My Soul to Take

Rating: Rated R

Brought to you by OBS staff member Annabell Cadiz

Synopsis: “In the sleepy town of Riverton, legend tells of a serial killer who swore he would return to murder the seven children born the night he died. Now, 16 years later, people are disappearing again. Has the psychopath been reincarnated as one of the seven teens, or did he survive the night he was left for dead? Only one of the kids knows the answer. Adam “Bug” Heller (Max Thieriot) was supposed to die on the bloody night his father went insane. Unaware of his dad’s terrifying crimes, he has been plagued by nightmares since he was a baby. But if Bug hopes to save his friends from the monster that’s returned, he must face an evil that won’t rest until it finishes the job it began the day he was born.”

My Soul to Take was a decent horror film. The gore was lack luster and seemed pointless. But Craven truly loves his gore so that was to be expected. I did appreciate the fact that there was no sexual encounter between the characters or rape scenes as Craven is also apt to include in his movie.

The movie is like every other slasher film ever made, only with some supernatural elements thrown in (the Ripper’s soul is housed with in one of the children’s bodies at birth). The characters are straight out of a yearbook and just plain boring, except for Penelope who is played by Zena Grey. She is the strange religious girl. Zena as Penelope had me and my friends cracking up! I loved how she was able to throw stuff from the Bible and her faith as comebacks, her part was very well written.

Bug, played by Max Thieriot, is innocent and sweet. He has suffered from migraines and horrible nightmares his whole life. He’s the one everyone is always making fun of. Max Thieriot does a great job. Craven wanted to make Bug look as if he was going crazy due to all the teasing and strange events taking place. Max Theiriot pulled off his dual role so to speak very nicely.

I also enjoyed Emily Meade’s performance as Fang, Bug’s sister and ruler of the school. She was dark and disturbing and played the messed up traumatized teenager perfectly.

But the other characters were lacking. Two of the minority characters were token characters! Jeremy Chu plays the Asian kid Jay and is killed off within the beginning of the movie. Denzel Whitaker plays Jerome, the token black guy who is also blind. Mind you, Jerome makes it practically to the end but he is virtually seen only a handful of times. He is constantly popping up out of no where which always made his character seem like he was dead weight and Craven had simply cast him in the film because he needed to fill space.

The young actors in the movie did do a pretty good job of carrying their roles but it wasn’t enough to carry the film. My Soul to Take felt like it was dragged out and didn’t really have too many memorable scenes to offer. I did like the final act of the movie where Bug has to finally fight off the killer and discovers who it really is.

My Soul to Take is a movie you can wait to redbox (dollar box) to see. And if you’re still contemplating going to the movies to see it, don’t bother paying the price to watch it in 3-D, it’s just not worth it.

Running Time: 107 minutes
Director: Wes Craven
Rating: 7/10 stars