My Bloody Valentine 3D

My Bloody Valentine 3D
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Patrick Lussier
Produced by	Jack L. Murray
Screenplay by	Zane Smith Todd Farmer John Beaird (1981 screenplay)
Story by	Stephen Miller (1981 story)
Starring	Jensen Ackles Jaime King Kerr Smith Betsy Rue Kevin Tighe
Music by	Michael Wandmacher
Cinematography	Brian Pearson
Editing by	Patrick Lussier Cynthia Ludwig
Studio	Lionsgate
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release date(s)	January 16, 2009 (2009-01-16)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	Canada United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$100,734,718

My Bloody Valentine 3D is a 2009 American horror film, and a remake of the 1981 Canadian slasher film of the same name. The film was directed and edited by Patrick Lussier, and stars Jensen Ackles and Jaime King. The film had a 3D theatrical release;^[1] It was released on January 16, 2009 by Lionsgate to generally mixed reviews. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 19, 2009.

Plot

Ten years ago, a cave-in on the north side of a mine trapped six miners. Six days later, rescue teams found five dead miners and the comatose Harry Warden (Richard John Walters), who survived by killing the other miners with a pickaxe. Tom Hanniger, the mine owner's son, was blamed for the mine disaster because he forgot to vent the methane lines.

The following year on Valentine's Day, Warden wakes from his coma and kills many people. At the abandoned mineshaft that was the site of the disaster, a party is in full swing, attended by many teens, including Axel Palmer (Kerr Smith), his girlfriend, Irene (Betsy Rue), Tom Hanniger (Jensen Ackles), and his girlfriend, Sarah (Jaime King). Sarah goes in alone and gets lost looking for Axel and Irene. She runs across a teen and a few seconds later he is killed. She is confronted by Warden in full miner's garb, carrying a bloody pickaxe, and she flees. Axel grabs her and they, along with Irene, hide from the killer. Warden eventually sees the trio, and they run out of the mine, meeting Tom as he comes in. The killer hits Tom with the pickaxe, injuring him, while the other three run for the car and leave Tom behind. Tom runs back into the mine in an attempt to escape Warden. Before Tom can be killed, the police arrive and shoot Warden, who makes his getaway back into the mine.

Ten years later, Tom's father, from whom Tom has been estranged, dies and Tom inherits the mine. Tom returns to town after his father's funeral to sell the mine. Axel is now sheriff and married to Sarah, but he is cheating on her with Megan (Megan Boone), who works with Sarah at Sarah's grocery store. After Megan and Axel have sex at his family's old house in the woods, Megan tells Axel that she is pregnant with his child.

Meanwhile, at the motel where Tom is staying, Irene, the motel owner (Selene Luna) and a trucker (Todd Farmer) are murdered. Later, Tom visits his newly inherited mine. In the mine, Warden appears and forces Tom into a cage; Warden bends the metal latch on the door, making Tom's escape impossible. Warden then murders William "Red" Kirkpatrick (Jeff Hochendoner) the miner who was accompanying Tom. Before the rest of the mining crew arrive, Warden flees, and suspicion falls on Tom, despite the fact that he was locked in a cage the entire time. Axel then asks Jim Burke (Tom Atkins), the retired sheriff what happened to Warden. The retired sheriff says that he and Ben Foley (Kevin Tighe), the mine manager killed and buried Warden, but when Axel, Tom, and Sarah go to the burial spot, Warden's body is no longer there.

Next, Ben Foley and Megan are killed. The killer than goes to Axel's house and kills Axel's son's baby-sitter Rosa (Joy de la Paz) and Jim Burke who was trying to catch him. Tom tries to take Sarah to Axel's house in the woods to convince her that Axel is the killer. Axel calls Sarah while she and Tom are on the road; Axel tells her that Tom has been in a mental hospital and is the killer. Sarah crashes Tom's car and makes her way to Axel's old homestead. She is chased by the killer all the way to the mine. Sarah goes into the shaft where the original murders took place. She is joined by Tom and Axel, and, after a brief stand off between the men, Axel and Sarah realize that Tom is delusional. A montage then plays out all the murders in the film again, revealing Tom to be the killer. Tom committed the murder in the mine, then locked himself in the cage, hallucinating Warden as his nemesis. Sarah shoots a tank and causes an explosion, triggering a partial cave-in. She and Axel escape, believing Tom to be dead. A rescue team enters the mine to look for survivors, but Tom kills a rescue worker and escapes the scene dressed in that worker's uniform.

