Review of My Soul to Take (2010) by Crankyerma — 03 Dec 2010

I was pretty shocked after watching this. I can't believe that Wes Craven wrote and directed this poorly written, poorly cast and poorly executed mess. The basic idea was a solid, if pretty familiar feeling, concept for a slasher pic. A dead killer may or may not be alive and killing kids on the anniversary of his death. It may actually be the malevolent spirit that inhabited his body coming back in the form of someone else to kill. Okay, a little muddled but okay. We set up the premise that the group of potential victims are seven kids born on the night of his death sixteen years ago. Okay, getting a bit more convoluted than I like and not completely understandable but I'm on board. All of these are acceptable because I know that Wes Craven is enough of a skilled hand at this genre that he will make them clear and work within the confines of the picture. Right? Guess again.

This flick is a totally botched job from the get-go. Often times during the picture, we know that Craven is trying to do the Kevin Williamson thing and keep us guessing about stuff but instead I found myself just confused as to what was going on. This is especially jarring because I knew how the story ended very early on and I was still confused.

At least the picture had some good jumps, false scares and suspenseful sequences, yeah? I mean this is a Wes Frickin' craven film, after all... Nope. When this film wasn't leaving me befuddled, it was just boring and depressing. There was no life to this picture. The characters all either seemed worthy of death or so morose and haunted that death would be sweet release for them. It felt like a bad Emo singer had decided to write and direct a ripoff of 90's horror films. All I can say is that I pray Craven is feeling a bit more himself during the filming of the new "Scream" picture or it's going to be a very sad end to a highly enjoyable franchise.