Movie Review: My Bloody Valentine (2009)

Synopsis: On Valentine's Day in 1997, Tom Hanniger forgets to vent the methane lines at his father's coal mine and causes an explosion that traps six of the miners. One of the trapped miners, Harry Warden, kills the other five to conserve oxygen and, after waking up from a 1-year-long coma, goes on a killing spree before being buried alive in one of the mineshafts. Ten years later, the long-absent Tom returns to his hometown after his father's death to sell the mine only to become a suspect when a killer dressed in a gas mask and mining attire begins a new wave of murders.

Who's in it? The movie stars Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Betsy Rue, Kerr Smith and Tom Atkins.

Review: I had planned on taking my wife out for Valentine's Day last night, but it was my mom's birthday and after celebrating that, along with my wife needing to run some errands, we decided to just stay in. After a few minutes of consideration, I decided to "celebrate" by re-watching My Bloody Valentine. Even after seeing it more times than I've been able to keep track of, the remake remained a great choice.

There are a couple things I really like about this horror movie. The main one is how the movie does a great job keeping the killer's identity a secret until the very end. Tom (Ackles) seems like the most likely suspect and the movie makes sure he's always around when the killings happen.  Yet there are quite a few others, ranging from the local sheriff (Smith), who seems to have a vendetta against Tom (and doesn't seem like a great guy overall) and Harry Warden (Richard John Walters), who is supposed to be dead, but nobody can find his body.

In fact, even though I had seen this movie and already knew who the killer was, I kept wondering if I was mistaken. There were just too many reasons to believe I was wrong up until the point Sarah (King) needed to figure out which possible murder suspect was lying to her. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed it wasn't both of them.

I am also going to admit; I liked how the movie ended in a way that set up a sequel. This isn't always the case, but this movie manages to do it without taking anything away from the film. It's just too bad there was never a second movie (at least not so far) because I probably would watch it.

My only real complaint is the gratuitous sex/nudity about mid-way through, just because it seemed so out of place. Sure, the part about Irene (Rue) chasing down her boyfriend while naked (other than the shoes she apparently had time to put on her feet) was a bit funny. However, the whole thing just seemed unnecessary, especially since the rest of the movie was more PG-13 than R.

Final Opinion: As I said, this is one of our favorite films and watching it again did nothing to change my mind about that. If you haven't seen this movie, you should take the time to do so.

My Grade: A

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Here are some reviews of other horror movie remakes:

Movie Review: Fright Night 2 (2013)

Movie Review: Pet Sematary (2019)

Movie Review: Halloween (2007)

Movie Review: The Invisible Man (2020)