A Sétima Alma

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.

Despite numerous warnings to avoid this film, I shelled out my money, including the ridiculous $3 extra for 3D glasses, figuring, it's Wes Craven, how bad can it be? Well, the answer is, extremely, horribly, atrociously bad. MSTT made Shocker look like Citizen Kane. I've seen better efforts at the After Dark Horrorfests and coming from The Asylum on SyFy.

MSTT had a script and dialog of the level of some fresh-out-of-some-two-bit-drama-school reject, not of a nearly 40-year veteran of filmmaking. Half the dialog made no sense whatsoever, and the emotions of the actors was usually misplaced.

While the story had promise, the execution failed completely. At first, the action seemed forced to get to the central elements Craven was looking for, then the resolution bogged down in complete incoherence.

Craven can't blame some one else's script or studio insistence on cuts, 'cause this atrocity was all his. If this is the best he can do, he should retire. He's proved he has nothing left to add to horror.

And if my negative comments still don't dissuade you from seeing this atrocity, make sure you at least seek out 2D instead of the extra money for 3D, because...

THERE WAS NO Discernible 3D IN THE FILM WHATSOEVER!!!! Scenes which should have popped out of the screen, such as the ambulance crash, DIDN'T! It's quite obvious the studio realized what a piece of crap MSTT was and how it would plummet in ticket sales once work of mouth got out, so they did post-filming 3D conversion to bilk the poor suckers who went to see it opening weekend out of a few dollars more.

The only reason I didn't rate this a 1 is because, sadly, I have seen worse. But this one should be avoided at all costs.

2/10

I'm not sure all this hate is called for... as a fan of the Scream franchise, I enjoyed the movie! It's a lot like the first Scream movies, several plot twists, several suspects, fast paced, a web of lies falling apart quite quickly that explain part of the story while also leaving you with more questions. I think the dissatisfaction mainly comes from the people that saw this in the theaters and in 3D and thought it was not worth it, and I'll agree with that part, if I had watched this in the movie theater and payed extra to get 3D, I would've been disappointed too.

In conclusion: Good horror flick that follows a similar story line to Scream, but I'm not complaining!

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 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.