Halloween Marathon: My Soul To Take (2010)

On a slightly boring and gloomy Saturday morning, I decided to pick up my courage and watch My Soul To Take.  The only reason I had of watching this was that the summary sounded alright and well, there was Max Theriot.  I like him from Bates Motel so hey, why not give it a chance, right? Plus, Netflix seems to think its a good match for me.

Director: Wes Craven

Cast: Max Thieriot, John Magaro, Denzel Whitaker, Zena Grey, Nick Lashaway, Pauliina Olszynski, Emily Meade, Frank Grillo

One night in Riverton, a serial killer murders his wife and takes his own life, however, surviving him is his daughter.  That same night, 7 children were born the moment that he died.  Its rumored that his soul split and went into each of these 7 children and that he would come back to claim his soul back.  16 years later, these seven: Bug (Max Thieriot), Alex (John Magaro), Jerome (Denzel Whitaker), Penelope (Zena Grey), Brandon (Nick Lashaway), Brittany (Paulina Olszynski) and Jay (Jeremy Chu) celebrate their birthday but they realize that one by one, they start disappearing.  Is the Riverton killer really back from the dead to take back his soul?

My Soul To Take is a horror thriller which actually may have its few thrills but not much horror.  It does built a nice atmosphere in a eerie with the dark scenes in the forest, the house, etc.  However, even with that, it still feel somewhat flawed.  There were questionable parts and a lot of the scenes were predictable. It tried to bring in a lot of evil symbols such as the crow. It was a mix of supernatural, slasher and mystery.

One of the biggest flaws in this flick would have to be its characters.  A lot of them aren’t too impressive acting-wise.  Their roles were a bit weird and nothing made me connect to them much.  The only exception was Max Thieriot as the lead character, or else I might have either turned off the movie or fell asleep.  I can see that he has some acting potential as he lead his role very well.  He was the mystery of this movie more than the actual Riverton killer as he had so many secrets revolving his life and his past with his family.  Another character that I liked was the girl playing his sister, Leah, known to her friends as Fang, played by Emily Meade.  She had a pretty good part and she was an essential part to the puzzle of learning Bug’s past.

Hmm…I’m all talked out.  This movie just didn’t really do much for me.  Its not that I hated it though.  I just wasn’t that impressed and I haven’t even seen anything from Wes Craven’s work to begin with so no comparison since that seems to be what disappoints mostly.  The only reason I’d pick up this movie to watch again would be to watch Max Thieriot do his role 🙂 He was definitely the positive in this movie.  So, would I recommend it? Well, if you like Max Thieriot or Emily Meade, then go for it (but then you might has well check out Bates Motel).  If you like a mild mystery/thriller but not to be scared, then this could be a good choice.  You won’t have much to guess because you’ll see everything happening a mile away, especially the kids disappear or getting killed.

I’m going into so many of these movies in the Halloween marathon blind.  My expectations being low could make me have better impressions of the movie than they actually are.  Let’s see if the next one is better…Halloween 4 review FINALLY going up next!