My Bloody Valentine 3D Information

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;it was released on January 16, 2009 by Lionsgate to generally mixed reviews but nevertheless a box office success. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 19, 2009.

Plot

In a small town cave-in on the north side of a Hanninger 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, allowing himself to breathe. Tom Hanniger, the mine owner's son, was blamed for the mine disaster because he forgot to vent the methane lines, but also Harry Warden for killing the miners.

A year later, Valentine's Day, Warden wakes from his coma in the hospital, and goes on a murderous rampage. Soon after, Sheriff Burke (Tom Atkins) arrives, finding multiple mutilated bodies many of which have been severed in half and the heart of a nurse inside the candy box. Meanwhile, 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). Tom was initially relucant to go to the mine party, but he goes anyway. He leaves Sarah and goes back to his car to pick up some beers before departing inside.

Sarah goes in alone and gets lost looking for Axel and Irene. She runs across a teen and a few seconds later he is stabbed through his eye. She is confronted by Warden in full miner's garb, carrying a bloody pickaxe, and she flees, finding several dead bodies. 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. Tom spots them but Axel escapes with Sarah and Irene, abandoning Tom. 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. Tom also appears shocked by the events.

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, having vanished since the incident and it was unknown where he was. Axel is now sheriff and married to Sarah and they have a son, 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 gives Axel a Valentines Day card and a box of candy and tells him that she is pregnant with his child.

Meanwhile, at the motel where Tom is staying, Irene is having sex with a local trucker named Frank (Todd Farmer). After they finish, Frank reveals that he has been filming her. Irene goes out completely naked and angry about the events, drawing a gun on him. After he reveals that the gun is empty, she hits him, but he ignores her. Just as he enters the truck, he is impaled with a pickaxe through the head by Warden. He also chases Irene through the motel, but she hides under the bed. The noise draws Selene (Selene Luna), motel owner, into the room, and Warden kills her by impaling her whole body through the head on the lights above. Irene makes a noise and is discovered by Warden, who removes the bed mattress and stabs her to death. Axel is called on the scene of the crime, and finds Irene cut open, her heart missing, and he also discovers Tom's name on the register of people staying at the motel. He returns to his office, where he discovers a candy box with Irene's heart inside.

Meanwhile, Tom is visiting his newly inherited mine. In the mine, Warden appears and forces Tom into a chain-link chamber and bends the metal latch on the door, making Tom unable to escape. 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 Burke what happened to Warden. Burke 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.

Later on, Foley is at his house when he hears a noise. He goes outside with a shotgun to find nobody there. He goes back inside and he is attacked by Warden. He knocks him down and impales his head through the pickaxe. He drops the body at the burial spot with his heart cut open. Axel, angry about the events, orders a patrol near his home to protect his son. Meanwhile, Sarah is with Megan at the store when Warden arrives. He chases them through the store, but they lock themselves in the office. The window is locked, but Megan finds the key while Sarah is blocking the door with a table. Just as Warden breaks a hole in the door and unlocks it, Megan goes through the window. Suddenly, Warden disappears from the office door and appears outside the window, and grabs Megan. Sarah runs back through the store and encounters Axel outside. They find Megan's mutilated body in the alley with the message "Be Mine 4 Ever" scrawled in blood on the wall above. Sarah ponders why Megan was killed by Warden when she had no relation to the mine. Sarah comes to the conclusion that the killer was trying to get at Axel and she admits she knew about their affair. Axel then sends her to the hospital.

Meanwhile, at Axel's home, Noah is watching a TV with his babysitter Rosa (Joy de la Paz), while Deputy Ferris (Karen Baum) is in the squad car watching the premises. Suddenly, Warden arrives and impales Rosa with the pickaxe and throws her in the laundromat, burning her. Burke arrives and warns Ferris about Warden's presence. Ferris goes to check the house, while Burke is at the porch. Ferris finds Noah and warns him to hide, and she finds Rosa's mutilated body in the laundromat. She warns Burke, but he is killed by Warden.

Meanwhile, Sarah is in the hospital when Tom calls her and convinces her that Warden is not the killer and that he needs her to trust him as he has found something he needs to show her. On the road Tom tries to convince Sarah that Axel is the killer. Axel calls Sarah while she and Tom are in the car; Axel tells her that Tom has been in a mental hospital for the last 7 years since Harry's rampage and is the killer. Sarah attempts to get Tom to drive her home and when he refuses she grabs the wheel and crashes Tom's car. Tom is knocked out momentarily and Sarah escapes. She calls Axel and he instructs her to go to his father's old house. When she enters she finds hundreds of candy boxes and her old picture with Tom.

The killer, confirmed that he is not Warden, appears. Sarah distracts him and runs into the mine shaft where the original murders took place. She runs into Axel and steals his gun. Pointing the gun at Axel she asks him about the hundreds of candy boxes. He seems confused and blames Tom. Tom then appears and Sarah points the gun at him too. Both men accuse the other of being the killer. Tom gives himself away when he points out that the message over Megan's dead body ("Be Mine 4 Ever") was the same as what Megan wrote to Axel in the Valentines card, revealing that he knows Megan is dead which is information only Axel and Sarah knew. A montage then plays out all the murders in the film again, revealing Tom to be the true killer. Tom begins to hallucinate and sees visions of Warden. Tom tries to warn Sarah but she tells him that nothing is there.

Tom suddenly takes a pickaxe and tries to kill Axel. The two fight, Axel gains the upper hand and knocks Tom onto the ground, but Tom injures him with the pickaxe. Sarah shoots Tom through his side and the bullet hits a gas tank, causing an explosion which causes the mine to collapse. Sarah and Axel get out, and Axel is taken away in an ambulance, while Sarah is taken by Martin.

Meanwhile, one of the miners is searching the mine after the collapse, and finds Tom in a state of shock and covered by the debris from the explosion. The miner gives him help and tries to communicate with him, but Tom takes the pickaxe and stabs him in the head, killing him. We then see a miner holding his injured side exiting the mine. It is revealed to be Tom as he takes off the mask and walks away.

Cast

• Jensen Ackles as Tom J. Hanniger
• Jaime King as Sarah Palmer
• Kerr Smith as Axel Palmer
• Betsy Rue as Irene
• 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
• Najib Razak as Rosmah Mansur

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. 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.

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

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.

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. 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 56% of 87 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.7 out of 10. 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.

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".

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".

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".

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". 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".

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. In its second weekend, the movie grossed estimated $10.1 million, ranking number 6 at the domestic box office. 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.

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 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. However, a special Blu-ray version was also created specifically for online rental chains like Netflix and Blockbuster.

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.