MST3K episode, repeating the same gags, or claiming they have only seen the edited version shown on the show, or they thank the show for exposing them to a bad movie. Few seem to actually try to look at the movie, separated from the riffs of Mike and the bots.

I’m going to do just that, but first, I do want to be very clear. I’m not going to take potshots at Schilling for being self-indulgent. It doesn’t take too long in the MST3K episode, or in the Letterboxd reviews, or in IMDb’s reviews to see that label come up. I prefer to look at this as a bit of an achievement from Schilling. This is a girl who grew up in the middle of the country in Wichita. She wanted to act and was able to study at one of the most famous acting schools. She also liked writing. The achievement is that she wrote and starred in a movie that, while possessing a small budget, had some recognizable names and faces in it, as well as getting video distribution and a chance to be seen on a popular show like MST3K at the age of 22. That’s a heck of an achievement.

So, let’s get ourselves into a madcap chase with the Grim Reaper and dig into Soultaker!

I found this film on YouTube from a laserdisc rip, and damn, it’s about as clear as I’ve ever seen this movie. Most of the time, I’m used to watching a rip/recording of the MST3K episode, and that’s pretty fuzzy. So I’m actually getting myself a little treat. That’s what I like to think of these movies I’ve covered here on B-Movie Enema: treats. I could say that each of these movies I’ve reviewed was a different type of candy. That’s kind of a great analogy, right? Candy can be tasty and fun, but they rot your teeth. Some of the movies I have covered here over the many years were at times tasty (I’m still thinking about how good Keri Russell looked in last week’s movie) and fun (like, say, a Troma movie), but they rot my brain.

Oh shit, Joe Estevez is killing an old man in his hospital bed.

Soultaker starts with a hospital. Walking along the halls is a man in a black duster who seems to blink in and out of visibility. He entered the room of someone’s dear old grandpa and used a ring in the palm of his hand to extract the green lightning that was the soul from the old man’s body. The old man struggled at the end but eventually passed away. Joe Estevez, in this movie named “The Man” or “The Soultaker,” calmly walks down the hall of the hospital while nurses rush in to try to help the grandpa.

Alright, so that’s our opening scene. The Man is basically a Grim Reaper. He visits people near their death to collect their souls. I’m guessing he has paperwork and quotas, and goddammit, if he has to work another Saturday, he’s gonna quit. He means it this time.

We meet Natalie McMillan (Schilling). She is home for the summer from college. She’s getting ready to go to a summer festival with a friend of hers. Her father is a little upset that she is not attending a banquet at some fancy country club. He says he’s about to make the most important speech of his career, and she won’t be there for it. But, you see… She wants to go to a goddamn summer fest thing. They probably have deep-fried Snickers and corndogs at the festival. That’s not something you get by going to a crummy old country club. Though this was shot in Alabama, so maybe you could get that shit at a deep south country club.

Elsewhere, friends Candice, Tommy, and Candice’s boyfriend Brad are also planning on going to the festival with Zack. She has a picture she stores in her naughty drawer… You know the one she keeps her panties and stockings in? Yeah, that one. She has a picture of her and her ex-boyfriend, who happens to be Zack. Zack has the same picture with a cheeky little Easter egg, as the book How to Live 365 Days a Year is next to the picture.

Zack is a guy who has plans to start his own business. He is also kind of stuck with regrets over the relationship with Natalie being over. Also, Natalie broke up with Zack at the behest of her father. He thinks Zack is scum, not worthy to even associate with Natalie. Apparently, Zack got mixed up in a coke deal that Natalie’s father was able to pull strings, as the Mayor, to keep him out of prison. The coke deal probably had something to do with Brad because Brad told Zack he knew a way to help him get the money needed to fix his car, and Brad promised he was no longer dealing.

ANYway… Now this is a fuckin’ Summerfest.

But there will be two unexpected presences at the Summerfest this year. The Angel of Death (Z’Dar) and his Soultaker (again, Estevez) walk into the Summerfest. There, the Angel of Death selects five people for the Soultaker to collect once they have died. Those five, of course, are Natalie, Zack, Brad, Candice, and Tommy. Their death will likely be some vehicular homicide thanks to Brad snorting some coke and drinking some Jack Daniels while also being everyone’s driver to and from the Summerfest.