Cast

• Jensen Ackles as Tom J. Hanniger
• Jaime King as Sarah Palmer
• Kerr Smith as Axel Palmer
• Betsy Rue as Irene Donnely
• Edi Gathegi as Deputy Martin
• Tom Atkins as James "Jim" Burke
• Kevin Tighe as Ben Foley
• Megan Boone as Megan
• Karen Baum as Deputy Ferris
• Joy de la Paz as Rosa
• Marc Macaulay as Marc Riggs
• Todd Farmer as Frank the Trucker
• Selene Luna as Selene
• Jeff Hochendoner as William "Red" Kirkpatrick
• Richard John Walters as Harry Warden

Production

The film was shot in South Western Pennsylvania, taking advantage of the state's tax incentives for film productions as well as the topographical and architectural versatility of the Pittsburgh Metro area. Filming began on May 11, 2008 in Armstrong County along the Route 28 corridor, in locations including Sprankle's Market in Kittanning, the Ford City police station, and the exterior of the Logansport Mine in Bethel.^[2] Kittanning served as main street in the film's fictional town of Harmony. The production spent 13 days filming scenes in the Tour-Ed Mines in the Pittsburgh suburb of Tarentum, a mine that has been out of production since the 1960s and now operates as a museum.^[3]

The inside of Valliant's Diner in Ross Township was used as a location for one scene,^[4] and a house on Hulton Road in Oakmont, a suburb of Pittsburgh, was also used as a location.^[5]

The film was shot entirely digitally in 4K resolution. The filmmakers used the Red One from Red Digital Cinema Camera Company, and the SI-2K Digital Cinema Camera by Silicon Imaging as digital cameras. Max Penner, the film’s stereographer, found these lighter and smaller cameras easier to use.^[6]

3D aspect

My Bloody Valentine is the first R-rated film to be projected in Real D technology and to have a wide release (1,000 locations) in 3D–enabled theaters.^[7][8] The film was also available in 2D for theaters that are not equipped to process digital 3D technology.

Reception

The film has received generally mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 57% of 86 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.7 out of 10.^[9] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 51 based on 11 reviews.^[10]

Joe Leydon of Variety said, "director and co-editor Lussier (a frequent Wes Craven collaborator) plays the 3-D gimmick for all it’s worth: Everything from tree branches and gun barrels to bloody pickaxes and bloodier body parts appears to jump off the screen. He also makes effective use of the depth-of-field illusion, allowing audiences long views of various chest cavities from which hearts have been rudely ripped. At the very least, the overall tech package is a great deal more impactful than that of the 3-D-lensed “Friday the 13th Part III” (1982)". He added, in spite of the "state-of-the-art 3-D camera trickery, which helmer Patrick Lussier shamelessly exploits to goose the audience with cheap thrills and full-bore gore, My Bloody Valentine is at heart an unabashedly retro work, reveling in the cliches and conventions of the slasher horror pics that proliferated in the early 1980s".^[11]

Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times said, the implemented 3-D technology enables "startling effects, but after a while the minor thrill of the trick is gone. Advances in digital technology have allowed the filmmakers to largely avoid the physical headaches that are perhaps the biggest hallmark of the cyclical attempts at 3-D moviemaking". He added, "wooden performances by forgettable, generic actors -- again, just like in the original -- don't aid in making things any less leaden" and My Bloody Valentine 3-D is "just good enough to not be annoying".^[12]

Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times said, "the creaky screenplay (by Todd Farmer and Zane Smith) is mercilessly at odds with the director's fine sense of pacing. From the moment you duck a flying mandible and gaze, mesmerized, at a severed hand oozing two inches from your nose, you'll be convinced that the extra dimension was worth seeking out. A strange synergy of old and new, My Bloody Valentine 3D blends cutting-edge technology and old-school prosthetics to produce something both familiar and alien: gore you can believe in".^[13]

Clark Collis of Entertainment Weekly grades the film a C+ and says that it "starts in spectacular fashion. But what really leaps out at you about My Bloody Valentine 3-D is its lack of imagination".^[14] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter said, "While the concept of adding 3-D to the horror genre is hardly new ... Patrick Lussier's film is the most accomplished example. The 3-D effects come fast and furious, rendered with a technical skill and humor that gives this otherwise strictly formulaic slasher picture whatever entertainment value it possesses." He adds, "the three leads actually manage to invest their roles with some depth, but the real acting treats come courtesy of veteran character actors Kevin Tighe and Atkins, whose presence provides a comforting bridge to horror films past. Special mention must also be made of supporting actress Betsy Rue, a real trouper who treats the target male audience to one of the longest and most unabashedly gratuitous full-frontal nude scenes in horror film history".^[15]

Box office

On its 4-day opening weekend, the film grossed $24.1 million, ranking #3 for the weekend, behind Gran Torino at #2, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop at #1.^[16] In its second weekend, the movie grossed estimated $10.1 million, ranking number 6 at the domestic box office.^[17] The film has grossed $51,545,952 in the United States and Canada, and $49,188,766 in other markets for a worldwide total of $100,734,718.^[18]

Home media

My Bloody Valentine 3D was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 19, 2009 and has grossed in excess of $19.7 million^[19] with DVD sales and theater gross revenue totaling over $119.9 million.

