When I was a kid I remember watching the original My Bloody Valentine on VHS. Nothing really stood out about it other than the somewhat iconic image of the miners mask. The kills in the movie were always cut away from before you could really see anything so it wasn’t much to write home about. So when I heard about the remake I thought they finally found a movie they could improve upon and I was right!
My Bloody Valentine is a fun, scary, and bloody ride that blew me away in 3D! I can’t remember when I had more fun watching a horror movie in a theatre. The storyline has been changed quite a bit from the original. The story starts off when a mine collapse that buries several men in the mine. Only 1 survives named Harry Warden who is hospitalized from his injuries. The blame for the cave in is aimed at Tom Hanniger played by Jensen Ackles of the TV series Supernatural. For some reason workers from the mine and lots of kids decide to have a party at the mine even though this tragedy recently happened there. Harry Warden promptly escapes from the hospital and shows up at the mine to slaughter the revellers in true splatter fashion. He’s eventually stopped while trying to kill Tom Hanniger when the Sheriff shoots him several times. Harry manages to run into the mine and get away. The film then jumps to 10 years later when Tom Hanniger returns to the town to sell the mine and close it down. Tom’s girlfriend has moved on and married the Axel, one of Toms rivals from 10 years ago.
As soon as Tom returns the murders start up again and it seems that Harry Warden has returned to punish the town. There’s some amazing kills here and once scene in particular that features a fully naked woman being stalked by the killer for a good 10 minutes of screen time. There were times I was really surprised by how much gore and nudity they seemed to get away with for an R rated movie! The 3D is put to bloody good use here as well. The kills really take advantage of putting that action right in your lap!
The movie really does an excellent job at balancing itself. It never goes to silly and never takes itself too seriously either. Its funny at times, scary at others and bloody as hell all the way! Director Patrick Lussier has redeemed himself after languishing it direct to DVD hell since the mediocre Dracula 2000 films. He’s managed to make a very exciting and fun movie! The story does offer a pretty decent twist of an ending and really just left me wanting more when the lights came up.
What I really like about this film is it has taken the concept of 80’s slasher films and made it really fun and scary! I felt like a kid watching this movie! I grew up watching 80’s slasher films and loved them even though the plots were awful and the acting was bad. In the 90’s we had a resugence of slasher films but they were self referential and satires of the 80’s films. Today we’re seeing a return to the 80’s style slasher but with a more serious take and much better acting and production values. This year alone we have 3 memorable Horror icons from the 80’s coming back to audiences. My Bloody Valentine has set the bar pretty high for The Upcoming Friday the 13th remake and Halloween 2. I really hope this trend continues for awhile.
If you are a horror fan and a child of the 80’s your going to love this movie! Go see it now while you can in bloody 3D!!
4.5 out of 5
