Horrific Inquiry: MY BLOODY VALENTINE (2009)

Welcome back to the scariest, and at times goriest, column here at Film Inquiry: Horrific Inquiry. Twice a month, I will be tackling all things horror, bringing two films back into the spotlight to terrify and frighten once more. And occasionally looking at those that could have pushed the envelope further. Join us as we dive deep into the heart of horror, but warning, there will be spoilers.

“Damn Harry Warden. Got me aiming at shadows.” – My Bloody Valentine (2009)

It’s that time of the year again – hearts, love and a renewal of devotion. Yet, this Valentine’s, Horrific Inquiry is revisiting “Be Mine 4 Ever” with a return to the depths of the mine in Patrick Lussier‘s 2009 remake of My Bloody Valentine. Remakes traditionally never reach the heights of the original, delivering the over saturated kills and gore, yet never capturing the horrific magic that made it a success to begin with. Yet, Lussier improves on the original, leaving the legends and folklore behind, rather finding darkness goes deeper. While my viewing did not include the 3D effects that the film originally premiered with, its inclusion is apparent. And while it may not outrank the slashers that came before, it delivers the scares and gore any horror fan can fall in love with.

Crafting a Bloody Return

As My Bloody Valentine begins, viewers are immediately brought back into the story of Harry Warden. Where the original had Warden trapped in a collapsed mine eating his fellow trapped miners to survive, here, he intentional murdered his fellow survivors with a pick axe to conserve oxygen. This is conveyed to audience through a series of headlines and voiceovers, their construction feeling more like the introduction to a video game than a film. As the opening sequence concludes, viewers are left with the understanding that Harry Warden (Richard John Walters) survived but has remained in a coma since the accident. And as the film replays the moments leading up to the collapse – Warden wakes up – the film’s title merging with the screams of what we can assume are his first victims. It is a creepy opening, especially as Warden wakes up, playing on our knowledge of the original film, yet immediately attempting to breath originality into the remake.

My Bloody Valentine delivers its opening credits from outside the hospital, coyly keeping the mystery of Warden’s awakening from the audience. As the camera moves back inside, viewers accompanying the film’s detectives, the hospital opens to an almost Rob Zombie Michael Myers-like massacre, bodies dismembered throughout the hospital, hearts traced in the blood leading to an actual heart inside a Valentine’s chocolate box. It is the film’s first call back to the original, one that will be repeated later on with a new generation of detectives.

The film transitions from the hospital to the local mine where the tragic collapse had happened one year earlier, local teenagers throwing a party inside. It feels like the ending of the first film, the subsequent attack on the teens only heightening this feeling. There is confusion almost instantly as the action happens swift and fast, an axe meeting the head of one teenager, his eye popping forward to audiences – and it’s completely as sick as one would hope. It was here I could see the potential effects that the film’s 3D release would have had – and I wished I currently had it. Several of the scenes that follow speak to the 3D format, merging cinematic horror with video game styling and immersive experience. And it is not just in the film’s first act that myself and viewers will find a longing to watch it in its released format, My Bloody Valentine effectively, yet selectively, utilizing its 3D options throughout.

While most of the teens are brutally murdered, a few survive, the return of Harry Warden coming to a swift conclusion as he is shot by Sheriff Burke (Tom Atkins) and his deputy, saving Tom (Jensen Ackles). It is an intense moment, albeit predictable (especially based on the original), Sheriff Burke yelling for Harry to stay down, each time he rises, he is shot. As Harry abandons his presumed massacre, and later presumed vendetta as Tom was the reason for the mine collapse, he runs into the mine, never to be seen again. From start to finish, the opening sequence of My Bloody Valentine steals your heart, proving the slasher genre still has some muscle in it.

