So many horror movies, from the past to today, are, well, so so. There are so many of them that you tend to see the same tropes repeating, the same characters, the same general story lines, the same tricks of production. I only just saw My Bloody Valentine and this one is different, or at least produced and performed at a level of overall excellence. I don't know whether the makers lucked out thinking they'd make a slasher and see how things went, or truly thought about creating something original that would stimulate fans of the genre. I loved the gas-masked baddie. To me this was novel. Great attention was given to the slashes with his pick axe. Honestly, the violence was supreme, and it must be noted as interesting that gas-masks have featured in several well rated horror flicks since 2009. I don't know if it is au par to describe violence as tasteful, but this was something along those lines. Even though the movie was a decade old by the time I got to it, it all seemed really fresh to me. I could end the review there, given I rate this a 10 out of 10, but actually other aspects of production were right on the money, including the the soundscape, with sound engineers knowing just when to turn up the volume for maximum shock and suspense. The framing was cool too, as were the locations. My Bloody Valentine doesn't come across as low budget as a result, and despite a lot of the action taking place at one location, you are never bored with surroundings, and the movie moves expansively across a wide arc of other locales and has a brilliant pace. And it cannot be argued there are not classic images here. The naked lady storming into a carpark, for example, was certainly as classic as anything from Texas Chainsaw or American Psycho. It's great to see the star of Supernatural in an early role as well. If that TV show had this sort of direction and production value it would have been twice as popular as it already has been. This is a must see for horror fans, and a must must see for fans of slasher pics.
Review of My Bloody Valentine
