The latest horror movie by Wes Craven (NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, HILLS HAVE EYES, SCREAM).
The story: a serial killer is killed and on the same night eight children are born, the "Riverton Seven." Sixteen years later they perform a ritual every year to keep the Ripper at bay, but this time at interrupted by the police. Then the Ripper comes back and begins killing them all...
Was it good?
No. This is the first movie since NEW NIGHTMARE (1994) that Wes Craven both wrote and directed and it's a bit of a mess. There are some thing's that are pretty good here -- the idea of the ritual being interrupted and then the ripper coming back is okay, but honestly the writing just isn't that strong. There's nothing interesting about the kids and the whole beginning with the husband (who has a weird dissassociative personality so he doesn't know he is the killer) doesn't really add anything. And the rest of the movie is just plot. Who is the ripper (I never thought it was the actual ripper coming back from the dead)? In fact, a lot of it feel cribbed from the SCREAM movies.
However, in SCREAM, what that movie did right was have this parallel story between the girl and her boyfriend and her not being ready to have sex with him. Then this is elevated when she thinks he might be the killer. Do you trust your boyfriend enough to sleep with him? Do you trust him enough to think he isn't the killer? There's a nice parallel there and it hits at something almost every girl goes through, especially in high school. It also nicely plays with the horror movie cliche of the girl-virgin surviving being the only one to survive at the end. Once she loses her virginity, then what does that mean for her character?
Unfortunately, MY SOUL TO TAKE doesn't have any of this. It is a striaght forward horror-slasher-mystery with nothing interesting behind it.
I'm a Wes Craven fan, but this isn't his strongest work.
*** AVOID ***
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