My Soul to Take

Back in 1972, two young filmmakers got together and made a small budget Exploitation horror film called “The Last House on the Left”. It was a big hit for what it was, and is to this day one of the few films that still shocks and disturbs me each time I watch it. Those two filmmakers were Sean S. Cunningham, who later went on to create the “Friday the 13th” franchise, and Wes Craven. Craven is a director that is widely regarded as being one of the great master of the horror genre, creating such classics as “The Hills Have Eyes”, “Scream”, “The Serpent and the Rainbow”, and of course, the original “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. There is no denying that Craven is a very visionary director, and that he has a body of work with some very impressive titles in it. However, this is not to say that he’s perfect.
Lately, his work has been, well, underwhelming. “Cursed” was probably the worst that it got and every time people ask me about horror movies to avoid I tend to bring that one up. It was bland, silly, and a massive, massive let down. But, I put a little more of the blame on screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who seems to only know how to write things that he’s already done else where. Mostly just going back to his formula from the screenplay to “Scream”, notably the “twist” reveal at the end. “Red Eye” was next, and it was definitely a step in the right direction for Craven, but the movie was still pretty weak and ultimately very forgettable.
So as you can imagine, there is a lot of pressure on his latest film “My Soul to Take”, the first film that he himself has both written and directed since “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”, which you really should see if you haven’t already. And the result? Well, again, it’s pretty much a let down.
But I’m sure a lot of you are wondering: “Is it as bad as the ‘Nightmare’ remake?” Well, no, but it’s not much better. Where as the 2010 version of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” was just a very badly made horror movie that makes no effort to establish dream sequences, or tone, or well, anything other than jump scares, “My Soul to Take” at least tries to do something other than go “BOO!!!” every five minutes. But that doesn’t instantly make it good.
The plot is that a serial killer dies one night, and at the same moment of his death, there are seven babies born. 16 years later, the seven children start becoming the targets of a killer, leaving the town to wonder if the killer is truly dead, or if there is something more sinister a foot. It’s an interesting premise, but basically it just boils down to being yet another run of the mill slasher movie. That’s pretty much all I can say, the supernatural elements aren’t really downplayed or anything, but they really aren’t used all that much. The deaths are all pretty stock, but at the same time have a little more creativity than… that OTHER movie that shall no longer be named, but otherwise there isn’t much to this.
The script is rather weak. It has a lot of characters, all of them are pretty much stereotypes. The jock, the awkward nerd, the religious one, the bitch, the borderline mentally unhinged guy, the clique leader, the skeptical cop etc. and again, the performances reflect these parts, however unlike, that OTHER movie, here the performances are all at least competent. Yes, the characters are all one note, but they are at least decently acted one note characters. Most of the time in the movie building up this whole who is the killer idea, yet again calling back to “Scream”, again. It’s really the movie’s biggest problem, it’s just a bland script from an ok idea, and it makes the movie so boring.
It’s really upsetting because the photography is great, the editing is really well done, it has a nice atmosphere and tone, and it really seems to want to work, but it really just can’t because this script doesn’t seem that well thought out. There are moments where it feels like the movie finally wants to get going and go balls to the wall as a real slasher, but then it will just stop to have scenes that are, I guess supposed to be developing the characters, but then they are killed two scenes later and so it just makes things redundant and predictable.
I love Wes Craven’s work, but this movie was so disappointing. It was not well written and no amount of ok-ish acting, nice photography, or good editing can change that. I hope that someday that he’ll make another horror film, or another movie in any genre that attest to the talent he clearly has. And I can tell you right now, the up coming “Scream 4” is not going to be it.