Review of My Soul to Take (2010) by Jin M — 19 Jul 2011

"My Soul to Take" swings a promising initial stab to hook the audience with its bloodstained jackknife by unveiling a placid yet deeply disturbed serial killer who simultaneously houses an endearing father and a ruthless, neck-slitting maniac.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned first blow that appeared to be devastating is noxiously delivered in the form of a comparably harmless paper cut that will assuredly sting and become a nuisance quite hard to cope with for the remaining duration of this disappointing killing spree.

Responsible for inflicting this bothersome rash are the all too uninspiring performances painfully delivered by the young actors and the fatally stale assassin-meets-victim scenes that condemn themselves to administering deep, incurable gashes of flesh-corroding ennui by slaughtering nearly all victims within a few seconds without even the slightest retaliation and then quickly moving on to the next attack.

Not to mention, of course, the unoriginal storyline wherein a demented yet unsuspected individual emerges as the serial killer and hunts others down until his last breaths. The disgusting, rugged look that attempts to scare viewers sadly misfires with a fusillade of nauseated shrieks devoid of the slightest indication of fright.

Hence it is difficult to make out why the teenagers were desperately running away from this untidy vagrant; was it the smell or the lice-infested strands of hair waving threateningly to and fro. Regardless as to why they were fleeing from this filth-wielding villain, "My Soul to Take" started out promisingly but ripped away any hopes of sustaining these expectations by bringing in a poorly-groomed wanderer into the scene and a group of lackluster teens.

If by "soul" one means "entertainment", then the selection of the title could not be more adequate.