My Soul to Take

A thunderously boring and astonishingly inept piece of work, My Soul to Take follows several teenagers as they’re knocked off one by one by a mysterious figure that may or may not be the ghost of a notorious killer. It’s a familiar yet serviceable premise that’s employed to pervasively (and shockingly) unwatchable effect by writer/director Wes Craven, as the filmmaker kicks the proceedings off with an obnoxiously over-the-top prologue that immediately alienates the viewer – with the subsequent introduction of the movie’s uniformly bland and underdeveloped protagonists perpetuating the movie’s atmosphere of relentless tedium. Craven’s reluctance to offer up a concrete storyline – the film mostly follows the characters as they’re individually killed – is exacerbated by his reliance on dialogue that one imagines is supposed to sound clever and hip (but instead comes off as forced and artificial), while even the movie’s horror-based elements manage to underwhelm on a woefully consistent basis (ie where’s the gore?) The inclusion of an absolutely endless climax cements My Soul to Take‘s place as a thoroughly abominable piece of work, and it does go without saying that the film not only marks a low point within Craven’s career but also within the horror genre itself.

no stars out of ****