I'll say this for it... the trailer looks slick.

I respect Wes Craven as a survivor in this business, but some of the films he's made have been as cheap and sleazy as anything in the genre.  His early films have all the style and charm of porn, and even after he would take a step forward with a film like "A Nightmare In Elm Street," he was still perfectly capable of taking a step backward with garbage like "Deadly Friend" or "Shocker."  

Before we see "Scream 4" hit theaters, we've got a new Craven creation that will introduce the Riverton Ripper and a kid named Bug.  Will they carry the same iconic weight as Freddy Kruger or Ghostface?  Only time will tell, but from this first trailer, it looks like there's a little of both in this movie's DNA.

Slasher movie tropes in full force?  Check.  Dreams and childhood secrets play an important part?  Check. Possible supernatural killer?  Check.  Kid wrestling with the nature of waking reality while his friends die around him?  Check.

I'm curious if this would still have gotten made after "Scream 4," or if this was meant to take the place of the "Scream" series for Craven, who has been pretty vocal about not just wanting to be a horror filmmaker.  When you meet him and speak with him, he's one of the most soft-spoken and cultured horror icons I can imagine.  He speaks like a guy who makes chamber dramas about serious subjects, not a guy whose career can be summed up in one giant body count.  Still, there aren't a lot of offers being made for him to direct "Music Of The Heart 2," so it feels like "My Soul To Take" was his way of buying back a little of his cultural relevancy, maybe paving the way for him to make something closer to his heart.

Now with this and "Scream 4" coming out back to back, Craven's got two shots at re-establishing himself as one of the main men of the genre, and there's a lot of this trailer that works.  I'm particularly curious to see what this Mummenschantz-looking thing in the photo on this article is, and how that plays into the story of a young man who may have murder in his blood.

Here's the trailer, which you can see in HD over at Yahoo! Movies:

 

 

"My Soul To Take" will be in theaters October 8, 2010.

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