Thoughts on My Soul To Take (2010)

[darkdetective]

Last night I watched the Wes Craven movie My Soul To Take.

I didn't watch it when it inititally came out in cinemas because the trailers where terrible and all the reviews I saw for the movie called it awful. A lot of people where actually surprised it was made by horror master Wes Craven.
Anyway, I finally watched the movie and for the first 10-20 minutes of the movie I saw exactly what everybody else saw... A bad movie.

However, once I decided to not take the movie seriously I realized the film might actually be a very clever subversive satire of the tropes of horror movies. Similar to Scream (still not as good though).

The dialogue, characters and tone of the movie is very cartoony. It feels like everything is a caricature as apposed to an attempt at making a real character. The plot is intentionally confusing, bringing in a supernatural element that feels tacked on. It also has an unnecessary amount of bad language and blood shed. It has plot twist after plot twist and plenty of red herrings.
I feel like all of this is kind of intentionally, in a way I feel like Wes Craven was making a strange commentary on the state of horror movies by making a film that incorporates so much of what's wrong with horror films.
There's literally a scene toward the end of the movie where a character says 'It's not Ok for everybody to be killing each other all the time!'
Which lines like that, I can't help but feel the film is making fun of the genre.

Basically, when viewed as a traditionally horror movie, My Soul To Take is an awful movie but when viewed through the prism of a satirical comedy it's actually quite good and I recommend more people to re-watch the movie with these ideas in mind.

I don't know if anyone else feels this way but I hope I'm right.
Either that or Wes Craven became a bad filmmaker in later years or the studio interfered and forced a bunch crap into the movie... I don't know.

Either My Soul To Take is an awful mess of a movie or it's secretly awesome and people don't realize that!
What do you guys think?

[TheBossInTheWall]

I think anyone who thinks Scream was a good movie is not someone I'll take a recommendation from. ;)

[darkdetective]

Originally Posted by TheBossInTheWall

I think anyone who thinks Scream was a good movie is not someone I'll take a recommendation from. ;)

Ouch!
That hurt a little LOL

What's your problem with Scream?
It's rare I hear anybody speak negatively about the movie, why don't you like it?

[TheBossInTheWall]

Originally Posted by darkdetective

Ouch!
That hurt a little LOL

What's your problem with Scream?
It's rare I hear anybody speak negatively about the movie, why don't you like it?

Well its been a long time, but I remember the story was dull. The acting was poor. Nothing interesting about the cinematography. If it did not have its high production values it would be a d film not worth watching at all. And the "who's doing the killing" was annoying, not intriguing.

[darkdetective]

Originally Posted by TheBossInTheWall

Well its been a long time, but I remember the story was dull. The acting was poor. Nothing interesting about the cinematography. If it did not have its high production values it would be a d film not worth watching at all. And the "who's doing the killing" was annoying, not intriguing.

Fair enough.
I disagree with the story. I found it to be a fairly subversive take on horror cliches that existed in the slasher genre for decades preceding it. Cliches that where worn out by the time Scream came out. Thus for me anyway, the story feels fresh and new.
The acting was OK. Nothing great but I wouldn't say poor.
In terms of cinematography, I found the movie interesting for having sequences shot during the day and some clever uses of dutch angles.
In my opinion, Scream is a step above most slasher movies. It also helped rejuvenate the horror genre as a whole because if it wasn't the surprise box office hit that it was, the horror genre wouldn't be as popular as it is now.
In the mid 90's the genre was mostly dead. Scream showed movie studios and audiences that horror films are still good.
So at the very least Scream should be at least somewhat respected as an important horror film.
Then again, if you don't like the movie that's fine. People are entitled to their own opinion. If you haven't watched Scream in a while, check it out. Maybe you'll change your mind about it.
If you watch it and still don't like it, then let me know and we can continue this chat.

Either way, I think we can both agree that Wes Cravens New Nightmare is the better than Scream.

[TheBossInTheWall]

Originally Posted by darkdetective

Either way, I think we can both agree that Wes Cravens New Nightmare is the better than Scream.

Not likely I'll ever watch Scream again. :)

I haven't seen New Nightmare yet. Long list of films to see and since its another Freddy film its not high on my list. Not that Nightmare on Elm Street was bad, I enjoyed it.

[darkdetective]

Originally Posted by TheBossInTheWall

Not likely I'll ever watch Scream again. :)

I haven't seen New Nightmare yet. Long list of films to see and since its another Freddy film its not high on my list. Not that Nightmare on Elm Street was bad, I enjoyed it.

Well I do highly recommend New Nightmare. It's the second best Freddy movie in my opinion. It was a film way ahead of it's time.
But then again if Freddy isn't your thing, then no biggie!

[stormr]

Originally Posted by darkdetective

Fair enough.
I disagree with the story. I found it to be a fairly subversive take on horror cliches that existed in the slasher genre for decades preceding it. Cliches that where worn out by the time Scream came out. Thus for me anyway, the story feels fresh and new.
The acting was OK. Nothing great but I wouldn't say poor.
In terms of cinematography, I found the movie interesting for having sequences shot during the day and some clever uses of dutch angles.
In my opinion, Scream is a step above most slasher movies. It also helped rejuvenate the horror genre as a whole because if it wasn't the surprise box office hit that it was, the horror genre wouldn't be as popular as it is now.
In the mid 90's the genre was mostly dead. Scream showed movie studios and audiences that horror films are still good.
So at the very least Scream should be at least somewhat respected as an important horror film.
Then again, if you don't like the movie that's fine. People are entitled to their own opinion. If you haven't watched Scream in a while, check it out. Maybe you'll change your mind about it.
If you watch it and still don't like it, then let me know and we can continue this chat.

Either way, I think we can both agree that Wes Cravens New Nightmare is the better than Scream.

Pretty much nailed it all in that one reply. I completely agree. Scream did bring horror back into the mainstream and in cinemas. And I personally enjoyed the movie, all four of them actually.

But to get back on the original subject here, I have not seen my soul to take, but maybe I will now.

[The Villain]

My Soul to Take was a mess. The story was all over the place, the acting was terrible and nothing made sense. As with the Scream comparison, i didnt see that at all. It seemed like it might have been trying to be like Scream but it failed. This is the kind of movie you watch when you want to have a bad horror movie night where you laugh at the movie.

[ImmortalSlasher]

I thought I reviewed My Soul To Take. But I can't find it here. I can barely remember it but I recall it wasn't good at all. I was shocked at who made it.

Originally Posted by TheBossInTheWall

I think anyone who thinks Scream was a good movie is not someone I'll take a recommendation from. ;)

I like Scream. It's one of the best modern horror movies. If you can call a movie that old modern. And it's still by far the best in the series. I haven't seen the TV show yet.