by Manny The Movie Guy

Created on: January 16, 2009

From the 1953 classic chiller "House of Wax" to the 1982slasher "Friday the 13thPart III," Hollywood has relied on 3-Dtechnology to heighten shock and suspense.The primeval nature of the horror genre is synonymous with thestereoscopic visuals.
So when I heard Lionsgate was releasing a 3-D reimagining ofthe 1981 horror flick "My Bloody Valentine," I was excited.I was, and still am, a fan of the genre, andI specially liked the original film which Quentin Tarantino called "the bestslasher movie of all time."

The good news about the new flick?Because of the film's 3-D technology, it isbigger in cinematic scope.But dazzlingstereographic technology also means more blood and more nudity, with a littleless attention focused on coherence.

But I suspect the film's target audience will not mind.Give them blood and ample nudity, and theywill come back over and over again.
For those familiar with the original 1981 film, the new "MyBloody Valentine 3-D" has the same narrative structure.Ten years ago, a tragedy changed the town of ....Harmony.... forever.
An inexperienced coal miner caused an accident in thetunnels that trapped and killed five men and sent the only survivor, HarryWarden (Richard John Walters) into a permanent coma.
But a year later on Valentine's day, Warden woke up andbrutally murdered twenty-two people with a pickaxe.Ouch!According to the town's lore, Warden was killed.Or was he?
Ten years later, someone is killing Harmony residentsagain.This unstoppable killer has thesame neurotic penchant for using pickaxe as his weapon of choice and fordressing up like a miner.
Everyone's a suspect.Is the killer Tom Hanniger (Jensen Ackles), the son of the owner of themine who's been missing for ten years?Or is it Axel Palmer (Kerr Smith), the town sheriff who holds a grudgeagainst Hanniger?Adding insult toinjury, Palmer is now married to Hanniger's former girlfriend, Sarah (JamieKing).
Now, a love triangle is formed, and their Valentine's daypromises to be very bloody.
Director Patrick Lussier ("Dracula 2000"), working from ascript by Todd Farmer ("The Messengers") and Zane Smith, uses horror genre conventionsto tell his story the damsel in distress and the indestructible serialkiller.
But I did like that the damsel is now empowered and doesn'thave to wait for her knight in shining armor to save her.Our heroine is not just a scream queenanymore.
I was complaining early on about the film's nudity.But the one scene involving gratuitousfull-frontal female nudity is actually one of the movie's most terrifyingmoments.
I also liked the film's whodunit structure, but the journeytowards guessing the killer, specially the middle part of the film, lags.In their efforts to hide the killer'sidentity, Lussier and company sacrificed dramatic structure.The result is a muddled second half that usesobligatory flashback scenes to tell the story.
The acting ensemble is fine given the film's by-the-numberspremise.But I would be lying if I toldyou I didn't close my eyes in terror a number of times.I hate the term "it is what it is" but thefilmmakers made a slasher flick they sought out to do.
"My Bloody Valentine 3-D" is scary, bloody, and oddlysexy.Sex and gore in 3-D!Our moviegoing habit hasn't changed one bit.
And for that, "My Bloody Valentine 3-D" gets 2 slasherkisses

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