Unmasking the Truth: My Bloody Valentine 15 Years Later
On the 16th of January 2009, the remake of My Bloody Valentine was released. The horror movie follows a man returning to his home town on the tenth anniversary of a Valentine’s night massacre. However, his homecoming isn’t as pleasant as he would have liked. The whole town believes he was behind the murders and now the murderer has returned, he must prove his innocence.
Today I am looking at how the movie was received at the time of release, and whether it is one to watch today. Along with the typical look through the cast and careers in the years following on.
15 Years Later: My Bloody Valentine
Remake Era
In the mid-2000s Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon of remaking older horror movies. Some like ‘House of Wax’, ‘The Crazies’, and ‘Stepfather’ which didn’t find the biggest success upon first release. However, Hollywood decides to remake some of the biggest franchises too. ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘Halloween’, ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Dawn of the Dead’ led the charge.
3D Success or Failure
From the first eye-popping moment, My Bloody Valentine jumped at the opportunity to utilise the 3D gimmick. It is a gimmick which hasn’t always worked and, personally, I’m not too fond of the idea. I find 3D nauseating and also believe it doesn’t work to the best effect when you are colourblind. While I personally don’t like 3D, the movie does seem to benefit from the gimmick of throwing weapons at the screen.
Blood and Gore
My Bloody Valentine isn’t a movie to shies away from the graphic bloody kills. From the opening bloodbath in the hospital to the first encounter with the miner. Patrick Lussier has never been afraid to put as much blood and gore into his movies. Along with his previous work with Horror legend Wes Craven. There are brutal kills, and the practical effects team did an unbelievable job.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the movie received countless complaints about the violence involved leading to many people wanting the movie banned. Despite the movie carrying the highest rating a cinematic movie could receive.
A Brave Twist (Spoilers Included Here)
When it comes to the identity of the killer, the remake does something drastically different. In the original, Axel is revealed to the killer due to his connection to the original killer Harry Warden. However, in the remake, Axel is convinced the returning Tom is behind the murders. However, the movie does an extremely creative job at portraying him as a paranoid character. He has been cheating on his wife, the lead Sarah pointing every possible finger away from Tom having anything to do with what is happening.
However, this takes a twist which many people complained about because at first glance it seems strange. It is revealed that Tom is the killer and it throws everything we would normally imagine seeing from a slasher out the window. By doing this, we make the seemingly nice guy returning to his home town the killer. While the asshole cheating husband is the one who sees the biggest danger. Most horrors would never dare change the dynamics of the basic character design. As well as having the typically heroic Supernatural star being a sudden villain.
Critical Response
My Bloody Valentine has a ‘Fresh’ Rating of 62% from 110 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Which might only be 4% higher than the original, which gives the movie a feeling it could be considered on a par with the original. Most of the reviews are heavily commenting on the 3D aspect of the movie.
Wendy Ide’s ‘Rotten’ rated review quotes ‘The only reason to see this fairly average horror is its playful use of 3-D technology. Flinch as sharp objects hurtle out of the screen directly towards your eyes; wince as a supporting cast member gets her head sliced in half by a spade.’
Joe Leydon’s ‘Fresh’ rated review quotes ‘Director and co-editor Lussier (a frequent Wes Craven collaborator) plays the 3-D gimmick for all its worth.’
On Metacritic, My Bloody Valentine has only 11 reviews with a rating of 51. Only 2 are positive, while 2 are negative, however, the majority are mixed.
Box Office
My Bloody Valentine was produced on a budget of $14 Million and went on to make over $100 Million in the worldwide Box Office. It got beaten out by other horror movies including ‘The Final Destination’, and ’Paranormal Activity’. While being on a par with ‘Zombieland’. But considering not a single horror movie made over $200 Million this year. It must be considered a big box office success.
Cast
My Bloody Valentine is led by ‘Supernatural’ heartthrob Jensen Ackles. Jensen has had a career dominated by television performances and voice work. It felt like this was an attempt to do something different, but he never got any more big breaks.
Jaime King takes the female leading role and her career has been sprinkled with supporting roles. I first saw her in ‘Happy Campers’ back in 2001. Her most famous roles include ‘Bulletproof Monk’, ‘White Chicks’ and ‘Sin City’.
Kerr Smith has spent most of his career in television, with his most famous other horror movie coming in 2000, ‘Final Destination’. You will also see earlier roles for Edi Gathegi and Megan Boone. They both went on to have successful television careers. Megan is in ‘The Blacklist’ and Edi is currently seen ‘For All Mankind’. The main cast is rounded off by horror icon Tom Atkins, who has appeared in countless horror movies throughout the years.
In Conclusion
My Bloody Valentine is one of the better remakes, it improves on the original and doesn’t hold back on the violent nature of slasher movies. The practical effects team deserve a lot of praise for their incredible work. To make things better, despite the large box office return, we never got a forced sequel, and it proved 3D could work in the right environment. Never overusing the concept, which other movies have forced upon us. All this as Tom actually survives and escapes, ready to return one day.
Where to Watch Now?
JustWatch
What did you think of My Bloody Valentine?
