Signe (Anne Brigitte Lind) and Tommy (Jakob Cedergren) move into a new
house with their little daughter Bianca (Rebecca Logstrup), a house that
is just too good to be true ... and of course, soon enough strange things
start to happen, Bianca all of a sudden has an invisible friend that seems
a bit too real to be just a figment of a young girl's imagination, the
fireplace repeatedly sets itself on fire, things are shaking and falling
down for no apparent reason, voices are heard where no one's around, and
several people see a cat in the house that simply isn't there.
With the help of a clairvoyant, Anders (Morton Suurballe), Signe and
Tommy soon find out that the house's fireplace once belonged to a house
that burned down not too long ago, and the spirits of the kids who died in
the fire, Oliver - the same name as Bianca's invisible friend - and Jane
might still live there ...
Then Bianca disappears from the face of the earth, and only young Sara
(Lykke
Sand Michelsen) who stopped by by mere chance to ask for a
job as a nanny, is able to find her and bring her back - and naturally,
she is hired on the spot.
Soon enough, Sara shows a strong sexual interest in a neighbour, David
(Dejan Cukic), even though David is married to Marianne (Andrea Vagn
Jensen), and eventually she invites him over to the house of Signe and
Tommy to have sex in front of the fireplace ... where she reveals herself
to be the sister of dead Oliver and Jane, who is also a spirit since she
comitted suicide only weeks after her siblings' death, and she reveals
that David had an extramarital affair with Jane, but it was Marianne who
set their house on fire out of jealousy - and soon enough, Marianne, who
just happens to stop by, goes up in flames, as does the house, only Signe
is able to save heself.
And Bianca ?
She is saved by Oliver, her spirit friend ...
As a horror film of the haunted house variety, Restless Souls
is a failure if there ever was one: The film seriously lacks any kind of
atmosphere (let alone a creepy atmosphere), it contains next to no
suspense, and it totally lacks any kind of shock or something similar. Yet
Restless Souls is not a total failure, it works as a (supernatural) murder
mystery that contains more surprises, twists and turns than you can shake
a stick at. Of course, the film is at the same time overly clichéd and a
bit silly, but if you can accept a whodunnit featuring ghosts, the film
isn't even half bad.
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