User Average:
2.5
Your rating: None Average: 2.5 (4 votes)
Rating #:
5/10 Director:
Wes Craven Runtime:
107 minutes Cast:
Max Thierot, Denzel Whitaker, Shareeka Epps, Emily Meade, Nick Lashaway, John Magaro, Paulina Olszynski, Raul Esparza Truly one of the most infuriating movie going experiences for me last class was when I first went to watch Wes Craven`s My Soul to Take. So infuriating, in fact, that I didn`t even bother to write a survey of it at the clock as I felt I required to let it sink in. Well, low and behold, it`s already out on television so now seems like as well a sentence as any. There are people who will tell you that Wes` first pilot film from his own hand in over a ten is the image of puke re-eaten, shat out, and stiff on. And, to be honest, I really like that was the case.
When it comes down to it, My Soul to Make is a muddled mess of a picture that has bright spots which make you glimpses into what could have been something special. The plot, filled with potential, follows seven teens who were all born on the same night that the town`s infamous murderer, The Riverton Ripper, was eventually killed. The Riverton Seven
are now being stalked and taken out one by one with someone using the Ripper`s old M.O. Did the Ripper actually survive or did his soul get passed onto one of the Seven?For the first act, despite some questionable choices in the opening, I was all on this film`s side. The assumption was interesting and the teen actors (played by kids who actually look like teens) were more than adequate and, in some scenes, truly impressive. The problems really began when the killings started. Originally, you never saw the Ripper
murdering the kids. Then Rogue decided they wanted a picture more in vein of Scream and ordered reshoots that basically turned the picture into a key by numbers `who-done-it` slasher. I`ve read the shooting script for the film and, while still far from a masterpiece, it was at least comprehensible.In its current form, the film is an incoherent casserole of ideas. As it
progresses, the once promising plot grows to an astronomical size and makes little to no sense. And, my God, THAT ENDING! Who the eff over at Rogue and Relativity watched that reshot ending and thinking it was worthy for public consumption? Instead of letting the mystery naturally unravel throughout the grand finale, we`re hardened to endless explanation dialogue that attempts to have sense of the mountain that has accumulated. SPOILER ALERT: When the blind kid is ground in the closet and regaling the principal part of every specific point of how he climbed the house 
into the chamber window and fought the Ripper, one really must ask themselves; How in the holy hell is he able to account all that`s happening if he`s blind!The blind kid is one of few of the seven who are all too underdeveloped. The principal character, Bug, his sister, Fang, and a few of the others had interesting, well thought out personalities, which only made the standard characters seem still more out of place. The scenes that do work are the reasons why Craven has made a call for himself as a director. Bug and Fang`s confrontation about their father`s past is intensely directed and acted, becoming the most memorable moment. Max Theiriot delivered in his execution of Bug, which is apparent in the scenes in which he starts to hold on the personality traits of the other kids (another plot point that clumsily trips over itself by the sentence the credits role).
My Soul to Have is without a question one of the most frustrating movies I`ve ever sat through. Starting off with a lot of interesting and original ideas, it becomes bogged down by an always escalating plot that crashes and burns into one of the most asinine, maddening finales this position of War of the Worlds. I wanted to wish this, and at a few moments I really did, however the strong acting from the youth cast and glimpses of classic Craven direction are simply not adequate to preserve the picture as a whole.
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