Review of My Bloody Valentine (2009) by Filipeneto — 15 Oct 2020

I saw this movie recently and I was not impressed. I honestly expected more, even though I already knew that a slasher film rarely turns out to be a really good film. Much has been said about 3D... well, I'm not a fan of this technology, I still prefer the film for what it is and I think that 3D is not necessary for a good film. It may even be something that distracts us and prevents us from perceiving other qualities present in the film.

Everything is happening in the small town of Harmony, a small mining community that lives grouped around an important mine where an accident, many years ago, left a number of miners trapped. Only one survived, Harry Warden, who will have gone mad and killed his colleagues, as well as others. Decades later, and on the occasion of the return to the city of Tom, allegedly responsible for the error that caused the accident, the deaths start again in a brutal way, and that can put Valentine's Day celebrations at risk.

This film is the remake of a much older film made in the Eighties. Directed by Patrick Lussier it was certainly a good bet as a remake and there are qualities to highlight: to begin with, the fact of taking risks and daring to do different things, something that horror films nowadays have a hard time achieving: this is the case with the scenes frontal female nudity, something I don't remember seeing in terror for a long time. The mining environment is an unusual option in a horror movie, but it works very well: the mine will be the ideal stage for the killing, loaded with intense gore scenes and a wide range of deaths. Unfortunately, the film disgusts more than it scares and fails to build a tense environment.

The cast is quite weak, in my opinion, so I would highlight only the positive performance of Jensen Ackles and Kerr Smith, in rival roles due to the attraction for the same woman, played by Jaime King, also quite satisfactory in her role. The rest is, in practice, average or even weak.

Technically, it is a fairly regular film, if we remove the 3D effects: cinematography is well accomplished, adapting well to the variations in light and color, which were also very well done. The sets and costumes look realistic, although I will never understand why the miners in that mine wear a suit that looks like chemical warfare. The soundtrack is not particularly happy, but it does. The great technical aspect to be valued, in addition to the visual effects and the excellent and realistic gore, are the 3D effects, sometimes so obvious that even without glasses we perceive them (the paradigmatic case is the objects flying towards the camera). But as I said, I don't particularly appreciate 3D.