Review: My Soul to Take (2010)

“We're all doomed, Bug. It's the human condition.”

Director: Wes Craven

Writer: Wes Craven

Stars: Max Thieriot, John Magaro and Denzel Whitaker

In the midst of the bad acting, CGI blood and shoddy script there is a gem on an idea that is intriguing. For a while I’ve heard about this movie and how bad it is, how it seems to be such a misstep for Craven, but as the movie progressed I couldn’t help but wish I was watching something better. The story deserved better.

What we have is a serial killer with several personalities that dies on the night seven children are born. Cut to sixteen years later the seven children are all grown up, and now one by one they are dying. Is the killer back? Is his soul in one of the children? Why does one of the children seem to a psychic connection with the others? It’s something I haven’t seen before and with the right talent behind it, it could have been something.

Now as much as I liked the central idea the script is terrible. The dialogue is laughable, the characterization is cliché but at the same time doesn’t really make sense, and there is no real respect to any type of development. Characters are killed off in a way that would appear shocking, but because no real time was given to the seven’s interactions the audience shouldn’t really care. The movie also has one of the worst qualities of modern horror films, and that’s having characters that are just utter pricks, bastards and bitches. I couldn’t wait for them to die.

As I stated above, the acting is just a complete waste of time, I don’t think anyone could be called competent let alone good. Maybe the material wasn’t up to scratch and putting all the blame on the actors isn’t fair. But there was just something wrong with everyone. It’s not even the actors just hamming it up too much, there is a lack of consistency between scenes.

Now the style of the movie is at least where things improve, Craven knows his stuff and everything looks slick. There does seem to be a dreary atmosphere over everything, a foreboding presence of bad things to come. However there is one stylistic choice that makes some of the kills laughable. That’s the fake CGI blood. Oh my goodness does it look bad. I’m not sure who did this job but it looks so fake, and would seem more at home in a movie in the 90’s that’s just trying CGI for the first time.

 Horror fans should just skip this movie. Remember the good Craven movies. There is a gem of an idea here but it’s just surrounded by crap. In some ways you could find fun with a large group of friends and a party like atmosphere, but why would you do that to yourself?