“Roses are red, Violets are Blue, They’ll need dental records to identify you.”
Dorothy Wheeler- Valentine
I Remember seeing My Bloody Valentine in the theaters and thinking it wasn’t terrible. It was in 3D, and even though I’m not a huge fan of the gimmick, I thought seeing a horror film in 3D might be fun. It didn’t make a huge difference. Rewatching it at home without the benefit of 3D made it even worse.
The movie has some great young leads and a few veteran horror actors. While the cast is talented, no one steals the show. Jamie King and Jensen Ackles are given little opportunity to stretch their performances past the normal silly horror movie tropes.
Even with 3D technology, the budget was only $14 million. Director Patrick Lussier does a great job stretching that money and making the most out of it. The deaths are creative and fun. The killer has a great mask and uses a pickax as his murder weapon of choice. The tension is well-paced right up until the end.
The end. That’s where it all falls apart. Instead of having a Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees style killer, the script calls for a Scream-esq reveal. The reveal is so stupid it completely ruins the film. The way the film handles mental illness is extremely tone-deaf. I would expect that from a film in the 80s but not 2009.
For the majority of the film, I enjoyed it. The deaths are surprising and unique. The acting isn’t great, but it’s not terrible. Lussier’s direction is tight, and the pace is great. The 3D elements are cheesy, and watching them from home does nothing for it. If the ending was tighter and the script didn’t make mental illness the real villain, I would have loved this movie.
