10 Horror Movies With Scooby Doo Plots

5. My Soul To Take

urban legend poster
Rogue Pictures

16 years after Abel Plankov, aka The Riverton Ripper, went on the rampage in their hometown, a group of teenagers gather by the river and wait for his ghost to appear. It’s a sign of how by-the-numbers My Soul To Take is that, moments after the Ripper’s tale has been told around the campfire, a prankster in a costume jumps out to scare everyone. This old wheeze also appeared in Scooby Doo Camp Scare, released the same year.

One by one, they’re knocked off by a killer in a Ripper costume who may (or may not) be Bug (Max Thieriot, from Bates Motel), a teen so troubled that even he doesn’t know if he’s ever been in a sanitarium. He also doesn’t know who his father is, but if you’ve seen Wes Craven’s Shocker, you already know the answer to that one.

Come the finale, the killer turns out to be neither Bug nor the original Ripper but Alex, Bug’s high school buddy, who’s been dressing up as a dead serial killer for some reason or other. He gets the usual Talking Villain scene, where he explains his motives at great length, then chases our hero around the room. Ho hum. 

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Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'