Though never a landmark in the slasher subgenre, the Canadian-made My Bloody Valentine (1981) was a favorite among gorehounds for its plentiful scenes of bloodshed; the 2009 remake sticks closely to the original in this respect, and ups the gross factor by rendering many of them in impressive 3-D. The core plot, penned by Todd Farmer and Zane Smith, remains essentially the same–a series of gruesome murders appears to be linked to a terrible mine accident from two decades ago–but just as with the original, it’s largely just a framework on which to string the carnage set pieces, which are splattery enough to please even the most jaded Saw or Hostel fanatic. The Real-D effects deliver the required degree of heart-stopping jumps without the usual eye strain, and if one can snicker away old standbys like a tree branch crashing through a windshield, one has to admire the chutzpah of presenting actress Betsey Rue’s pursuit of a wayward bed partner while fully naked and tot [Read More...]
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This horror fan had a blast with the remake of 1981’s My Bloody Valentine. Go check out the new uncut version of the original. Talk about added “lost” footage making a decent slasher flick really, really good. Back to the 2009 MBV. The cast is pretty good (lots of people you might recognize, but no big names), the dialogue is a little better than your average slasher and most of all the kills are very creative, with the gore taken to the extreme at times. The miner is an intimidating killer and looks scary, but sadly the movie really isn’t (just some minor suspense moments). Oh, I almost forgot to mention that there are a few hot chicks and one of them runs around buck naked for nearly 5 minutes in 3-D. This flick is just sounding better and better right?
The digital 3-D presentation is a must for horror fans. The picture is crystal clear and it gives the film so much depth you really feel like you are part of the story. If buckets of blood, body parts and one mean pickaxe flying at you sounds like a good time, then go see this one before it leaves theaters. Now the regular 2-D version might be a different story.
Just to let some of you know, the DVD and Blu-ray version won’t be digital 3-D like in theaters (can’t wait until they perfect that), so you will get four multi-colored glasses for regular 3-D. You will also have the option of just watching it in 2-D.
I’m rating this four stars as a theatrical experience alone. 3-D technology looks great here and although at times used shamelessly, it is also used to control atmosphere and build suspense. My Bloody Valentine is a remake of a mediocre 1981 slasher film. This one probably deserves a two or three star rating without the 3-D, so the impact of the visuals alone was pretty substantial in my view. I get the impression we will see much more from 3-D in the near future.
For those who don’t know, this is a slasher film so we get all kinds of body parts flying at us throughout the film. I literally felt like I may have got some blood sprayed on me while watching, so take that for it is. I laughed and was thoroughly entertained from beginning to end. There was even plenty of nudity in an attempt to harken back to slasher movies of yesteryear. The nudity was so gratuitous I had to believe they were joking. The actress was literally full body naked for five or so minutes onscreen. I’m oddly pleased to see the film not earn an NC-17 rating for that but I’m not sure what else there is to say. It is what it is I suppose. Two years ago the film would not have made it through with an R. Three cheers for Kirby Dick!
My Bloody Valentine follows a group of friends living in a small mining town that experiences several violent tragedies; including a cave-in followed by the loan survivor being accused of killing everyone else, a massive killing spree after that, and then another killing spree ten years later. The latter of those events making up most of the film we see here. There is very little attempt to make the story or events believable but this is exploitation horror we are talking about here. Not to say that makes it somehow forgiveable, just that those are typically the expectations. To actually credit some of the actors and perhaps even the writers, I actually cared about the scooby-doo-esque kind of ending by the time we got there.
Anyway, amazing effects here, and a whole new level of 3-D visuals. If that sounds good to you see it in the theater before it’s gone. If you miss it, let’s all keep our fingers crossed that we get some good 3-D technology for our home cinemas.
For those of you wondering how the DVD would carry over from the theater, dont fear…obviously the technology doesn’t exist to make the crystal clear 3d image that you saw in theaters, but for the most part I felt that the 3-d in the DVD was fairly solid…I will say that I do have a LCD flat screen HDTV so that obviously helps…not sure how it would look on standard tube sets…the branch scene, the pick axe and the bullet scene were the most notable jump scenes from the movie…overall not a bad movie in its own right, fairly solid for a scary movie, and a pretty good ending…I do think that the 3-d did ultimately save this movie though