My Soul to Take Directed by: Wes Craven Starring: Max Thieriot, Emily Meade, John Magaro Rating: R Release Date: October 8, 2010
TRAILER SCORE: 6/10
MY THOUGHTS: Wes Craven is back after a long break from directing. The question is, do I welcome him back with open arms? Wes and I (yeah, we're on a first name basis) have a complicated relationship. As a horror fan, I have an unquestioned respect for the man who brought Freddy out of the nightmare-scape and into our world. The problem is, well, lately the man's been off his game... and by "lately" I mean the last 10 years. With My Soul to Take, the trailer starts out strong enough. It builds the mood and establishes the villain, but somewhere along the way, it veers way off course. It feels like it's torn between two genres and tries to sell the movie as both a psychological thriller and a slasher. Sure, it's possible that it actually is both, but given Craven's track record, we're looking at pop psychology at best. But in all fairness, it isn't even the muddled genres that kill this trailer. At some point, it feels the need to take all of the "tense" moments of dialogue and paste them all together more shoddily than a kindergartner's collage. By the end of the trailer, it's pretty easy to forget that it's horror master Wes Craven who directed this movie, as opposed to some hack, because this trailer falls into all the wrong traps with the headbanger music and the 3D gimmick.