MY SOUL TO TAKE

16 years ago: in the small town of Riverton, the local TV news warns of a murderer still on the loose in the region. All people know is that the killer is a white male who brandishes a blade with the word "vengeance" etched into it. The media has dubbed him the Riverton Ripper.

Abel (Raul Esparza) is a family man whose wife Sarah is heavily pregnant with his son. Voices in his head tell him to kill, and when he calls his psychiatrist Dr Blake (Harris Yulin) for assistance, the doc races round Abel's house with the cops.

Shot numerous times and bleeding heavily, the "mentally ill" Abel is placed into a heavily guarded ambulance and raced out of Riverton. But before they get far, an altercation leads to the ambulance running off the road - and Abel's body disappearing.

Fast-forward to the present day, and we meet seven teenagers who were all born in Riverton on the night that Abel 'died': Jerome (Denzel Whitaker), Alex (John Magaro), Jay (Jeremy Chu), Bug (Max Thieriot), Penelope (Zena Grey), Brittany (Paulina Olszynski) and Brandon (Nick Lashaway).

We first meet the "Riverton Seven" as they've come to be known, on the night of their collective birthdays, gathered with mates in the local woods where Brandon holds a drunken sermon on how the legend of the Ripper lives on. They believe that the Ripper is still alive, and has placed a curse upon the town - vowing to return one day to kill each of the seven kids.

Now, this is particularly unsettling for Bug - as his father was Abel, whom many believe to have been the Ripper. He starts having gory nightmares about his friends being picked off by a demonic figure pronouncing itself to be the Ripper.

One thing's for certain. Someone is out to get them, and the bodies start mounting up soon enough - leaving Bug with the belief that only he can put an end to the reign of terror.

MY SOUL TO TAKE frequently looks very stylish, with smoke-filled sets and eerie atmospherics helping to create slick set-piece sequences. But, with such polished production values and an attractive young cast behaving too smart for class, this feels about as scary or dangerous as I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.

To add to this, Wes Craven's script plays to the teen crowd with stock two-dimensional characters and the expected catty one-liners. No-one is especially sympathetic or likeable, while Bug's outward 'oddness' paints him as the film's hero from the start.

Horror-wise, Craven directs with an eye for the obvious - it's all jumpy edits, silences followed by loud crashes on the soundtrack, and spurting gore. It's by-the-numbers stuff, but it's still entertaining in its own overly polite way.

Remarkably, MY SOUL TO TAKE marks Wes Craven's first effort as writer-director since 1994's NEW NIGHTMARE. Funnily enough though, its central premise - that a killer may have returned from the grave to seek revenge on the kids of the locals who slew him - clearly echoes the likes of his A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and SHOCKER.

Perhaps this lack of inspiration, and the fact that this hardly set the box office alight, further encouraged Craven to sign on the dotted line for the imminent SCREAM 4.

Momentum's DVD presents the film uncut in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is enhanced for 16x9 TVs and looks very good indeed. Colour schemes reflect Craven's intended stylistic visuals accurately, while images tend to be sharp and clean throughout.

English audio is presented in 5.1 and is a solid, successfully rousing track with good bass reproduction and acutely balanced back channels. Optional English subtitles are also provided.

Extras begin with an audio commentary track from Craven, along with cast members Magaro, Thieriot and Emily Meade. The cast fawn a little too much, while Craven is as erudite as ever. It's an informative chat with Craven proving to be as fluent and relevant as he has always been on previous commentaries, even offering frequent quips along the way.

A clutch of deleted and extended scenes run for just under 21 minutes. These are also presented in 16x9 widescreen and look as crisp as the main feature. I'm surprised that some of these met the cutting room floor. Not because their loss is detrimental to the finished film (most are so brief that they really are inconsequential), but none of them look like they'd have been that cheap or easy to set up shots for.

5 minutes dedicated to an alternate opening and a couple of alternate endings follow. These offer a mild diversion, nothing more.

Finally, the film's original theatrical trailer is stylish and modern.

The disc is defaulted to open with trailers for SEASON OF THE WITCH (the Cage one), MONSTERS and CHALET GIRL.

MY SOUL TO TAKE is adequate entertainment so far as modern horror films go. It's slick, polished and safe - while offering just enough in the way of half-decent acting, gory murders and shit-eating humour. But, for a film directed by the guy behind ELM STREET, THE HILLS HAVE EYES and THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, it's disappointingly formulaic.

Also available on blu-ray.

Review by Stuart Willis