The heir of a mine (Jensen Ackles) in a remote town in Pennsylvania returns ten years after a Valentine's Day massacre that took the lives of 22 people. When a psycho slayer dressed as a miner with a pickaxe also shows up the sheriff (Kerr Smith) naturally suspects the heir, who happens to be the ex-beau of his wife (Jaime King).

"My Bloody Valentine" (2009) is a remake of the 1981 slasher but is different enough to view as a sort-of sequel. It includes most of the vital elements for an effective flick of this genre.

The basic formula was well established by "Halloween" (1978) and the first two "Friday the 13th" flicks (1980-1981): A crazy masked killer and a group of youths in a specific environment, whether a town, camp, forest, college, resort, building, etc. In this case it's a mining town, shot in Kittanning and Bethel, PA, and points nearby along the Allegheny River. So the film gets a big plus for filming somewhere other than friggin' British Columbia! (Not that there's anything wrong with BC, of course, but enough is enough).

Beautiful women is a must for these types of films and "My Bloody Valentine" delivers superbly with Jaime King (Sarah),Megan Boone (Megan) and Betsy Rue (Irene),the latter in an extended nude scene, which I think is unnecessary, but some will obviously appreciate it.

Most importantly, the story is engrossing and keeps you guessing as to the identity of the killer till the very end. Compared to the original movie, it's more compelling and all-around more entertaining.

The film runs 1 hour, 41 minutes.

GRADE: B+

MY BLOODY VALENTINE is the noughties remake of a 1981 slasher flick. Normally, I wouldn't give this type of remake a second glance – I'd hang on until it showed up on television before I bothered watching it. However, something caught my eye when I saw the cinema showing advertised – no less than the fact that this film was showing in 3D. Yes, 3D cinema is back, the next wave of three-dimensional horror films is hitting our screens in 2009 (THE FINAL DESTINATION 3D and PIRANHA 3D are two coming up),some thirty years since the last wave brought us the likes of Friday the 13th 3-D and Jaws 3-D! I went to the cinema to see this and enjoyed the 3D experience complete with viewing glasses and a rowdy audience and what an experience...

First off, the film itself. It's basically a clichéd slasher movie not much different from the ones you'd find in cinemas during the '80s. Some people who saw this film in non-3D cinemas claim it can be enjoyed in its 'two dimensional' version, but that simply isn't true. MY BLOODY VALENTINE is a 3D film through and through, made and designed to be viewed in the format. It's one of those films where things are popping out of the screen all the while and watching a 2D version is just pointless. The 2D version of this film I'd rate as a 1/5. To be honest, the film itself isn't much cop. It's a clichéd movie, with one of those appalling scripts that turns every actor into a complete moron. The twist ending is completely dull and unsatisfying. The acting also isn't very impressive. There's too much of a desire to catch 'hot' actors and actresses to appeal to teenage viewers so we get the likes of lunkheaded Jensen Ackles and Kerr Smith wandering around and being a little embarrassing and out of their depth. Jaime King is passable, but as usual it's the old timers like Tom Atkins and Kevin Tighe who show us what real acting means.

I did appreciate that this film does have a good pacing and a nice look to it. Some of the cinematography isn't half bad and the opening hospital massacre is top stuff, a shame the rest of the movie doesn't touch it. The look of the killer miner, swinging a pick axe and wearing a helmet and gas mask, is also brilliant and recalls Jason Voorhees nicely. Horror fans will be in their element with an extremely high level of gore and depravity with eyeballs popping out, heads being impaled, hearts removed and even a guy's chin being ripped off in one gruesome encounter. There's even an extended nude scene that will appeal to male audience members although it does get a bit much with a blonde bimbo parading around naked for roughly ten minutes or so.

Which leads me to the 3D effects. They're BRILLIANT. I've wanted to see a proper 3D film ever since I saw the '50s HOUSE OF WAX on television with the guy playing with his yo-yo against the camera and I finally got the chance with this. Gone are the old coloured glasses, this is a new type of 3D technology known as digital projection and it works a treat. Stuff pops out of the screen all the time – guns, tree branches, body parts, you name it – but as well as this, the stuff on screen actually looks 3D – so if you see a car pull up it seems to be jutting out of the screen rather than sitting flat. For the 3D alone, this film is absolutely fabulous and real entertainment and I never tired of it, even if the glasses did end up giving me a headache. So there you have it – an average film that becomes a fun experience thanks to the three-dimensionality of it alone. Watch it once, but if you want my advice, NEVER see it unless it's in 3D.

In the mining town of Harmony, an accident buries six miners alive. Mine owner's son Tom Hanniger (Jensen Ackles) is blamed. Harry Warden survives by killing the other miners with a pickax to save oxygen. He wakes up from a coma on Valentine's Day and starts killing with a pickax. He also attacks teens having a party at the mine. Tom had reluctantly joined his girlfriend Sarah (Jaime King). They, Axel Palmer (Kerr Smith) and his girlfriend Irene (Betsy Rue) survive the attack. Sheriff Burke (Tom Atkins) and his deputy arrive just in time and Harry scrambles back into the mine. Ten years later, Tom returns for his father's funeral and to sell the mine. Axel is now the sheriff and married to Sarah with a son named Noah. He's cheating on her with Megan (Megan Boone). Tom is staying at the local motel where the pickax killer massacres Irene, her trucker sex partner and the midget motel manager. Later in the mine, Tom comes face-to-face with the killer.

There are a lot of cheesy 3-D gimmicks coming straight out of the screen. It is reminiscent of the early days of 3-D uses. There is camp value to the way it's done. There is also a functional serial killer mystery in this movie. I wouldn't say this is anything great but it's not half-bad as far as this type of horror goes.