DVD review: Wes Craven’s ‘My Soul To Take’

Wes Craven, the horror meister of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and SCREAM fame, bombs with a disjointed B-flick now out on DVD.

MY SOUL TO TAKE is like a compilation of Wes Craven’s greatest hits. In true Craven fashion, the movie tries to establish an urban mythology. In this case, a serial killer returns to kill seven high school kids who were born the day he was supposedly killed by the police. There isn’t much explanation or logic for the killer’s return save for a chance for seven unappealing, one-dimensional young actors to interact with each other. Call it a Wes Graven slasher remix of a John Hughes movie.

Max Thieriot, who resembles a young Ethan Hawke, is the nominal star of this mess. He plays “Bug” the troubled teen with multiple personalities, visions and the distinct possibility of being a killer himself. (Trivia alert: Bug was also the name of the creepy boy in John Hugh’s UNCLE BUCK.)

Bug has his nerdie best friend, Alex (John Magaro channeling his best Shia LaBeouf), and, of course, a huge crush on the pretty, pouty blonde cheerleader, Brittany (Paulina Olszynski).

But, to quote another 80s cult hit, HEATHERS, “this teenage angst has a body count.” As the bodies start dropping around the school, fingers are pointing at Bug. See those fingers? Yes, this movie was shot in 3D, but you’d be hard pressed to notice as MY SOUL TO TAKE feels like one of those retrofitted movies designed to take advantage of the current 3D craze.

What a shame that Craven seems to have run out of creative juices. MY SOUL TO TAKE has a cast with no chemistry, a story with no coherence; it’s a horror movie with no bite. Craven’s classic NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET movies played on the boogie man that haunts all dreams, the SCREAM series was amusingly self-aware of its own slasher genre formula.  So, MY SOUL TO TAKE feels like Craven tepidly trying something outside of his tried and true franchises and coming up empty.

Hopefully Craven will return to form with SCREAM 4 in 2012. —   ‘My Soul To Take’ official site: http://www.iamrogue.com/mysoultotake.html