While in the beer line, Natalie and her friend Karen see Zack. Before she can go over to talk to him, Natalie is found by some dork-o who knew Natalie. He pulls her off to dance, passing by Zack. Zack, disappointed he’s been tossed aside for some dork-fuck, goes off to talk to other people. Karen’s boyfriend has also come into town from the Navy, and they leave. Natalie gets left behind, which leads to her needing to take a ride with Zack and his friends, much to Brad’s dismay.

Brad doesn’t like Natalie. He thinks she’s a “rich bitch” and someone Zack shouldn’t waste his time pining for. Being a rich bitch, naturally, she surely would want someone who has money. Money is something Zack has none of.

That’s how Natalie gets into the car of the doomed. Now, the Soultaker recognizes Natalie. She looks like someone from his former life, a woman he was married to. We see a quick flashback to what appears to be Civil War times, in which Natalie is dressed in one of those fancy dresses while Joe Estevez is dressed like a Confederate soldier. In the car, while Zack tries to catch up with Natalie, Brad’s a real dick about it and turns up the radio so they can’t hear each other talking. He also likes swerving around and driving like a maniac. While it would seem as though the Angel of Death or the Soultaker would be the ones who cause accidents or become some sort of elemental force that creates the doom their victims find themselves in, they have a much easier job. They just go to where they know death will happen. Like hyenas, they just collect the yummy souls from the carcasses, in this case, on the side of the road.

Four of the victims wake up, seemingly unharmed, but outside the vehicle. Candice, on the other hand, is dead dead. She’s inside the car and easy for the Soultaker to take her soul. The others are still, technically, in the car, but the Soultaker cannot extract their souls. It’s like they are on different dimensional planes. The four of them outside the car are just slightly out of phase with the corporeal universe. The Soultaker and the Angel of Death are on our plane. Soultaker tells the Angel of Death that there was displacement. Soultaker orders him to pursue them, but Soultaker must abide by the rules of time and space.

Whatever that means.

No, seriously, whatever that means. I’ve never seen the uncut version of the movie, but I’ve seen the MST3K version several times. I don’t remember anything being explicitly “time and space” dependent with Soultaker’s pursuit of the other souls. Eh, whatever.

Alright, so the pursuit is on! By the time the four “survivors” return to the crash site, Soultaker is waiting for them. He has considerable strength because he tosses Brad around like a rag doll, even killing him in the process. The Soultaker takes his soul, and at the same time, Brad dies in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Tommy, Natalie, and Zack run to a convenience store. There, Zack begs the clerk to call the police. At first, he thinks the clerk is just ignoring him, but they eventually discover he just can’t see them. They see a news report about how Natalie’s father’s speech was interrupted by the news of Natalie being in a car accident. Realizing they will not get any help from the store clerk, they go outside to a pay phone to try to call 911 to report Brad’s murder by Estevez. When they call 911, the operator does not react to them.

‘Twould seem as though our three survivors have yet to really figure out that they’ve got themselves into a cross-trans-dimensional-shift situation here. While they attempted to get help from anyone, the Soultaker caught up to them. When Soultaker grabbed Natalie, she was frozen and was able to get that juicy, juicy ginger soul of hers. But he has more flashbacks about their previous life together and hesitates. Zack is able to grab her and run off.

Hey, everything seems cool, right? Well, not so much for Tommy. Soultaker goes directly after him and gets his soul. He even throws in one of those cool action/thriller one-liners. He is cornered in the convenience store by Soultaker. Tommy tries to offer him the money in the cash register, not really realizing that he’s Joe Estevez and he’s gonna need way more than $82.37 to retire. I mean, that was probably more than what Joe had on him that day, but still… He grabs Tommy, says, “It’s closing time,” and Soultakes him.

Natalie and Zack run to her house and are relieved to see her mother there. She interacts with both of them. Hey, everything might just be pretty dang good now. Mayor Dad isn’t around, but Mom will take care of them. She tries to tell them that there is no guy chasing them and trying to kill them. Brad died on the way to the hospital. There are certainly no relatives of famous guys trying to kill them.