Both home release versions have both a standard 2D version and the 3D version on the same disc using seamless branching.^[20] However, a special Blu-ray version was also created specifically for online rental chains like Netflix and Blockbuster.^{[citation needed]}

On October 5, 2010, Lionsgate Home Entertainment released My Bloody Valentine 3D on Blu-ray 3D which requires a 3D-capable HDTV, 3D Blu-ray player and 3D glasses. The disc also includes a 2D version of the film and all bonus materials included in the 2D Blu-ray version released after the film's initial theater run.

References

1. ^ 'My Bloody Valentine' Moves Dates, Goes 3-D!
2. ^ Fryer, Mitch (April 30, 2008). "Producers, crew scout area for horror film". Leader Times. Retrieved on January 14, 2008.
3. ^ Owen, Rob (June 17, 2008). "Film production mines Tour-Ed's realistic setting". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved on January 14, 2008.
4. ^ Morgan, Kyle (July 12, 2010. "About Valliant's Diner". Valliant's Diner. Retrieved on July 12, 2010.
5. ^ Usher, Holly (May 22, 2008). "Horror flick to be filmed at house on Hulton Road". YourTwinBoros. Retrieved on January 14, 2008.
6. ^ Willmetts, Geoff (January 7, 2009). "Will you enter the horror dimension?". SFCrowsnest.com. Retrieved on January 28, 2008.
7. ^ "Movies". Los Angeles Times. 2009-01-11. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-list-movies11-2009jan11,0,4953295.story. Retrieved 2009-01-21. ^{[dead link]}
8. ^ Murph, Darren (January 25, 2009). "My Bloody Valentine 3D grosses way more in 3D than 2D". Engadget (AOL). http://hd.engadget.com/2009/01/25/my-bloody-valentine-3d-seen-six-times-more-in-3d-than-2d/. Retrieved December 1, 2010. 
9. ^ "My Bloody Valentine (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_bloody_valentine_3_d/. Retrieved 2011-07-21. 
10. ^ "My Bloody Valentine 3-D (2009): Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/mybloodyv. Retrieved 2009-01-26. 
11. ^ Leydon, Joe (January 16, 2009). "My Bloody Valentine". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939353.html?categoryid=31&cs=1. Retrieved January 26-2009. 
12. ^ Olsen, Mark (January 17, 2009). "Review: 'My Bloody Valentine 3-D'". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-mybloodyvalentine17-2009jan17,0,1617827.story. Retrieved January 26, 2009. 
13. ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (January 17, 2009). "Watch Out for That Pickax; It’s Hurtling From the Screen". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/movies/17vale.html?ref=movies&pagewanted=print. Retrieved January 26-2009. 
14. ^ Collis, Clark (January 21, 2009). "Movie Review My Bloody Valentine 3-D (2009)". Entertainment Weekley. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20253942,00.html. Retrieved January 27-2009. 
15. ^ Scheck, Frank (January 18, 2009). "Film Review: My Bloody Valentine 3-D". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/film-review-my-bloody-valentine-3-d-1003931676.story. Retrieved January 27-2009. 
16. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results from January 16–19, 2009". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2009&wknd=003&p=.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-18. 
17. ^ McClintock, Pamela (January 25, 2009). "'Mall Cop' still tops at box office". Variety. http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117999033.html?nav=news&categoryid=1982&cs=1. Retrieved January 26, 2009. 
18. ^ "My Bloody Valentine 3-D (2009)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mybloodyvalentine09.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-13. 
19. ^ "The Numbers". http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2009/MBVAL-DVD.php. 
20. ^ "High-Def Digest". http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/2158/mybloodyvalentine2009.html. 

External links

• Official website
• My Bloody Valentine 3D at the Internet Movie Database
• My Bloody Valentine 3D at AllRovi
• My Bloody Valentine 3D at Rotten Tomatoes
• My Bloody Valentine 3D at Metacritic
• My Bloody Valentine 3D at Box Office Mojo