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My Bloody Valentine, 2009
The heir to the local mining company, Tom (Jensen Ackles) makes a fatal error one day that results in several miners being trapped in a cave in. One of the miners goes mad and kills his companion. A year later, that same miner breaks free and goes on a killing spree, including attacking Tom, his girlfriend Sarah (Jaime King), and their friends Axel (Kerr Smith) and Irene (Betsy Rue). A decade later, a disgraced Tom returns home following his father's death and the killings begin again.
I'll admit that I don't have super strong memories of the original 1981 film, and my main reaction is that this is sort of a sub-par remake with a handful of decent moments, but nothing special.
My general feeling here is that this is a film that, in trying to tell a certain story a certain way, mostly ends up shooting itself in the foot. For starters, this film was made to be viewed in 3-D, which means that there are a ton of dubious CGI moments of eyeballs, severed heads, tree branches, pickaxes, and any number of other things constantly lunging at the camera and then . . . . hanging there for a beat too long so that you can appreciate the three-dimensionality of it all!
But the problem here goes beyond the mechanics of how the film is shot. The real problem is in how the deaths progress and how our characters are developed. This is one of those slashers that wants you to question the killer's identity up to the last minute. But this means that our chief suspects (Tom and Axel) are kept very much at arm's length. Ostensibly, Sarah is our protagonist, but the film can't do anything with her except make her the center of a tug-of-war between Axel (who is now her husband) and Tom (her former flame).
And this is really what made the film fall flat for me. I won't say who is or isn't the killer, obviously. But the film works really hard to make us think it could be either man. The result of this, especially with Axel, is to create characters who are controlling, disrespectful of Sarah's autonomy as a person, possessive, deceptive, and just all around unlikable. Axel in particular is a real piece of work: cheating on his wife, loudly claiming his possession of her by yelling at Tom that she lives in "my house" and that he has sex with her. And, problematically, the film itself treats Sarah like a prize. It's a sour, repetitive, off-putting central dynamic.
This is also, for better and worse, a film that really wants you to know it's rated R. But there's something kind of, I don't know, almost self-conscious about the whole affair. As if the creators sat around like 12 year old giggling "and we get to show boobies, and we get to show a totally naked lady, like her down there, and every five minutes, someone gets a pickaxe in their face. And the F-word. Guys, we can use the F-word as much as we want." I did mildly enjoy a sequence where an angry woman chases the man who filmed her without her consent into the parking lot in the nude. A naked woman in heels and carrying a gun has a sort of Fascination-lite fun to it, but the film of course then uses lots of angles to ogle her body as she's stalked by the killer and whatever goodwill the scene earned just evaporates. (No, we don't see any nude male characters! How did you guess?!)
Performance-wise, the film is, again, fine. I'd imagine a lot of people are familiar with Ackles from his time on Supernatural, and the guy does have a certain degree of charisma. Ditto Kerr Smith. Jaime King is fine as Sarah, but she's really given so little to work with, aside from alternating between being scared and confused (and sometimes scared AND confused). Just a little more character development would have gone a long way here, but the film would rather keep you wondering who the killer is, and so most cards are held firmly to the characters' chests.
Also, this film could have used more of that sweet, sweet mine action! There's a scene at the beginning, a single sequence in the middle, and then the final showdown at the end. It's such an effective setting, and I don't understand why most of the scenes were set in the grocery store, the hospital, or the police station.
My Bloody Valentine, 2009
The heir to the local mining company, Tom (Jensen Ackles) makes a fatal error one day that results in several miners being trapped in a cave in. One of the miners goes mad and kills his companion. A year later, that same miner breaks free and goes on a killing spree, including attacking Tom, his girlfriend Sarah (Jaime King), and their friends Axel (Kerr Smith) and Irene (Betsy Rue). A decade later, a disgraced Tom returns home following his father's death and the killings begin again.
I'll admit that I don't have super strong memories of the original 1981 film, and my main reaction is that this is sort of a sub-par remake with a handful of decent moments, but nothing special.
My general feeling here is that this is a film that, in trying to tell a certain story a certain way, mostly ends up shooting itself in the foot. For starters, this film was made to be viewed in 3-D, which means that there are a ton of dubious CGI moments of eyeballs, severed heads, tree branches, pickaxes, and any number of other things constantly lunging at the camera and then . . . . hanging there for a beat too long so that you can appreciate the three-dimensionality of it all!
But the problem here goes beyond the mechanics of how the film is shot. The real problem is in how the deaths progress and how our characters are developed. This is one of those slashers that wants you to question the killer's identity up to the last minute. But this means that our chief suspects (Tom and Axel) are kept very much at arm's length. Ostensibly, Sarah is our protagonist, but the film can't do anything with her except make her the center of a tug-of-war between Axel (who is now her husband) and Tom (her former flame).
And this is really what made the film fall flat for me. I won't say who is or isn't the killer, obviously. But the film works really hard to make us think it could be either man. The result of this, especially with Axel, is to create characters who are controlling, disrespectful of Sarah's autonomy as a person, possessive, deceptive, and just all around unlikable. Axel in particular is a real piece of work: cheating on his wife, loudly claiming his possession of her by yelling at Tom that she lives in "my house" and that he has sex with her. And, problematically, the film itself treats Sarah like a prize. It's a sour, repetitive, off-putting central dynamic.
This is also, for better and worse, a film that really wants you to know it's rated R. But there's something kind of, I don't know, almost self-conscious about the whole affair. As if the creators sat around like 12 year old giggling "and we get to show boobies, and we get to show a totally naked lady, like her down there, and every five minutes, someone gets a pickaxe in their face. And the F-word. Guys, we can use the F-word as much as we want." I did mildly enjoy a sequence where an angry woman chases the man who filmed her without her consent into the parking lot in the nude. A naked woman in heels and carrying a gun has a sort of Fascination-lite fun to it, but the film of course then uses lots of angles to ogle her body as she's stalked by the killer and whatever goodwill the scene earned just evaporates. (No, we don't see any nude male characters! How did you guess?!)
Performance-wise, the film is, again, fine. I'd imagine a lot of people are familiar with Ackles from his time on Supernatural, and the guy does have a certain degree of charisma. Ditto Kerr Smith. Jaime King is fine as Sarah, but she's really given so little to work with, aside from alternating between being scared and confused (and sometimes scared AND confused). Just a little more character development would have gone a long way here, but the film would rather keep you wondering who the killer is, and so most cards are held firmly to the characters' chests.
Also, this film could have used more of that sweet, sweet mine action! There's a scene at the beginning, a single sequence in the middle, and then the final showdown at the end. It's such an effective setting, and I don't understand why most of the scenes were set in the grocery store, the hospital, or the police station.