Still believing he is in mortal danger, Zack tries calling the police, but doesn’t seem to get any kind of response on the other end. This alarms Natalie, but her mom steps over, takes the phone from Zack, and explains everything, including that they would like a police unit to come out to the Mayor’s house. So, yeah! Everything’s going great!

Natalie’s mother suggests she calm her ass down. So she’s going to run Natalie a nice warm bath with Epsom salts. Natalie is called upstairs for her bath while Zack tries to figure out what his next move is. He kinda sorta tells Natalie he still wants to be with her. So she has a little tingly feeling as she prepares for her bath. As part of the IMDb trivia page for this movie, Vivian Schilling says she had to stand her ground pretty hard during this scene. The crew was adamant that she do a nude scene here, or it would never sell. I… I’m not sure I understand the math there. Wouldn’t someone have to see the movie in order for it to sell? How would they know there’s a nude scene in it if it didn’t sell in the first place? Also, are video stores saying they are only buying movies with titties in them? Well, either way, she stood her ground and refused to do a full frontal scene.

Downstairs, Zack starts to get the idea that something isn’t all that it seems. Natalie’s dog growls at him. The operator never heard him when he tried to call the police. He doesn’t buy what Natalie’s mom said about how they must have had him on hold. Upstairs, Natalie is curious why her mother is suddenly anti-Zack when she previously stated she liked the young man. Also, Mother is getting a little weird about her daughter. She’s spying on her while undressing for the bath. She has no reflection, and it’s just weird.

While all this is going on, Zack is watching TV and discovers that Natalie’s mother is with her father at the hospital. It’s been determined that both Natalie and Zack will be taken off life support at midnight. It is currently just after 11 o’clock.

So, those flashbacks with Soultaker and Natalie? Well, there’s more to it than what we saw previously. Whatever Natalie’s name was back in the 1860s, she was cheating on whatever Soultaker’s name was. He came home to discover her in bed with another man. He then killed that version of Natalie. Soultaker wants to try to find a way to give them both a second chance. Zack knocks Soultaker to the ground to give her a chance to get to her father’s shotgun.

When she comes back, she finds Soultaker holding Zack by the throat. He offers her a deal. She can come with him, and he’ll leave Zack alone. She belongs with Soultaker anyway, but when she says she belongs with Zack, Soultaker yeets Zack out the window. She runs downstairs and finds Zack, who is surprised to discover he’s feeling A-OK. Zack and Natalie go to the hospital with Soultaker continuing to follow them.

At the hospital, Zack’s father tries to talk nicely to Natalie’s parents, but her dad REALLY doesn’t like Zack or his father. To him, they are just a buncha poors. He’s not worthy to breathe the same air as Natalie’s parents, according to Mayor McChee… McMillan.

Natalie wants to go to the police station. But Zack says they won’t help them anymore. When Natalie comments that Soultaker clearly did something to her mother, Zack explains that it wasn’t her at all. He was disguised as Natalie’s mother; the real version of her is at the hospital. He convinces her that their bodies are at the hospital on life support and about to be disconnected from it. They are, indeed, having some sort of cross-trans-dimensional-shift situation going on.

Zack and Natalie arrive at the hospital to figure out a way to get their souls back into their bodies. They have only 12 more minutes before their life support is cut off. Once again, Soultaker disguises himself as someone else to separate Natalie from Zack. Soultaker says he’s going to take Natalie to the 7th floor. The hospital only has six floors. Apparently, wherever Soultaker is from, there are seven floors. Basically, I think it’s like an afterlife that he’s inviting her to. He says that all she has to do is say the word, and she’ll be let in.

With only a few minutes left before midnight, Natalie is stuck in an elevator on a non-existent floor of the hospital, and Zack has no idea where their physical bodies are. However, there’s a bit of a twist here. Zack gets some help from a recognizable face – Brad. Brad tells Zack that he got a new job he didn’t apply for. Because he killed others in the accident, Brad had to become a Soultaker as retribution. He also says that there seems to be no such thing as heaven. There’s just an afterlife. Zack watches as Brad takes the soul of an old lady and explains that they harvest the souls into a ring that each of these “angels” carries around with them.

