movie review!
My Bloody Valentine, 3-D!
I'm so damn glad to see an American horror film with American gore! *feels patriotic* Seriously, I am pretty sick and tired of seeing gelded American 'interpretations' of Asian horror films. Man, one or two, maybe, but the bazillion that's been floating around? Not at all entertaining, since the Japanese horror films they're copying sucked to begin with.
How did horror genre suddenly become mainstream entertainment equal to an Adam Sandler flick? Three reasons: greed, the PG-13 rating, and Scream. The industry realized that if they toned down certain aspects of horror, then they basically have a cash cow they could milk for all its worth. So, predictably, that was exactly what they did. Scream was a great little flick. It struck just the right balance of pop-culture references, horror, and self-effacing realizations. However, toss in greed then what you have are films that are overflowing with pop-culture jargons, some dumbass dialogues and (for reasons I don't get) rap music or some third-rate techno metal-wannabe bands cranking out ear-bleeding songs. What gets sacrificed? The horror part of horror film.
So, continuing with the predictability theme, there was a 'revolution'. Saw heralded this and I must admit I liked that film, but not the 243 sequels that followed. Eli Roth's Cabin Fever was awesome. All the rest he managed to get his little fingers on? Blargh. And it didn't take long for people to figure out why they weren't into the sequels: because they were torture porn. Even horror fans have a limit, and they have extremely low tolerance for the same bullshit repackaged over and over, so the revolution to the 'revolution' came pretty damn quickly.
Which resulted in My Bloody Valentine, 3-D. This is a complete throwback to the days of 80's slasher flicks, and that includes the violence. The way that the killer dispatches is so over the top, it's cheesy. Entertaining? Yes. Scary? Yeah, I guess. But people are so ready to be grossed out and horrified, that what's going on in their heads is great deal scarier than what's taking place on the screen. So, how to throw a curve ball that the audience can't duck? THREE-D! This technology has become pretty damn awesome, and My Bloody Valentine, 3-D shows a great sense of combining the 3-D aspect with good old fashioned horror, to give to the audience a thrill ride. I was completely taken back by the 3-D part that the gore on the screen took second place in my mind as I tried to digest what was happening. Seriously, it was like 'the girl's head gets halved, but oh man ... look at the depth of the mine, that's just so cool ... it feels like ... oh, there goes half her head.' I'm not being facetious here. Cars feel like they're going to drive off the screen and onto the aisles. The trees and bushes feel like they are surrounding you, and yes, when the killer raises his pick-ax, you'll flinch just because it's that good.
My Bloody Valentine, 3-D won't become an instant classic like 28 Days Later. Like its predecessors, its script is serviceable at best. But what it does is give horror back to the genre without making it its bitch. For that alone I'd recommend My Bloody Valentine, 3-D.
That and Jensen Ackles. Shirtless. Looking appropriately tortured. Confused. Dropping the f-bomb in every other sentence. You just knew he was loving the fact that he could say 'fuck' whenever he damn well pleased.
I'm so damn glad to see an American horror film with American gore! *feels patriotic* Seriously, I am pretty sick and tired of seeing gelded American 'interpretations' of Asian horror films. Man, one or two, maybe, but the bazillion that's been floating around? Not at all entertaining, since the Japanese horror films they're copying sucked to begin with.
How did horror genre suddenly become mainstream entertainment equal to an Adam Sandler flick? Three reasons: greed, the PG-13 rating, and Scream. The industry realized that if they toned down certain aspects of horror, then they basically have a cash cow they could milk for all its worth. So, predictably, that was exactly what they did. Scream was a great little flick. It struck just the right balance of pop-culture references, horror, and self-effacing realizations. However, toss in greed then what you have are films that are overflowing with pop-culture jargons, some dumbass dialogues and (for reasons I don't get) rap music or some third-rate techno metal-wannabe bands cranking out ear-bleeding songs. What gets sacrificed? The horror part of horror film.
So, continuing with the predictability theme, there was a 'revolution'. Saw heralded this and I must admit I liked that film, but not the 243 sequels that followed. Eli Roth's Cabin Fever was awesome. All the rest he managed to get his little fingers on? Blargh. And it didn't take long for people to figure out why they weren't into the sequels: because they were torture porn. Even horror fans have a limit, and they have extremely low tolerance for the same bullshit repackaged over and over, so the revolution to the 'revolution' came pretty damn quickly.
Which resulted in My Bloody Valentine, 3-D. This is a complete throwback to the days of 80's slasher flicks, and that includes the violence. The way that the killer dispatches is so over the top, it's cheesy. Entertaining? Yes. Scary? Yeah, I guess. But people are so ready to be grossed out and horrified, that what's going on in their heads is great deal scarier than what's taking place on the screen. So, how to throw a curve ball that the audience can't duck? THREE-D! This technology has become pretty damn awesome, and My Bloody Valentine, 3-D shows a great sense of combining the 3-D aspect with good old fashioned horror, to give to the audience a thrill ride. I was completely taken back by the 3-D part that the gore on the screen took second place in my mind as I tried to digest what was happening. Seriously, it was like 'the girl's head gets halved, but oh man ... look at the depth of the mine, that's just so cool ... it feels like ... oh, there goes half her head.' I'm not being facetious here. Cars feel like they're going to drive off the screen and onto the aisles. The trees and bushes feel like they are surrounding you, and yes, when the killer raises his pick-ax, you'll flinch just because it's that good.
My Bloody Valentine, 3-D won't become an instant classic like 28 Days Later. Like its predecessors, its script is serviceable at best. But what it does is give horror back to the genre without making it its bitch. For that alone I'd recommend My Bloody Valentine, 3-D.
That and Jensen Ackles. Shirtless. Looking appropriately tortured. Confused. Dropping the f-bomb in every other sentence. You just knew he was loving the fact that he could say 'fuck' whenever he damn well pleased.