Review: My Soul to Take
My Soul to Take (2010)
Directed by: Wes Craven
Starring: Max Thieriot, John Magaro, Denzel Whitaker, Zena Grey, Nick Lashaway, Emily Meade
Review by: Damon Swindall
I don’t even know where to start. It’s hard to watch a film by a director who has made such great horror in the past only to see their grasp has slipped. Look at the likes of Carpenter, Romero and Argento, three men who have amazing early careers but now release movies that are almost nonsense. I will say I can enjoy certain films for even the smallest bit of triumph held within, but sometimes you just end up sitting in that creaky theater chair as the credits roll shaking your head and muttering to yourself, “what the fuck did I just watch?” Such is the case with Wes Craven’s latest outing My Soul to Take. I would not say it’s horrible, but it’s just… there.
The story centers around a small Connecticut town called Riverton where the local serial killer, The Riverton Ripper, has been on a rampage. He is discovered as a schizophrenic family man after he kills his pregnant wife and attempts to take the life of his three-year-old daughter before being shot by the police. Abel (The Ripper) takes multiple gunshot wounds, stab wounds, and more but still keeps going until he causes his ambulance to crash and vanishes into the night, but not before swearing vengeance. We are then transported sixteen years forward to present day and the annual “Ripper Night” held by the town’s teens on the day of his death. Seven of these kids were born on the night of The Ripper’s death, and as the legend goes he could come back any year to take their lives. To keep him at bay each year they ceremonially defeat a Ripper effigy, but this year things end up a bit different when these kids start dying on their birthday.
Oh, this flick starts off so promising. The first ten or so minutes, everything before we go to present day, is fantastic! The confusion of Abel learning he is really this killer, or at least one of his other personalities is the killer, and how he switches back and forth losing time in the house and realizing the horrible things he has done is quite interesting. If they would have kept this story a little longer I could see this being something rather fresh and engaging. Instead we go to modern teens who are to be the targets of this town legend’s vengeance and herein the problems begin.
First of all, the whole reason for The Ripper targeting these kids is never that clear. I read multiple synopses online where it stated The Ripper said he would get the kids who were born on that night and I don’t remember that at all. He said he would see them again, but not specifically any kids. They do try to conceive a reason why the kids would be targeted but it’s head scratching at best. They are the manifestations of his six personalities. But wait, there are seven of them. How does that work? The explanation: six-in-one is seven. What the fuck? Seriously? Oh well, I know many horror films are based on quite a stretch and still end up being fun, interesting, and/or scary. Unfortunately this just never happens here. There is a lot of “teen time” at the high school and, with the exception of the Condor report scene, it’s just kind of mind numbing. Maybe kids are just that boring to watch nowadays, but Craven certainly doesn’t seem to tap into the vein of the American teen like John Hughes.
I know when you want to keep a little mystery about the killer throwing some red herrings is a good way to keep the audience guessing, but some of these are just ridiculous. At times the misdirection is so out there that I didn’t even realize it was a misdirection. Maybe there were some scenes cut out but it almost seems as if moments of suspicion are debunked without being presented. Maybe this was just me, but there are just too many weird distractions which make little sense.
Instead of crafting something really suspenseful and dreadful all of the frightening moments in this film come from jump scares and nothing more, and most of these don’t even work. There are some decent moments of the killer doing what he does best, whether it’s Abel at the beginning or the mystery killer for the majority of the film. Nothing is overly gory but there is some decent bloodshed and a great moment of arterial squirting from a woman’s cut throat.
One of the biggest problems I have with My Soul to Take is the feeling that Craven just stole from himself. Elements of this movie are so reminiscent of his other films that it goes beyond any call back or homage to just becoming an amalgamation. It doesn’t work. Quite a bit is borrowed from his classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream (maybe a little from Shocker too), at times so much that I couldn’t keep my eyes from rolling back into my head no matter how hard I tired. After packaging some leftover scraps from a generic slasher flick and borrowing heavily from his own back catalog, the studio sends this for a post-production 3D conversion. Always some gimmick to try and grab some extra cash. I did not see the 3D version because those conversions are pretty much always shit, and after seeing the picture in 2D I don’t see any benefit from having the added depth. If only they would have spent the extra time and money adding the depth in the story.
It’s always a sad day for the horror fan when we see one of our celebrated heroes fall with their current film. There have been some great ones in his past and you can’t take that away. The guy shocked everyone when he came on the scene with the low budget revenge flick Last House on the Left in 1972, but almost 40 years later that same man’s work is barely a shadow of the former gems. In about six months he’ll be back in megaplexes again all over the country with Scream 4 (which they have ridiculously branded on posters as SCRE4M), and I’m sure I’ll be right back in that same creaky chair. We horror fans are gluttons for punishment and can’t believe one of our idols has truly fallen. He has to make magic again, right? Right?
