Wes Craven is a legend in the horror community. His movies cover the length of five decades and is the creator of some of the greatest slasher films of all time, such as Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street. However, some of his films have been criticized by critics. My Soul To Take is one of these films.
(Those of you who have not seen My Soul to Take, I highly recommend watching it before reading this review.)
My Soul to Take starts out with Abel Plenkov learning his true identity, which is The Riverton Ripper, the quiet little town of Riverton Massachusetts serial killer. In short, he is killed by the police in his bedroom (or so we think), and taken to the hospital. In route to the hospital, we hear dialogue from two paramedics who are talking about the possibility of why Abel murdered his family and others. The woman from the South says that where she's from, they would say he had a condition called multiple souls. (Meaning that he was filled with many souls of people who have lived before, and the evil one was doing all the killing). This sets up the premise for the rest of the movie.
This movie has a few up and coming actors in this. Max Theriot, who plays the main character nicknamed "Bug", is now a household name for horror fans (most notably known for playing Norman Bates's brother in Bates Motel). Emily Meade does a fantastic job of playing Leah (or "Fang"), Bug's sister, and I expect to be seeing more of her in the future. Nick Lashaway plays Brandon, and he has already been in quite a few more movies, such as The Last Song and 40-Year-Old-Virgin. One more notable character to mention is Paulina Olszynski, who is Brittany (the beauty queen) in this film. She has been rumored to be in the new Friday the 13th due out in 2015.
Before giving my opinion on the different aspects of the film, I want to start by saying that Wes Craven is my all time favorite director. I honestly have never watched a movie of his that I have disliked. That being said, when watching a Wes Craven horror film, there is a certain mindset you need to have before viewing it. if you want to watch a movie that will absolutely terrify you and leave you sleepless for a few nights, this is not your director. He does not make your typical slasher movies where teens have sex and get killed in creative ways. Wes's movies are always scary at times, but he always has very deep meanings to them, and I think My Soul to Take perfectly captures this, making it a typical Craven film.
You might have heard many reviews stating that this is nothing more than your average teen slasher. This could not be further from the truth. My Soul to Take carries with it a very complex story while having much more character development than almost any slasher film I have seen. To be honest, I think the camera work (especially in the classroom Condor scene), the acting, musical score (Marco Beltrami is a musical genius), and the directing are some of the finest I have seen in any slasher film. Needless to say, don't let critics deter you away from seeing this film, or even lowering your expectations for it.
This movie contains many messages that are personal for Wes and myself. It has many obvious Christian references, with the name being obviously taken from the children's prayer. The tag line for the film is "only one has the power to save their souls", which is a direct reference to Christians belief in Jesus Christ being the only one to have the power to save human souls. Wes's movies also always contain moral characters, and May is one. She always tries to do what is helpful for Bug, even though it doesn't always work, and she isn't right a lot. Penelope, who is the Jesus Freak of the movie, is portrayed in a conservative, fundamentalist Hell-fire and brimstone type. This is actually like Wes's mother, who was very fundamentalist Baptist. He grew up in this kind of strict environment, and so he is portraying his mother on screen. It's a very brilliant way to show how hypocritical various strands of Christianity and how it doesn't match the way things should be.
Bug is the most personal of all characters. Bug starts out the movie as an innocent 16 year old (as is stated many times throughout the film). As the movie progresses, Bug learns more about life as well as his own past, which makes him step out from being innocent and growing up into an adult. It has a certain "coming of age" tale to it that is prevalent in Craven films. However, this one is unique in that Wes grew up in a strict Baptist home, where he didn't even see a movie until he was 24. It wasn't until he stepped out of that fundamentalism that he could grow up into a man (see the metaphor). Simarly in my own life, all I have known my whole life is that Conservative is the way to go and that anything else is evil. I have recently been able to break away from that background and have many different feelings about issues that are at odds with many people in my life. however, this was very necessary for me to grow up and become a man that isn't held back and experiences true freedom.
Overall, it is a slasher movie with a complex and compelling story. It is not very scary, but the message is so overwhelmingly good that it makes up for that. I recommend this to anybody who wants to watch a movie that makes you think and challenges you. It's not overly scary or gory so even if you're not a fan of horror movies (or just extremely violent movies in general) you can handle this movie. Very highly recommended! My personal favorite Wes Craven film. 10/10
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