My Soul To Take

The first thing I ever saw pertaining to this film was a big cardboard display at the movie theatre and a teaser trailer for it that same day, a long time before it came out. I remember thinking it looked awesome. So when the previews started playing on television I wanted to go see it, but never did. So I waited for it to come out and got in on Netflix. It was all right, but I'm sort of glad I didn't go see it in theatres (although who knows, the whole theatre experience can make a movie a lot better).

The Gist Of The Movie:
The film begins with a pregnant woman watching a news story about the ongoing case of the Riverton Ripper, a local serial killer, whose knife has been caught on camera. Her husband, who is in the basement making a rocking horse for their unborn child, finds aforementioned knife under his work bench and starts hearing voices telling him to call Dr. Blake. Then another voice tells him if he calls Dr. Blake, he'll kill his family. It's clear by this point that he has multiple personality disorder and Dr. Blake is his therapist. Some crazy shit happens, the family dies. Fast forward sixteen years. There are kids in the woods celebrating 'Ripper Day' when seven children were born on the exact night of the opening scene. It's said that the kids mirror the personalities of Abel Plankoff, the Ripper, and he wants to come back and take revenge on them. The main character, Bug (Max Theiriot), is one of these seven kids. The kids get picked off one by one until it comes down to Bug and the Ripper as the only ones left, there's a valiant struggle, one of them wins, the film is over.

What I Think:
Honestly, I psyched myself up for this one and I was a little bit dissappointed. I really like the story line of this film, and the Ripper was actually pretty terrifying to look at (at least, I certainly wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley), but the shocking twists were a little forced. Nothing led up to them, no one was trying to figure out who the Ripper was, you just get slapped in the face with an answer you didn't know you were supposed to be asking for. Also, the scary parts where the kids get killed were not all that scary and weren't spaced out enough in my opinion. One minute there's seven kids, the next minute, there's three. They also make a point of putting in love interests that never go anywhere. I understand that the traditional horror movie where the victims band together to try and solve the mystery before it's too late has been done a thousand times, but this is such an original story line I think it could've worked really well and maybe I wouldn't feel so cheated. I think this movie had a lot of potential to be really good, but fell a little short. Wes Craven has definitely made better movies in his day.

So even though I didn't hate it, I'm not recommending anyone run out and see it. But like I said, maybe if you watched it in the dark by yourself it'd be better.