MY SOUL TO TAKE

US, 2011, 107 minutes, Colour.
Max Thieriot, John Margari, Zena Grey, Denzel Whitaker, Frank Grillo, Harris Yulin.
Directed by Wes Craven.

My Soul to Take comes from the prayer, now I lay me down to rest…
This is a Wes Craven film, coming after almost 40 years of making horror films, Craven became famous with Last House on the Left. His big breakthrough in the 1980s was the beginning of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. In the 1990s the Scream franchise began.

Perhaps this film has something in common with the Freddy Krueger films, a killer wanting people’s souls, but this is a lower key film, set in a small town, focusing on a serial killer and the aftermath of his death on which seven children in the town were born. 16 years later they remember the Ripper Day – and, of course, gruesome things happen including the success of deaths of six of the seven children.

The focus is on one, a reclusive boy played by Max Thieriot, revealed to be the son of the killer, saved when his mother was murdered by her husband. He is quiet and tentative, especially in the middle of the group. However, his best friend, Alex, Johnny Magari, is more extroverted and urges Bug, the quiet boy’s nickname, to be more outgoing and to listen, even to planting their cell phones in the girls’ toilet, to how he is perceived by the girls. He is badmouthed by his sister who, ultimately, comes to his rescue. There is a blind boy, there is an Asian boy who is almost immediately killed, there is the bullying boy who fancies himself, and the religious girl who continually prays and uses God talk.

The film takes place over one day, the different ways in which the young people are dispatched, the final confrontation between Alex and Bug, Alex being possessed by the killer.

Surprisingly, Wes Craven fans were very disappointed with the film, even hostile in their reactions. Perhaps Wes Craven was getting old – or, perhaps, the fans had built up expectations, wanting a much more grizzly film.

1. The popularity of Wes Craven horror films over many decades? His establishing norms for horror films, for slasher films? The tradition of Freddy Krueger, of the Scream franchise? This film in that tradition?

2. A different premise for the film, the serial killer, collecting souls, absorbing souls, difficult to destroy?

3. The small town, its atmosphere, the celebrations, the seven young people and their birthday? The memory of the serial killer? Fear? The police caution? The behaviour of the young people? Their fooling around and the sense of apprehension?

4. The prologue, the father, his schizophrenic behaviour, his seemingly being possessed, his pregnant wife? The background of the news of the serial killer? His moving in and out of his interior states, finding his wife dead? The irony that the child was later kept alive? The doctor and his intervention, the police and their arrival, police methods, the weapons, the father and his shooting, the death of the doctor, the killer’s death? His memory kept?

5. 16 years later, the group and their birthdays, the boy on the pedestal, identifying all the characters? The focus on Bug, at home, nervous, his mother, his reflection in the mirror, seeing other characters? The revelation that he was the son of the killer? Possessed by the killer or not? His best friend Alex, their being together, supportive?

6. The class, Bug and his awkwardness, Penelope and her religious support, with Alex, the bird disguise, the attack on the Brandon, the vomiting, the reaction of the teacher? Of the students? The burning of the bird disguise? The costume of the killer and the mythology of the bird?

7. The range of students, the phones in the toilet and listening in, the girl and her being influenced against Bug? Bug’s sister and her influence? Penelope, religious attitudes, her prayers, religious talk? Denzel and his blindness, the bonds with the other students? The Asian student, with the group, on the bridge, his being pursued, his death? Bug seeing him in the mirror?

8. The successive deaths of the students, the religious girl and Bug seeing her in the mirror? The girls, Denzel and his being attacked in the house?

9. Bug, his growing fears, the encounter with his mother, her death? The police? Alex and his disappearance, his return, Alex being possessed, the fight, death?

10. The police, the attacks on the house, deaths? Bug, his being the lone survivor, being the son of the killer, the killer coming into him? A future?