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It's also worth considering that Wes Craven, despite being rightly regarded as something of a master by fans of horror, probably isn't that much of a draw anymore, if he ever was. Whilst his last film, Red Eye, managed to turn a fantastic trailer and great reviews into a solid opening of $16 million and a final tally of $57 million (against a budget of $26 million) back in October 2005, Cursed, a long-forgotten werewolf film which Craven also directed and which opened five months before Red Eye in May 2005, opened to $9 million, just less than half its eventual $19 million domestic total (against a budget of $38 million). Looking over the rest of his career, he's rarely directed a successful film that didn't have "Scream" or "Nightmare" in its title, and My Soul To Take seems to be just a continuation of that trend. Hopefully he'll have his creative and commercial mojo back for Scream 4, though I can't imagine that too many people have spent the last 10 years clamoring for a new installment.

Bruce Hall: This is apparently the softest opening ever for a 3D project playing at over 1500 theaters. But I am not sure Wes Craven is relevant here. Edwin has a good point in that Wes Craven, despite being a horror icon, may have exceeded his shelf life in much the same way John Carpenter has. And yes - the trailer was just awful. There's already a narrow band for this sort of material so if you don't provide a killer trailer, a killer hook - what's going to bring me in? Wes Craven's name? The fact that it was 3D? So what?

Do you remember how people used to gush over the newness of CGI, and the first thing out of their mouth regarding any terrible movie was how good the special effects were? Well, I think people are over CGI, and they are over 3D - despite the fact that I think the presentation hasn't even scratched the surface with its potential.

We like to be told good stories, and like it or not, horror has a small and fickle demographic. I don't think they should be taken for granted. There are serious horror fans, and there are frivolous ones, but they all want a good experience, not just a flashy one with cute young actors. You can put anybody's name you want on the marquee, and you can present it in 3D, 4D, or 5D...yeah...5D...

Sorry...but if I walk out of the theater feeling short changed, I'm going to tell all my friends. And horror fans are passionate people who can make or break a movie in 18 hours by word-of-mouth alone. You've got to put more effort into a project than this, and I think the results speak for themselves.

Matthew Huntley: Wow, October 2010 is sure shaping up to be an ironically poisonous month for horror films, which is especially disconcerting since it's their time of year to shine. I think everyone on this thread hit the nail on the head by saying sub-par marketing sealed this movie's fate. I also agree with Edwin that the name "Wes Craven" isn't enough to fill the seats any more. In fact, outside of New Nightmare and Scream, I don't consider him to be that great of a filmmaker (although I have heard he's a hell of a nice guy in real life, and his films do carry a lot of psychological subtext). In regards to My Soul to Take, I only ever saw the TV spots, and they were so ineffectual that I never really knew what the movie was about, and I'd like to think if I can't gauge a movie's premise by just a TV ad, most people can't (although I may be thicker than most people). Another reason I think it bombed was because it promoted its 3D-ness too much. I think this is having an adverse effect on movies because people are starting to wonder if a movie has to sell itself as 3D, it must not have as much narrative substance. I know that's what I think sometimes and, call me old-fashioned, I go to the movies for good stories. My Soul to Take didn't strike me as having one.

Reagen Sulewski: My biggest problem with the ads for this one is that they never really explained what the movie was about. Without an iconic villain like Freddy or Jason, you can't really expect people to come to your horror movie on a vague basis of "people get killed". Even horror fans want some motivation beforehand.

I think I'd also have to agree about Wes Craven - these days that's a name that's almost starting to sound like "Vincent Price presents".

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