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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 4 April 2012
This article is a review of MY SOUL TO TAKE. |
“I live in a house of blood and I accept that. That's all a man can do. I was ready to be arrested that night,” Bug
I’m not sure why I keep looking forward to a new Wes Craven, he hasn’t made a film I’ve loved since SCREAM – and that was 1996. He revisits the franchise later this month with the fourth instalment, and I have a feeling that the entertainment value of post-modernism can only be stretched so far. But like a new John Carpenter, I’ll be there.
I’m not sure why I keep looking forward to a new Wes Craven, he hasn’t made a film I’ve loved since SCREAM – and that was 1996. He revisits the franchise later this month with the fourth instalment, and I have a feeling that the entertainment value of post-modernism can only be stretched so far. But like a new John Carpenter, I’ll be there.
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I wanted to like MY SOUL TO TAKE. The opening, while having a schizophrenic cliché explanation, was ridiculously fast paced; cramming in incident after explanation after incident like it was a screwball rom-com. We have a family man who is also a serial killer. This ride has potential I thought (as long as they jettison the schizophrenic bit – which has got stale; combined with the adverts recently at the multiplex about portraying mental illness as the driving force of horrors). There is then the introduction of the idea of “multiple souls”, rather than personalities, battling within a human. Ok, so they are side-stepping the tired, and perhaps going down the IDENTITY road. Wes, you still haven’t lost me so far.
Post-bloodbath, we jump 16 years to the birthday of the seven teenagers all born on the same day this “ripper” disappeared, and the rituals surrounding the anniversary/birthday. Over the course of the next twenty minutes we are introduced to these seven diverse students, and the apparent ideas the movie is playing with. There is the possibility of the supernatural, the religious and the superstitious. Ok, you’re giving yourself lots of options Wes. I’m all for that. Is this a ghost, or is it HARRY POTTER and the Horcruxes, or just plain human immorality?
Even with the rat-a-tat dialogue and energy I get a sinking feeling as time passes; there is not enough focus. Images, words and themes are chucked at the audience in a less and less clever way. MY SOUL TO TAKE seems to be a sub-genre mash-up: HEATHERS-style bullying, revenge, coming-of-age comedy, and slasher; all jumbled together in a not particularly satisfying way. Where is the characterisation too? Should we not be engaging with these seven? There is also a weird mixture of refreshing chilly moments, and the burgeoning crutch of cheap jumps. Too frantically messy to be fun.
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