Emo Demons Look Pretty in 'Soul Fire Rising'

What’s the magic combination of elements needed to create a show that’s actually worth watching.

A decent storyline? Something unique that holds the viewers’ attention and makes them want to stay and play in said story? Able actors who can draw you into the story helping you momentarily exit your own reality and explore the world they live in? Good writers who can create a script with pithy lines that don’t detract from the storyline or break the viewer out of the imaginative world that the show creates?

Or is it lots of make-up, special effects, and a crazy goth chick with FM black elevator boots who’s supposed to be a demon (but you know a demon would never wear FM black elevator boots because they just wouldn’t) who likes to rip the necks open of forlorn and weeping wrist cutters who cry tears of black mascara because they love gothy demon chicks with FM black elevator boots?

Soul Fire Rising apparently sides with the black elevator boots idea.

Okay, maybe I’m being a bit too harsh here. It is, after all, the internet, where everyman can put his or her unfettered material on YouTube for millions of screaming fans to view and throw their e-panties up on the stage. It’s an open range where the good the bad and the ugly all have equal opportunity to push their wares. But what wins out? Slick form or decent content? Nice packaging or meaningful story? The ideal would be a combination of both but that’s a magic formula that can be hard to find.

Soul Fire Rising comes so close. Writer/Director Dale Fabrigar (a semi-finalist on Steven Spielberg’s short lived On the Lot reality series) and writer/producer Kurt Patino have put together an excellent looking package and some really great special effects and camera work courtesy of Michael Morrealle. Even the storyline shows promise:

Lilith (Aime-Lynn Chadwick), a demon rebel with her own agenda, takes advantage of the vices Earth has to offer, while also taking many souls. The Winger, Gabriel (Mitchell Fink), turns Lilith’s world upside-down when he summons her and makes her an offer she can’t refuse. Lilith has only to fulfill one task: find the Winger, Eve, and bring her back to Gabriel. The value of Eve’s soul is worth over a million human souls — and Eve is even more vulnerable now that she’s decided to become mortal.

But bad dialog and overdone goth-like costumes really stick out like a sore thumb. It’s campy and distracting enough to pull you away from the story.

If the powers that be can overcome their need to channel their pre-adolescent, dejected and angst laden school-girl side something could happen here. Lose the black elevator boots, let Lilith break out of the Sceney Sceneable stereotype she is trapped in and lets see where it goes.

But hey, who am I to judge. Maybe this is some goth ball’s wet dream that wasn’t created for me. See if it’s for you at SoulFireRising.com.