My Bloody Valentine 3D on Blu-ray Disc Review
By Brandon A. DuHamel
The Film
My Bloody Valentine 3D is the 2009 remake of the 1981 Canadian slasher classic that is probably most famous -- or infamous, as the case may be -- for having to be re-edited twice for its violent content before the MPAA would grant it an R rating for release in the United States. Being typical of that era, the film dealt with a small mining town terrorized by a pickaxe wielding serial killer in a miner's outfit and gas mask who was apparently unstoppable. The killer would cut out his victim's hearts and leave them as Valentine's in heart shaped boxes.
This 2009 re-make sticks fairly close to that formula, and plays rather like an homage to the early-80's boon in gore fest cinema. Relocating its victims from Canada to Pennsylvania, a group of teens have a party one night in a mine when the miner attacks them. After the town's sheriff kills him, the film jumps forward ten years, where the protagonists have now moved on with there lives and the old mine is on the verge of being sold when the miner reappears and begins killing again.
No matter how much the filmmakers would like moviegoers to believe it, there is nothing new to see here in this version of
My Bloody Valentine. I'm reminded of the lyrics from Iron Maiden's "Somewhere in Time": "Feel like I've been here before, feel like I've been here before…." If you've seen
Halloween and
Friday the 13th, or the original
My Bloody Valentine, there's no real reason to watch
My Bloody Valentine 3D, unless you like wearing dorky glasses and watching goofy gimmicks like a shotgun barrel being stuck in your face, or even some gratuitously lengthy footage of full frontal female nudity in wonky looking 3D.
The Picture
Both the 2D and 3D versions of the movie are provided in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio in a 1080p/24 AVC/MPEG-4 encoding. As far as the anaglyph 3D is concerned, it's still gimmicky, but on Blu-ray in high definition, it looks far better than 3D like this used to look in the old days at home on television. The depth of field, separation, and detail are about as good as they are going to get with this technology.
For those who do not want to sit through the film in 3D, the 2D transfer looks rather flat (no pun intended). Blacks look a bit washed out, with some obvious video noise, though there is a decent level of shadow delineation. Details are good, flesh tones look natural, but there are artifacts that creep up, from moiré on Jensen Ackel's hoodie in the scene where he speaks to Jaime King in the department store for the first time after coming back to town, to some edge enhancement apparent on Jaime King's nose in the scene where she sees Kerr Smith watching the crime scene video in the middle of the night.
Apart from those niggles, even without the 3D effect, the digital production looks too un-film like, looking like something shot with a HandyCam, lacking any complex shading and depth. It's obvious this was really optimized for 3D enjoyment.
The Sound
Lionsgate seems to be one of the few studios that constantly pushes the boundaries of what is possible with the Blu-ray format by continuing to release lossless 7.1 surround mixes on so many of their releases.
My Bloody Valentine 3D is another of their releases to appear with a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround mix, and although it is not as relentlessly aggressive as the studio's 7.1 mix for
Saw V, it does effectively make use of the additional channels. The sound has a wide dynamic range with deep low frequency response. Discrete sounds move around the room, coming from each surround speaker, and ambience is abundant. Dialogue is intelligible, but some louder passages suffer from some definite clipping and harshness.
The Extras
My Bloody Valentine 3D has been given a decent supply of supplements, none of them being provided in HD, unfortunately, but there are many deleted scenes and an alternate ending that should prove of interest to some.
The extras available on this release are:
- Audio Commentary with Director Patrick Lussier and Co-Writer Todd Farmer -- These two give a very detailed and chatty audio commentary, but stay away from it unless you've seen the movie already, because Lussier and Farmer have an annoying tendency of dropping spoilers unapologetically and without warning.
- Deep Inside My Bloody Valentine (1.78:1; 480i/60) -- A making of featurette reveals that film was shot on-location in what was once a real working mine.
- Sex, Blood, & Screams (1.78:1; 480i/60) -- The visual effects supervisor runs through some of the elaborate puppets used in the production of the film to help produce the gory special effects.
- Deleted and Extended Scenes (1.33:1; 480i/60) --
- Michael and Jason (deleted)
- Eli and Ben (deleted)
- Sarah Sees Brandy (deleted)
- Poppin' Pills at Tunnel No. 5 (deleted)
- Curb Parking Epidemic (deleted)
- Thelma (extended)
- Sarah's Photo (extended)
- Barflies (extended)
- Mysteries and Motivations (deleted)
- On the Prowl (extended/deleted)
- "We Did the Right Thing" (deleted)
- Spoiled Chocolate (extended)
- I Know You Were Fuckin' Her (extended)
- Phone Shack (deleted)
- Tom, Pick, and Harry (alternate ending) (1.33:1; 480i/60)
- Gag Reel (1.33:1; 480i/60) -- A brief reel of not-so-humorous bloopers.
- Theatrical Trailer (1.78:1; 1080p/24; Dolby Digital 5.1)
- Digital Copy -- Bonus disc with access to a digital copy for download to an iPod/Windows Media-Compatible device or Mac/PC
Final Thoughts
My Bloody Valentine 3D may make for an interesting addition to a Halloween horror movie marathon, but it will be one of the weakest links in the chain. This Blu-ray's biggest strength is its well done 7.1 lossless soundtrack, so readers would be best served just renting this one, or skipping it entirely.
Where to Buy
Product Details
- Actors: Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Betsy Rue, Edi Gathegi
- Director: Patrick Lussier
- Writers: Todd Farmer, John Beaird, Stephen Miller, Zane Smith
- Producers: André Link, Hernany Perla, Jack L. Murray
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Language: English
- Subtitles: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1; French Dolby Digital 5.1
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: R
- Studio: Lionsgate
- Blu-ray Disc Release Date: May 19, 2009
- Run Time: 101 minutes
- List Price: $39.99
- Extras:
- Audio Commentaries
- Deep Inside My Bloody Valentine
- Sex, Blood, and Screams
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Gag Reel
- Alternate Ending
- 4 Pairs of 3D Glasses
- Digital Copy
