My Soul to Take

A lot of reviewers compared Wes Craven's early work to My Soul To Take and came to the conclusion the early work was better. I can't disagree with that. The Hills Have Eyes or the Scream series were better but it's clear Wes Craven has a similar type of stories. The whole series of Nightmare On Elm Street that I rewatched a while ago didn't age that well but when those came out I did enjoy them. My Soul To Take doesn't have that effect on me. I watched it but found it a bit boring, just not that exciting or scary. It will for sure not become one of the "classics" like the early ones did. I already forgot everything about it and I just watched it yesterday.

I feel like this film might be describing the possible challenges Wes Craven might have been facing in his own childhood growing up finding his own identity in the repressed Christian environment. And this is also why I find this film so endearing to me, perhaps my most favorite film from Craven, it really is so much deeper than just the main plot, it is about retaining the sense of who we are, that we are not mere product of our parents and genetics, but at the same time, many times our friends and loved one we surround ourselves with represent a part of us too, notice how our friends seem to mirror us so much, and complement us in some way as well. I love the deleted scene of this film how all his friends are walking with him on the road, and then they disappear, as if they were just ghosts. This film works emotionally on so many levels and dimensions, saying so much in an indirect way.

There's been classic films released around the same time with a theme of discovering or retaining our own soul or identity.

Wes Craven has had a really spotty career, full of ups and downs. I was a bit surprised by MSTT, because it seemed to be far more derivative and unimaginative than I was expecting. This certainly isn't a bad movie, but it was disappointing, especially for Wes Craven. If it had been some unknown director's debut, I'd probably be more forgiving. However, I expect better from Wes Craven, even after sitting through Deadly Friend and Shocker. Like Deadly Friend and Shocker, there were aspects of this movie that I did like, but not enough that I'd give it a good rating. I think that this movie was made for a younger, less jaded demographic (ie, teenagers). For adults, it's just going to seem a bit tired, clichéd, and a retread of several of his older movies (most especially Scream). I was never a huge fan of Scream in the first place, but it was better than this. I'd say that MSTT is worth a 5/10 for adults, while teenagers may enjoy it more (6/10).

This is a pretty great movie. It keeps you guessing the entire time, and Wes always keeps things nicely suspenseful. Characters are well built, and the urban legend aspect is fun, and it does keep you wondering what exactly is going on. The cast is young and cute, and they all do a good job, although there are some seemingly unmovitaved moments that are a little disappointing. The script gets a touch weak at times but nothing that pulls you out of the viewing experience. Consider this a fantastic rainy day/date movie- perfect for snuggling up with someone, but something you can easily walk away from without breaking your heart either. Don't expect an earth shattering film, but expect to have a good time!

I was damn near excited to finally see another Wes Craven film on the big screen! So, I gladly walked into the midnight screening of, "My Soul to Take." And? I left completely disappointed. It's sad to say but I believe this to be one of Craven's worst movies. Why you ask? I'll do my best to tell you why. My Soul to Take starts off with a man finding out that he's the Riverton Ripper by finding the killer's signature knife hidden in his garage. Oh, and we as an audience find out that he has multiple personalities through a very confusing WTF moment. He then unknowingly takes the knife to his pregnant wife, to himself, and almost to his daughter but the cops gun him down. While they take him to the hospital, the ambulance crashes and he escapes and supposedly dies. Flashforward sixteen years and we find that the Riverton Ripper legend is a celebrated holiday amongst the young children, seeing as how seven of those teenagers were born the night he supposedly died. I think you can see where this is going... Anywho, I did my best to try and enjoy this movie but no matter how hard I tried, there always seemed to be something in the movie that made me dislike it even more. It feels like someone came up to Craven while he was writing and said, "You know, we got to appeal to today's audience so.... write the characters like this." And yadda, yadda, yadda. Anyone who's anyone knows that Wes Craven is the Father of today's horror film tactics but it seems that this film is dry when it comes to those tactics. This film wasn't even scary, spooky, or suspenseful in any way. It was downright confusing as hell and suffered the one thing that horror movies suffer today: I didn't give a rats ass about these character. Hell, as soon as you're introduced to them, you want them to die! Hell, you probably might want to kill them yourself! I'm definitely going to make light of one scene where a blind kid on his death bed goes into a 5 minute monologue of how he got stabbed. What's funny about this is that he somehow climbed up the side of a house, crawled through a window, hid in a closet, and attacked the main character mistaking him for the killer..... all while blind. And he takes 5 minutes to discuss this and dies. Wow... where to begin? You know what, I'll leave it at that. This plot was congested with confusing story lines, bad acting (except for the sister named Fang), and an even more confusing pay off. I never thought I'd say this but I believe Craven has definitely lost his horror touch. If anything though, this is definitely worth a rental. Oh, and before I finish this review, let me tell you here and now that this is among one of the three movies this year with the WORST 3D conversions. The latter being Clash of the Titans and the Last Airbender. This movie's 3D serves no purpose whatsoever. So, to save a few bucks, see it in 2D. Or don't see it at all. Trust me, you're not missing anything.

RATING - 5 OUT OF 10.