My Soul to Keep (Review)

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

PLOT: Like many 9-year-olds, Eli Braverman believes something evil lives in his basement. When his older sister Emily leaves him home alone one night, Eli discovers if this evil is real or all in his head. What Eli confronts may end up being far more terrifying than his worst nightmare.

REVIEW: Over the past year or so we here at AITH have been given the honor of sharing the first two trailers and posters for co-writer/director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad's MY SOUL TO KEEP. The film has been doing well on the festival circuit, winning over 40 awards (with 9 of them being for Best Picture) including best director, actors (the kids) and screenplay. Festivals are calling it "Stranger Things meets Home Alone"! Needless to say, after sharing all that kick-ass promotional material, I was jumping at the chance to finally check out Ahmad's movie. And thankfully this week I was finally able to snag a copy. What did I think after all this waiting? Let's find out!

Directed by Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad from a screenplay he co-wrote along with Justin Hynous, MY SOUL TO KEEP is not to be confused with Wes Craven's MY SOUL TO TAKE. This film centers on a kid scared that "The Burgly Monster" is coming to get him. Wait, The Burgly Monster? Is that really the main baddie's name? Yes. But our young hero Eli's chubby best friend points out the fact that it is a "horrible name for a monster" so fair enough, I guess. Anyhow, this Burgly Monster sumbitch hides in Eli's basement – more specifically in the furnace – basically making the premise of this film: What if that evil furnace from HOME ALONE really WAS evil and Kevin and his ragtag group of friends have to take it out? Works for me.

The young cast which includes Parker Smerek as Eli, Remington Gielniak as Sam, and Arielle Olkhovsky as Hillary are a solid group of young thespians. I love the fat best friend character, as he reminded me of Chunk from THE GOONIES. Other cast members include Brandon Matthew Layne as Eli's too cool for school father. The man has a charm for days… let's just move past the fact that every single bit of advice the man gives his young son is terrible. It's all good. We all make mistakes. Maria Wasikowski is just there as Eli's mother. And I'm sorry, not only did I dislike Emmanuelle Turco's performance as Eli's bitchy older sister, I disliked the character even more. For all intents and purposes, she plays the villain of the piece and I kept hoping for her to get what was coming to her. Does she? You'll have to see the movie to find out. 

Moving on to the technical side of this cinematic coin, in an interesting bit of trivia, the film opens with a screen that lets us know that the film was shot in "Exomorphic 321 Ultrawide 30:1 Aspect Ratio." What this means is the movie has extra big black bars at the top and bottom – like Quentin Tarantino's THE HATEFUL EIGHT. But I dig that kind of thing and the film's cinematography by Jan Michalik was my favorite thing about the movie. This low budget flick looks cinematic as hell! And the look complimented the slick special effects provided by Corey McCauley. The effects are pretty dam cool, especially as the movie moves into its final act and the house is besieged by what can only be called a localized Aurora Borealis. And once the main baddie is revealed I have to say that I was impressed. It kind of reminded me of the Tooth Fairy character from DARKNESS FALLS. Sure that movie as crap, but we can all agree that Stan Winston's creature was badass. But anyway, yeah, the villain here looks (somewhat) like that. 

In the end, MY SOUL TO KEEP is much more of a kid's movie than I expected it to be. Sure, there is some cussing here and there, but I really didn't see a reason that (profanity omitted) this movie couldn't have snagged a PG rating. But that's not a bad thing, I guess. I just wish my expectations were a bit more in check. This is not UNDER THE BED – or even THE MONSTER SQUAD. This is GOOSEBUMPS. This is THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS. This is a live-action version of MONSTER HOUSE. But again, this isn't a bad thing and if you have kiddos and you're looking for a new fright flick to share with them this Halloween, you could do worse than Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad and Justin Hynous' MY SOUL TO KEEP. 

The film was released on October 4, 2019, in theaters. It is also available for purchase and rental through most outlets including iTunes, Amazon Video, Redbox On Demand, Sony Playstation, Microsoft, FandangoNow, VUDU, Google Play, Comcast, Directv, Dish Network, Verizon, and more.