My Soul to Take: My goodness what a bad film

Fifteen years after the serial killer “The Riverton Ripper” was allegedly killed by police a number of teenager, whose birthdays match that fateful day, begin to go missing. Soon people begin to wonder if The Ripper is back and taking revenge or if his soul is somehow responsible for the disappearances.

Once upon a time when one saw the name Wes Craven attached as the director of a film a shiver no doubt went down their spin. For years Craven has directed some of the better horror films released, including A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream series, but his newest film My Soul to Take might mark a new career low for it featured a dreadfully befuddling story and absolutely no terrifying or thrilling parts whatsoever. The main villain of the movie, “The Riverton Ripper,” was rarely seen and hardly developed character-wise, like most of the disposable teen cast, which played their cookie-cutter parts as best they could before being dispatched in disappointingly similar fashions.

Without even a decent supporting character to root for the audience had to contend with the perplexingly tedious story, which never had a hint of intrigue and left them wondering why they had wasted an hour and forty minutes of their lives on a horrible film when they could have been doing something better, like watching paint dry.

Grade: D-

Final Destination 3: Good, mindless fun

Wendy has a premonition that she will die on a rollercoaster ride she is about ready to take. But after it actually crashes, she and the others who got off the doomed ride must face a terrible truth. Death has a plan, and no one escapes from it when it’s their time.

Before you pass this off as another in the long line of made-to-order teen horror flicks take into consideration the fact that that was exactly what the filmmakers wanted Final Destination 3 to be. A group of stereotypical (i.e. a smart, virginal “final” girl, the dumb jock, the goth girl, etc) teens are lined up and offed in ways that must have taken the screenwriter and stunt people months to dream up. The most thrilling sequence in the film had to be the opening part where the characters take an unforgettable ride on the damned rollercoaster which will make you sweat the next time you’re in a line at a Six Flags. The improbability in the ways some of the characters were killed could leave non-horror film aficionados rolling their eyes or perhaps they could start griping about how they have seen this film before because it’s basically the same story as the first two Final Destinations and a million other horror films. The only originality this film was concerned with was finding newer, more shocking ways to dispose of people.

Another feature which made this film fun to watch was that the dvd was interactive. Audiences are able to “choose the fate” of the characters and watch what would have happened if they were in charge of who lives and who dies by selecting a special option on the disc. It’s kinda like those old Choose Your Own Adventure books you read as a kid, except this time if you choose wrong, blood will be spilt.

Grade: C