10 years later…

The film transitions 10 years later, the attack on in the mine and its association with Valentine’s Day broken from the 1981 classic. No one is afraid that Henry Warden will return – he has been confirmed dead, rather than living in a mental hospital. My Bloody Valentine takes its time reintroducing us to the teenagers who survives the attack by Warden in the mine 10 years earlier. First, we are reintroduced to Axel (Kerr Smith) and Sarah (Jaime King) – now married with a kid, Axel having an affair with Megan (Megan Boone), one of Sarah’s employees. As we take in the dynamic of Sarah and Axel, Tom returns to town, a required signing for the selling of the mine forcing him to return to the town for the first time since the attack.

The film struggles a bit with the landing of its transition in time, working to reestablish its characters as the body count begins to rise, while also building the contempt towards Tom by the town. Thankfully, My Bloody Valentine does find its legs again, especially with its final reintroduction of Irene (Betsy Rue). And where her initial role is to fill the expected male perspective within a horror – she literally runs around naked the entire time she is on screen – her murder solidifies the film’s gory and brutal direction. It also sets up its ever-twisting game of suspicion.

A Darker Truth

In the original, it is Axel that turns out to be the new hooded miner. Where mental illness and obsession fueled his killing spree, this remake finds it still in mental illness, but also in guilt and trauma. My Bloody Valentine works hard to give a sense of misdirection, working off the knowledge of the original to create its twists and turns. As the body count rises, and Henry Warden is officially canceled as a suspect, My Bloody Valentine narrows its list of suspects to Tom and Axel – giving each a breadcrumb trail of suspicion that makes their guilt credible.

For Tom, the murders begin shortly after his arrival, Irene’s murdered in the same hotel Tom was staying in. For much of the film too, as the murders are happening, Tom is nowhere to be seen. There is no alibi for his disappearance or for his whereabouts as the hooded miner ravages the town. Yet, he is given reasons he is not the hooded assailant, especially as one of the murders finds him trapped in a cage – confirmed by those who found him.

Axel is painted to fit the prospect of guilt as well. From the very beginning, at the party within the mine, he mentions his strong dislike of Tom, others commenting that he had always be jealous of Tom, wanting Sarah for himself. Tom’s arrival seems to set off a fire of jealousy within Axel, a picture of Tom and Sarah only throwing fuel on the fire. Where Tom has his pills to speak to his potential mental illness, Axel has his anger. And where Axel is seen frequently on screen, throwing shade on his ability to both police and murder, there is a clever scene just before the third act that keen-eye viewers will find impossible to deny his guilt.

When Tom is locked in the cage, forced to watch the brutal murder of Red (Jeff Hochendoner), the hooded miner holds his axe, losing his grip so it drops to the ground, shortly after swinging it repeatedly into his victim. After Sarah and Megan are attacked at the store, Axel is shown with a flashlight, making the same move. It is quick, but it is almost a mirror image of the motion made before. As Sarah stands before both men, forced to make an impossible decision, it is only the mind that betrays to reveal the true killer.

Conclusion:

And while a bit lackluster in its reveal, especially compared to the intensity of the film and its kills thus far, My Bloody Valentine reveals Tom to be the hooded miner, the revelation made only when he sees the miner coming from behind Sarah. Yet, the miner isn’t real, Axel even addresses Tom as Harry, seeing the devil within. The film flashes through all the murders that have happened, showing Tom, not the miner, as the cause. I had expected a more explosive ending, and while it brings call backs to the original (i.e. smashing lights with axe), it does fail to make it to the finish line with the same zeal it has carried thus far.

Honestly, after watching the 2009 version of My Bloody Valentine I found myself with two regrets – that I had not seen the film during its release in 3D and that there was never a sequel.As it is revealed that Tom not only dies, but escapes – getting one last murder in before the credits roll – it leaves the door open for a sequel. And while My Bloody Valentine putters out in the end, it is a sequel I would like to see made.

This film may be a remake of the 1981 classic but it creates its own identity, carving out its own place within the horror genre. A standard slice and dice of a slasher, it does all it can to misdirect its audience until the very last moment. Fans of the original may find themselves missing the saturated Valentine theme and the first person perspectives, but My Bloody Valentine has a lot to offer, breaking from the traditional regurgitation of a remake, and crafting an identity all its own.

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Watch My Bloody Valentine