by Lou Vailant

Created on: June 23, 2009

Title: My Bloody Valentine
Release Date: January 16, 2009
Director: Patrick Lussier
Film Studio: Lionsgate
MPAA Rating: R for Graphic Brutal Horror Violence and Grisly Images Throughout, Some Strong Sexuality, Graphic Nudity and Language

The movie starts with a breakdown of the past events surrounding the town of Harmony and the productive Hanniger mines. Tom Hanniger is the son of the mines' owner and the catalyst behind a cave in which resulted in the entrapment of eight miners. Six died while Tom and one other miner, Harry Warden, survived. It is discovered that the miners did not die from the collapse, but rather from the blows of Warden's pickaxe. Following this introductory news footage, Warden awakes from a coma and proceeds to murder a total of 22 people in one night, St. Valentine's Day. The then sheriff shoots and presumably fatally wounds Warden in the same tunnel that had once been his captor. He is buried and forgotten. On the ten year anniversary of his Valentine's Day massacre, Warden returns and continues what he started.

"My Bloody Valentine" was released in 3D in select theaters. I was not lucky enough to catch it in theaters because I was at college during its running, but I did purchase the DVD which has both the 3D and 2D versions on it. Unfortunately, the 3D disc is not only insufficient in showing the full feel of the 3D experience, it is blurry and at some points almost visually indistinguishable. Upon watching the 2D version, however, I was much more satisfied.

"My Bloody Valentine" is a great modern slasher with very few, minor setbacks. The story is creative, the camera angles are excellent, and the action is great. Unlike many movies these days which are highly predictable, "My Bloody Valentine" kept me glued to my seat questioning myself over and over. Overall, it is a fantastic attempt. The only setback I found was that upon first viewing the story and character relationships can get very confusing if the viewer does not pay undivided attention to detail. It took two viewings for me to get everything from it, but it was just as entertaining the second time. The greatest aspect of the movie was that the story was not sacrificed in order to gain action sequences. The plot was the most important part of the movie, as it should be. The computer generated gore was excellent also. In a world of over generated or poorly generated graphics, the kills were graphically beautiful as well as realistic. Many slasher movies, especially those of recent years, lack uniqueness. Each kill seemed not only appropriate, but amazingly fresh. These sequences, along with the story and the picture's presentation contributed to its high score. Aside from the quickly and sometimes insufficiently explained details, along with some poor acting by the older sheriff solely, the movie is a standout success in my opinion. This is the freshest horror movie I have seen in a long time. In a world seemingly overrun by remakes, Hollywood could use more movies such as this one which aim primarily at producing a quality movie rather than simply one that will sell. Money overruns loyalty in today's movie production, but "My Bloody Valentine" stayed true to horror tradition and any horror movie fan will be greatly entertained by this movie.

Rating: A-
Appropriate for children: No

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