Valentine Bluffs is a small mining town haunted by its past and a pissed off miner named Harry Warden. Seems that 20 years ago, the town was holding its biggest shindig of the year, the Valentine's Day dance. While everyone was dancing up a storm, a group of miners was still working in the mines. Their supervisors couldn't wait another minute to get to the dance, so they left the miners by themselves in the mines.
An explosion occurred and the miners were trapped! Harry Warden was the only survivor. Needless to say, after being trapped with his dead buddies in the dark and being forced to eat them to survive, Harry came out a tad bit crazy. He was committed, but escaped to kill kill kill every time the town had another Valentine's Day dance. All Valentine's Day festivities were canceled for 20 years...until now! The town has decided to festoon itself in red, pink and white again...drawing Harry back for more revenge. It all starts out innocently enough...townsfolk receive cute poems promising death and candy boxes with human hearts inside of them - you know, to show someone you really really love them...to death!
Meanwhile, the young local miners are all revved up for partying on V-Day, even after the mayor cancels the dance. They logically decide to have the party at the mines, cuz you know, it's isolated so no one will hear them. Ya, no one will hear them scream!!
Harry goes on his killing spree, using such inventive techniques as death-by-dryer and death-by-showerhead. Some party-goers end up touring the mines and then running for their lives as Harry picks (hehe pun intended) them off one by one with his stabby mining pick.
I really enjoyed this movie - I love it when a horror movie focuses on characterization instead of just gore gore gore. There was drama between the characters in the form of a love triangle - TJ left Valentine Bluffs and his girlfriend Sarah for better fortune in California. He failed and came back to work in the mines, but Sarah now has a new boyfriend, Axl. It seems like a cliche set-up, but it just adds to the tension of the movie. Also, I thought a horror movie set in a mine would be completely stupid...but I was definitely proved wrong. Mines are frickin creepy!! I also liked the ending...seems that Mr. Warden wasn't the only one pissed off at the town. Da-da-DUM!!
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), directed by Wes Craven. I had high hopes for this one, but again, I thought it was plain dumb...though it could have been really scary! I am interested to see what they will do for the remake...the trailer for it looked half-decent.
) and the Skeleton Key (
) were ok...I think High Tension would have been better if they did away with the stupid "twist" ending. It felt like they just tacked it on cuz they didn't know what else to do with the ending...psh...but it must get props for some bloody good deaths. The Skeleton Key, which i didn't have high hopes for, was mediocre but not horrible. It was not scary, but definitely had creepy elements and I liked the ending. I had a hard time looking at mirrors after watching it, so it definitely creeped me out to an extent.
) and Dog Soldiers (
). Cube was pretty cool, but the ending left more desired. It also dragged in places, but was overall pretty engaging. Dog Soldiers was a big surprise! It's a werewolf movie set in Scotland that had me actually caring what happened to the protagonists. Wonderfully shot, though not frightening...more like an action-thriller but I still loved it.
) and The Happiness of the Katakuris (
). Emily Rose was well-crafted, with creepy flashback moments throughout the trial. It was pretty heavy on the courtroom drama, but I liked it nonetheless...it posed some pretty important faith questions to the audience. The Happiness of the Katakuris is film by Japanese shock director Takashi Miike, but it is very different from other movies I've seen from him! There are wonderful song and dance numbers throughout this quirky little film which add some balance to the grisly deaths that occur...heck, there's even some claymation! Wooooot!