Review: MY SOUL TO TAKE

When a director from horror’s heyday comes back to visit the genre he helped shape, most horror fans will show interest in their new entry.  My Soul To Take is Wes Craven’s latest entry.  The first film that he has written and directed since New Nightmare – one of my favorite Freddy flicks.  While most of you might have been driven away from the trailers are out, I’m here to tell you to ignore that and hear me out.

My Soul To Take deals with a group of teens called “The Riverton Seven” who all share the same birthday.  Their birthday shares the same day with the date of disappearance of the local boogeyman named The Riverton Ripper.  Legend goes like this: Every year on the aforementioned date, since the Riverton Seven have been able, they will send one of their own to go into the river to keep the Ripper away from the town and away from the group.  As I’m sure you guessed by now, this year doesn’t work out as planned and some bad juju is placed upon our main character Bug (Max Thieriot) because he didn’t complete the challenge.  Poor Bug.  Before you know it the kids are being taken out one by one and it is up to Bug and his friend Alex (John Magaro) to try to figure out if they are dealing with something supernatural or if it someone else who is killing off their peers.

I went into the film with very low expectations – honestly, I thought the film was going to be terrible.  The advertisements I have seen on the film depict the film as a paint by numbers slasher-mystery with teenagers.  Imagine my surprise when that was really just the backdrop to what has to be one of the most unique, off-kilter genre films I have seen come out of Hollywood in a while.

Craven really gets the best out of his actors in this film.  It is a very unconventional script when dealing with dialogue so I can only imagine the young actors looking at this film on the page and questioning what the hell they are doing in here.  Most viewers – as evidenced in the public screening I attended – will see the film as a bit of a mess.  I can somewhat agree with this statement.  It seems the writing is a little clunky but, to me, it works with the film’s nature.  The start of the film really sets the tone for the film as we are dealing with a character who has a pseudo combination of schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder.  The way the film’s opening scene is edited coincides with these multiple personalities.  While disorienting at first, I believe it works once you get used to it and it definitely holds a visual presence that demands your attention.

You will hear a lot of people talk about the dialogue of the film.  There are some batshit crazy lines in this film like “Now, where’s your bitch?” and “If it gets too hot, turn on the prayer conditioning.” will always stand out.  Not all of the dialogue works as I found myself getting lost in some of the terminology of the punches that the jock figure distributes – “Give him an 8.”  Some of the dialogue seems like Craven was trying to relate to an audience in the same way Diablo Cody spits out some dialogue.  Not all of the lines are like this, but some are.

Like I said earlier, the actors are what excels the script.  Max Thieriot as Bug does a phenominal job with not only having the audience relate to him but also spitting out and mimicing lines of other characters.  Another highlight of the film is – what I call the comic relief – the character of Penelope.  Essentially she is the religious factor of Carrie’s mom from DePalma’s Carrie personified in a teenage body – she is also the sole owner of that Prayer Conditioning quote.

Craven’s signature is all over this film.  Luckily, I don’t remember seeing that hand coming out of the wall scene you see in the trailer in the film.  However, there is a scene in a boiler room that is almost surreal in seeing in a film that is not part of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

I honestly have no clue why this film is in 3D.  It is obviously a move to garner more money from patrons and I believe it hurts the film.  General audiences still think that 3D is supposed to “pop-out” at you.  It isn’t.  However, these audiences see 3D mixed in with a horror film and it is the first conclusion they jump to.

I will be the first to admit that this film is not for everyone.  The crowd reaction when I walked out was leaning towards the negative.   The dark humor of the film doesn’t hit most general patrons over the head with it,s o I think it went over their head – not trying to talk down, but I think it’s true.  At the very least, the film is not mediocre and I am thankful for that.  My colleagues may give me some crap for this, but myself and two other writers of the site were all on the same page when we walked out.  If you get a chance, try to see this in 2D though as I think the post-converted 3D hinders the film quite a bit.

My Soul To Take is a refreshingly unique and off-kilter genre entry that breathes some fresh air into the slasher/teen mystery archetype, even if it is batshit crazy at times.