DVD Reviews

My Soul To Take – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Feb 14, 2011, 16:08 GMT

A serial killer returns to his hometown to stalk seven children who share the same birthday as the date he was allegedly put to rest. ...more

What in Freddy’s name happened here, Craven? Returning to the teen slasher genre that generally welcomes him with open arms a la ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Scream’, Wes Craven churns out an extremely amateurish and, ironically, soulless movie.

The oft-putting (and not in the intended way) and over-the-top prologue finds the small New England town of Riverton being menaced by the serial killer Riverton Ripper. Turns out the Ripper is normal husband/father Abel (Raul Esparza) who is beset by multiple personalities and once he realizes this, his pregnant wife ends up dead but the police intervene before he can kill his young daughter.

But after an inane ambulance crash that results in an explosion, the Riverton Ripper escapes into the river where he’s never found.

Cut to sixteen years later, a group of teens are crowded around the remnants of said ambulance (am I the only one that thinks it silly that the city would leave a burnt-out ambulance sitting by the side of the road for sixteen years? – much less one surrounding a notorious serial killer) in a tradition called ‘Ripper Night’ where the seven children born on the same night that the Ripper escapes take turns beating a ceremonial mannequin of the Ripper back into the river.

Aptly, the whole shaky premise goes back to a throwaway line in the prologue where a Haitian EMP states that when people with multiple personality disorders die in her country, the personalities or ‘souls’ don’t die but separate amongst the new - hence the idea that the murderous soul is now living dormant within one of the seven teens born on that night.

But when one of the Riverton Seven (refreshingly the token Asian dude and not the token Black dude) doesn’t make it home, it seems the Ripper is back to play.

And so continues an inept mystery involving some of the worst teen dialogue I’ve ever cringed at. We have our typical array of teen stereotypes: the ho-hum nerdy protag Bug (Max Thieriot), his comic relief best friend Alex (John Magaro), the blond cutie Brittany (Paulina Olszynski), the jock a-hole Brandon (Nick Lashaway), and the religious Penelope (Zena Grey). We do get one wild card in the blind black kid Jerome (Denzel Whitaker) but absolutely nothing is made of the fact that he’s blind.

And one by one, these teens end up dead and we’re thankful as we’re that much closer to the conclusion.

I suppose that the cardboard characters and faulty plot machinations would be somewhat forgivable if the kills were at least inventive. But the R-rated pic fails there also. There’s no tension in the kill set-pieces and most of the gore is tacked-on CGI - unforgivable for someone who gave us ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ as we know Craven can do better. A lot better.

The film is presented with an AVC 1080p 2.35 encode and overall looks quite good. The film uses a subdued color palette so not much pops but the transfer accurately represents the source.

The DTS-HD 5.1 track also works really well and provides some nice use of rear surrounds. A pretty dull commentary from Wes Craven and actors John Magaro, Max Thieriot and Emily Meade start off the extras.

There are 22-minutes of Deleted Scenes, none of which seem to add anything to the story. There is also an alternate opening sequence and ‘2 Terrifying Alternate Endings!’ I wasn’t particularly moved by any of the three but it does make clear that this must have been a troubled production with 2 different opening and 3 different endings, all to no avail. And lastly, we get the standard BD-Live and pocket Blu app features.

The BD specs are fine but only the staunchest of horror completists will want to check this one out. ‘My Soul to Take’ is a complete misfire which is a damn shame considering the writer/director. Here’s hoping Craven knocks ‘Scream 4’ out of the park.

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