My Money To Take

Wes Craven’s Newest Slash into the Horror Vein is a Snooze Fest
By Morgan P Salvo




Besides the non existent reason for My Soul to Take to be in 3-D, you have to wonder, what happened to Wes Craven? His newest jaunt into the slasher/horror/teen victim genre is a major low point for this once distinguished auteur of all things gory and smart.
Soul begins with a cool bloody intro, a lot like Craven’s underrated Shocker, with twinges of Elm Street and Scream, infusing both intellectual insight and humor. Alas, it then turns all formula. The useless 3-D has no bloody knives flying at you, just a bunch of people talking about stuff. This by the numbers slasher is about as exciting as watching paint dry.
The formula is way too familiar: after the initial slaughter scene we segue 16 years later when a bunch of stereotypical teenagers expound a bunch of campfire myth mumbo-jumbo about the Riverton Ripper and how seven of them go by the moniker of Riverton Seven because they all share the same birthday with the day the killer supposedly died, with one of them possibly harboring his murderous soul. Their number soon dwindles as some suffer gruesome deaths at the hands of a seemingly masked, dreadlocked, homeless man.
Soul represents the first writing-directing effort from Craven since his stylish "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" in 1994. Here he disappoints almost immediately and never gains any kind of momentum. Did I mention there’s WAY too much dialogue? There are references to voodoo legends about multiple souls as opposed to multiple personalities, and nonsensical stories of condors and clarions that serve no purpose. Then there’s the unexplained weirdness of “Bug” (Max Thieriot), the main suspect for the murders and his bizarre imitations of other people. Sure he acts weird enough, but his mental health history is only hinted at yet never explained. And don’t get too bent out of shape at the twist ending: it’s about as twisty as a straight edge razor.
I have a theory about directors like Craven from the 70’s who made really good horror movies—that was their shot and it’s over. They either did too many drugs or not enough, but the residual burnout seems to have affected all the greats of the genre. Any attempt at bringing back the genius and originality of their premiere vision just doesn’t cut the blood-tinged mustard. Craven's trademark satirical humor is sorely missed here as the psychosis, horror, mythology and teen victims all come off boring. The best line of this movie was “it’s not okay to be killing all the time.” In My Soul to Take’s case maybe it’s not okay to be filming all the time.

My Soul to Take
Starring Max Thieriot, John Magaro, Denzel Whitaker, Zena Grey, Emily Meade
Written/Directed by Wes Craven
Rated R
1 star