"My Soul To Take"

Well, guys, unlike last year where I kept it back, this year, I'm going to proudly proclaim the following:

Horror season has begun! Hopefully I'll be able to review more horror films this October, but we'll see how it all turns up.

In the meantime... You ever wonder what happened with Wes Craven after NoES? Well... There was Scream. But after that, what did he do after original horror?

Well... he did today's movie.

My Soul To Take

The town of Riverdale was haunted by a mysterious mass murder sixteen years ago that resulted in seven premature births. On the anniversary of the murders, the seven are left to wander around living their lives. However, what they don't know is that the killer, dubbed "The Ripper" after his mysterious knife, has returned, and is picking them off one by one. It's thus up to Bug (Max Thierirot), one of the seven and someone who's been getting strange supernatural visitations lately, to stop the Ripper before all seven of them die.

Okay, so... It's Wes Craven recycling A Nightmare on Elm Street with the same general plot and same kinds of characters. However, he manages to make it different enough that it becomes its own entity. For example, there's no real muddling of perception of reality, mostly because it all takes place in the real world. There's no overly ridiculous deaths, given that. And the characters are different enough that we can do things better.

That includes everything bad that comes with that, however. Characters acting like idiots was excuseable in NoES, but here it's not since the dream-world angle is taken away. The deaths all feel more or less the same, similar to the problem that the NoES remake had with its lack of variety in deaths, although fortunately on that count it's quite a bit less noticeable.

And then there are a couple of additional problems added to that. Half of the movie's victims aren't terribly likeable, and one was so much of a jerk I let out an audible whoop when he got what was coming to him. We can also tell some of the plot developments coming from a mile away, and the tension kind of vanishes after those two factors are thrown in.

Fortunately, the movie manages to redeem itself with a fairly satisfying ending that, in addition to being fairly exciting, manages to tie up the loose ends reasonably well. (How it does that will be explored in the coming week's musing.) As well, the acting was very competent, and some people even stood out as being great. It all redeems itself in the end, even if some of the unlikeable victims and idiocy detract from that.

And this makes My Soul To Take a bit of a mixed bag. However, it ultimately succeeds as a competent horror film by virtue of its ending and the strength of the acting. It's also good for anyone who's getting tired of the incessant horror remakes that have been flooding the film industry lately for some original horror films.

Oh, and on the 3D? It didn't add too much, really, which I think is for the best.

2.5/4

If you want to go see it, go see it. If you don't want to go see it, don't.

This is Herr Wozzeck Reviews. I'll see you guys next time.