"Everything you'd want from a hardcore 3-D slasher flick."

An abandoned mine. A group of dead teenagers. A masked miner on a killing spree. An unsuspecting survivor discovering the mayhem. You think you've seen this before when, out of nowhere, the survivor's eye pops out in your face as the killer's pickax is swung through the back of his head! Thus starts off the entertaining 3-D slasher flick My Bloody Valentine, one of the most bloody, gory, nudity-filled slasher movies to hit the big screen in the last 10 years.

My Bloody Valentine ranks up there with the classic slashers of the early '80s, right next to the original My Bloody Valentine, Friday the 13th, Prom Night, and Halloween. It holds its own against the mid-'90s slasher revival, with the self-aware slashers like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Urban Legends. However, where the later films exceeded in high body counts, they lacked in gore, sex, and nudity. But not My Bloody Valentine. Oh no, My Bloody Valentine has it all, and in 3-D!

On Valentine's Day in the mining town of Harmony, a psycho in a miner's uniform slaughters over 20 people with a pickax. When one of the surviving victims returns to town 10 years later, the killing spree starts again, which has everyone wondering if the killer (who has been presumed dead) is back, or whether this is the work of a copycat killer. The storyline is fairly thin, but it's the perfect story for a slasher flick, giving just the right amount of mystery, with enough of a plot to deliver a high body count with plenty of glorious 3-D kills.

The 3-D gimmick is utilized to its fullest potential, and the ingenious weapon of choice makes My Bloody Valentine the perfect vehicle for 3D. The pickax leaps off the screen over and over again, as do explosions, body parts, blood, guns, and flashlight beams. What's even better is that the new 3-D technology doesn't leave you with a headache, so you can focus on the crisp and clear 3-D effects (which look amazing on the big screen).

Beyond the 3-D, the film holds its own as a true effort in the slasher genre. Lots of blood, lots of gore, lots of nudity ... everything you could want in a slasher. And while you'd think there are only so many ways you could kill someone they throw in a few that are totally unexpected. The creative minds were working in overdrive to present the wildest ride in town, and they largely succeeded.

Like most slashers, the laws of logic and plausibility are not always in effect, some of the dialogue is silly, and the revelation of the killer isn't surprising or all that scary. But we're talking about a slasher movie folks, where the entertainment lies in the pursuit and the kill of the attractive (though surprisingly not annoying) victims, where you root for the bad guy just to see what creative way he kills next. You're there to have a good time, whether it's to jump when a tree branch is poked in your face in 3D, or howl when a particularly exciting kill unfolds on screen. The slasher can even provide some laughs, and when it's done purposefully, as it's done in My Bloody Valentine, the results are that of pure joy and entertainment.

Giving the finger to the recent trend of weak-sauce PG-13 slasher movies (yeah Prom Night, I'm talking to you), My Bloody Valentine exceeds expectations. Cool 3-D effects, entertaining deaths, a relentless killer, tons of blood, tons of nudity, and solid stalks and kills make My Bloody Valentine a genuine slasher classic. You'll laugh, you'll jump, you'll scream, you'll have fun! If you're a fan of horror then you should see it with your friends, see it by yourself, see it with the one you love. Whatever you do, just see it. You won't be disappointed.

Grade: A

Ammon Gilbert covers the latest in horror every week for Film.com.

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