I'm still trying to figure out what the hook of My Soul to Take was supposed to be. This is a teen slasher flick, written and directed by horror veteran Wes Craven, who gave us such interesting ideas as the bogeyman who kills teens in their dreams, and the postmodern teen slasher, where everyone in the movie realizes they're in a horror movie and must follow the rules to get out alive. So what's this one about?

 Well... there doesn't seem to be much to it. There was this killer who supposedly died 16 years ago, and who several believe is coming back specifically to kill the seven kids who were born the day he was killed. Why? I don't know, but indeed this starts to happen. One of the kids, the main character named "Bug" (Max Thieriot), appears also to be able to channel (gather?) souls within him, specifically those of the other kids who are killed. They don't seem to help him very much, other than to warn him that the killer is out there, and eventually Bug and the killer do have to have a standoff.

Meanwhile, the mystery of who the killer is doesn't play fair -- he could be supernatural, or he could be one of the other characters in a costume, and none of this feels like it matters much amidst a sea of bad acting, one-dimensional characters, and lack of any general scares.

By the time the movie ended, I really wondered what the point of it was. What was the catch? It's Wes Craven, so there had to be one, right? Or is it just possible that Craven fumbled the ball this time and gave us the equivalent of a fairly amateur teen horror flick? That thought is scarier than the whole movie.

(Released by Universal Studios and rated "R" for strong bloody violence and pervasive language, including sexual references.)

Review also posted at ww.windowtothemovies.com.