The Lowdown: Oh, Wes Craven. How the mighty have fallen. Watching My Soul to Take, it’s hard to believe that this horror veteran and master wrote and directed it. It is a generic slasher with a quasi-psychological twist that makes no sense. Really, it’s the writing that sinks the film; it’s trying too hard and lacking coherence. It’s far from the worst horror film I’ve seen (that distinction may go to The Apparition), but on the whole, My Soul to Take is stale and disappointing.
1. The Plot: 16 years ago, a mentally-ill man murdered his family and escaped in the woods. He was dubbed “The Riverton Ripper” and it was unknown as to whether he was alive or dead. On the same day the Ripper disappeared, there were seven premature births in the hospital. In the present day, those seven have grown up and all attend high school together. On the anniversary of the Ripper’s mass murder, the seven begin to be picked off one by one. Could the Ripper still be alive and hunting them down? Could it be one of the seven? Could it be that the script is predictable and pretentious at the same time?
2. The Characters: Since My Soul to Take is a teenage slasher film, all of the main characters are stereotypes off of a teenage slasher checklist. The “innocent and good” kid who is also the main character? Check. The “best friend” and comic relief kid? Check. The asshole jock? Check. The hot girl? Check. The outcast, religious girl? Check. The token non-white kid? Check. Although in that last case, there are two token non-white characters; one African-American and one Asian, not that it really matters. From this information, one can instantly gauge how long each character will last in the film. Max Thieriot (House at the End of the Street) is Bug, the main character. Bug is a soft-spoken kid who has recently been plagued with nightmares and memory lapses. He is described by other characters as “innocent”, but that opinion could change as the film progresses. Thierot is basically playing the same character as he did in House at the End of the Street; a shy, innocent kid who actually has some kind of severe mental problem. It’s not a terrible performance, but watching him in this film felt like a rehash. Maybe the guy needs a new outlet to prevent typecasting. Other characters just seem generic and lack personality. Only John Magaro and Denzel Whitaker, as Bug’s friends Alex and Jerome, seem like genuine, likable characters. The remaining characters exist to be chased and murdered by the Ripper, and from my observations, that isn’t exactly a mark of character development.
3. The Fakest Fake Blood Ever: There isn’t a lot of CGI in this film. The only real effects are the blood splatter effects, which are AWFUL! Come on, filmmakers! First of all, there are only a few instances of large amounts of blood being spilled. When there is only a small amount of blood, or blood is shown close up, then it’s clear that the filmmakers used real fake blood and not CGI. However, when a character is killed and a huge blood puddle forms underneath them, the filmmakers inexplicably use CGI that is so poorly rendered one would think the film was made in the 1990s. What’s the point of using CGI blood when it would be much easier, more convincing, and probably cheaper to simply dump a bucket of fake blood on the set? This is nit-picking, I realize, but it’s a small detail that saps the tension and takes me out of the film.
4. The Twist: My Soul to Take has a twist, but not just any twist. It’s a twist that wants to be clever, but actually makes no sense and comes off as pretentious. Wes Craven’s script wants to imply some kind of grand connection between the souls of all of the characters in the film, but instead of implying it, a huge revelatory speech in the beginning of the film pretty much screams “It’s a mystery! Something’s going to happen! There might be connections between the Ripper and the characters!” Throughout the film, more exposition and revelatory remarks occur and give everything away. Basically, there is so much foreshadowing that the ending is pretty much given away well before it happens. There are a couple of attempts to mislead and pull the rug out from underneath the viewer, but these attempts fail to shock and awe because nothing truly unexpected occurs.
5. The Ending:The ending to the film also makes absolutely no sense. After so many people have died, the film decides to end on a super-happy note that basically states, “And after these horrible events, everything was okay forever.” What? Are you kidding me? Just because everyone died doesn’t mean that the survivors are instantly off the hook. In fact, if an outsider were to look at all the evidence, a great deal of it would point to the survivors as the perpetrators. Just because the viewer caught a glimpse of every character and heard all of the revelatory speeches announcing who was the killer and why they did it doesn’t mean that everyone else did. The viewer knows that the survivors are innocent, but other people in the movie don’t. But it doesn’t matter because just like that, everyone forgives them and lays no blame on them and the whole affair ends happily. Again, this is one of those things that takes me right out of the film, but since it happens at the end, it leave a rather sour taste in my mouth.
The Bottom Line: My Soul to Take wanted to be more than it actually was. It wanted to be a twisty psychological thriller, but it ended up just being another generic slasher, but with a pretentious screenplay. On top of that, there are so many little things like crappy, unnecessary CGI, rampant foreshadowing, and lapses in logic that are enough to take the viewer out of the film. The bottom line: Wes Craven has done far superior work. Watch those instead of My Soul to Take.
My Soul to Take is property of Rogue, Relativity Media, and Corvus Corax Productions. This review was written by me.
Like the review? Post a comment. Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/filmaholicreviewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FilmaholicRvews
Copyright © Filmaholic Reviews, 2013
