My Soul to Take (2010)
Distributor: Momentum
DVD Release Date (UK): 4th April 2011
Directed by: Wes Craven
Starring: Max Thieriot, John Magaro, Emily Meade
Review by: Stephanie Scaife
I’ve never been entirely convinced by Wes Craven’s reputation as one of the “Masters of Horror”, being that by my calculations; only approximately 5% of his output is actually worth the film reels it’s printed on. Yes, he may be responsible for Last House on the Left and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but also let’s not forget The Hills Have Eyes 2 (both of them, seeing as how he has a writing credit for the dreadful remake too), Shocker, Vampire in Brooklyn and Cursed. Although I will admit to a soft spot for The People Under the Stairs, mostly due to the pairing of Everett McGill and Wendy Robie as the sadistic parents. You may also be surprised to learn that I am also not particularly keen on Scream. Sure, it was doing something different at the time and it brought about a resurgence in the genre, but I’d give that all up if it had meant I wouldn’t have had to be subjected to the subsequent self-referential horror trend that followed (I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend etc.) and anyway, the whole Scream thing probably owes more to Kevin Williamson than Craven.
Back to My Soul to Take, which is the first film both written and directed by Craven since Wes Craven’s New Nightmare in 1994. Due to this there was a fair amount of hype surrounding the release, and also a fair amount of disappointment following. I was expecting it to be rubbish, but was shocked by just how rubbish it is.
The set up starts off with an introduction to our killer, The Ripper, who in 1994 killed six people in the town of Riverton using his special knife that inexplicably has “vengeance” engraved on it. We soon learn that Abel, a local good guy father/husband type actually has a multiple personality disorder and after arguing with his multiple personalities and finding the knife in question in his own house he realises that he is The Ripper himself. After killing his pregnant wife and being shot multiple times by the police he still manages to escape from a firey explosion.
Fast forward 16 years and we are introduced to a group of teenagers who call themselves the “Riverton Seven” due to the fact that they were all born on the night that the Ripper disappeared. Every year they each take turns to make a stand against the soul of The Ripper to protect themselves and the town from his return. This year it is Bug’s (Max Thieriot) turn but he panics and the police end up breaking up the party, then because they weren’t able to go through with the ritual The Ripper returns to knock the kids off one by one in true slasher style. There’s also some weird stuff about a condor that I didn’t really understand or see the point of.
This film has almost no discernable redeeming features; it is convoluted and nonsensical yet still almost entirely predictable. The writing is bad, the acting is bad, it isn’t scary and the death scenes are all lame. Also, your initial hunch about the identity of the killer is probably correct so there’s no real mystery either. This is a lazy, dull slasher film and I’m just glad that I didn’t have to sit through it in 3D.
Should you be some kind of horror movie masochist or a crazy Craven completist, then the DVD is out in the UK from Monday 4th April.