In Natalie’s room, her mother hesitates because she thinks she hears Natalie yelling at her to not pull the plug. Soultaker tells her there’s nothing Natalie can really do. She can’t go back. She can’t touch her mother without scaring her. While there is still time, she could go with Soultaker and live eternally. With just a few seconds left, Soultaker takes Natalie to his realm, where she finally realizes that these “angels” are angels of death. They don’t cause people to die, but they need to be the ones who transport souls to the afterlife, or they are lost forever.

Zack and Brad talk about trying to save their lives. He takes Zack up the elevator so they can retrieve Natalie. She runs into the elevator while Brad pushes Soultaker away from the door. He sends them on their way with a couple of soul rings because… I dunno, they might help. Well, they do. Natalie gets to her body just as she begins to die. The ring helps transport the soul back into the body. She is back inside her body but has flatlined. Zack does… something… and her heartbeat starts back up again, only for her to still be comatose. Zack removes her soul from her body with the hopes of trying the process again. He rushes to his body to get back inside while Soultaker realizes he can no longer retrieve Natalie’s soul. This leads to a chase between Zack and the Soultaker, which Zack escapes by jumping off the roof of the hospital.

Zack gets to his body and revives himself. Meanwhile, the Angel of Death confronts Soultaker and tells him he failed, as it is now 12:03, and he only had until midnight. Soultaker is trapped in one of their soul rings while Zack goes to put Natalie’s soul back into her body. Natalie revives, and everything’s gonna be just fine. Okay, maybe Zack’s buddies are all dead, but hey, at least Zack and Natalie can now fuck because Mayor McDaddy thinks Zack is pretty swell for saving his daughter’s life.

Alright, so check it out… Is Soultaker a good movie? No. Not really. It’s got a lot of limitations. The script can’t go too big on ideas because there is only so much money available ot the production. Michael Rissi, the director of the movie, could only do so much with what he had and the talent available to him.

That said, is Soultaker a bad movie? Also no. Also, not really. There are a couple of interesting concepts here. I like the idea of Grim Reapers running around and picking up the souls so they are not lost for all eternity. I also like that the Grim Reapers are just grunts who work for the system. They don’t know what the afterlife actually is. They just have to harvest and shepherd souls. Everyone, in a way, is equal in the afterlife… except the Soultakers. They are second-class citizens because they are paying off a blood debt. They killed, they must soultake. They have no choice in the matter, but they are only given a certain set of rules to follow, and they don’t understand the actual laws and what it is they are really doing or who it is they are serving. For all they know, these little glowing soul rings are the Funyons for some sort of Cthulu Elder God thing.

So the details of what the Soultakers are bring about some interesting thoughts. That’s a positive. The general story beyond the higher-level premise? Solid. This is a slasher movie where the slasher isn’t really killing anyone. He’s just tracking them down one by one to harvest their souls. It’s the same concept seen in the entire decade before this movie’s release, but just a little different.

Could I go hard on the lackluster acting? Sure. But would I really, honestly expect anything different from a low-budget film that would have gotten most of its attention on cable and/or the video store? Not really. I’ve seen a million movies like this. That doesn’t really bother me. The whole MST3K thing and the reputation that they gave this movie is a little overblown. That episode IS a good one, but the movie is far from the worst they’ve done. Werewolf is FAR worse than this movie. As for the “self-indulgent” reputation applied to this and Vivian Schilling, eh, I can’t say I care that much. She wrote a goddamn movie at the age of 22, and it got made, and it got decent distribution. We all know writers and actors are pretty self-centered in some way or another. Trust me. It’s not like I celebrate each and every new review by messaging all three of my friends every few hours each Friday to see if they’ve read the new review.

Anyway, Soultaker is… okay. Two and a half stars!

Alright… I ain’t got nuthin’ more to say about this movie. Come back next week for another Vivian Schilling-scripted movie that she starred in. It was released the year before Soultaker, and it was also directed by Michael Rissi. Join me for a spooooky anthology called Terror Eyes!