My Bloody Valentine (1981) vs. My Bloody Valentine (2009)

 

Alright time to do another one. Let's get to it.

Contender #1 - My Bloody Valentine (1981)

Director - George Mihalka

Writer(s) - John Beaird (screenplay) and Stephen Miller (story)

Release Date - Feb 11th, 1981

Production - Canadian Film Development Corporation and Secret Film Company

Distribution - Paramount Pictures

Budget - $2,300,000

Gross - $5,700,000

Contender #2 - My Bloody Valentine (2009)

Director - Patrick Lussier

Writer(s) - Todd Farmer and Zane Smith

Release Date - Jan 16th, 2009

Production - Jack Murray Productions

Distribution - Lionsgate

Budget - $14,000,000

Gross - $100,700,000

Story

The story for the original is a miner named Harry Warden was once trapped with his fellow miners, where during that time we went crazy and went on a murderous rampage. Now, 20 years later, new murders are being committed, and now a group of young residents must survive against this crazed maniac.

The story for the remake is in 1998, crazed miner Harry Warden awakened from his coma and terrorized a group of young party goers, before disappearing. Ten years later it now seems like he's come back to finish what he's started.

Round #1 - Visuals

Let me start off by saying I've got nothing against George Mihalka, especially since this is the only film of his I've seen. Having said that there really wasn't anything about his style that really interested. However one could say something similar to Patrick Lussier. Although his style might have been brought down cause the movie was marketed and made for 3D.

So which one am I gonna go for, well I personally prefer the remake. Mainly cause I felt like Lussier was trying to give this movie a look to it.

Round #2 - Harry Warden

This is actually a tough one cause it mainly comes down to how you like your villain.

With the original Harry Warden, he was just a simple miner doing his job, then a terrible event drove him mad. And he really only killed the people who were responsible for the incident happening and no one else. So I guess you could kinda feel sympathetic, but he is killing people who probably didn't deserve death, but you get the motivate.

Then you have remake Harry Warden. Who's very selfless, in a very psychopathic way. You're giving the impression that the moment things looked bad Harry killed his fellow employees just to save himself. So when he goes out for revenge it's more about himself than his fellow men.

So honestly I'm calling this tie. Both Harrys, despite how little we see them, are pretty good villains.

Round #3 - Scares

I'm gonna have this one very brief cause honestly I feel both movies win. They both have great amounts of suspense and their kill scenes are really good. So this is yet another tie.

Round #4 - Story

Let's start off with the 1981 original. While I find it entertaining, the horror story is fairly standard. But, what I will give it credit for is it's character work and how realistic the love triangle is, but mainly the character work. They even made one minor character [Mabel] have some sort of charm and impact when she could've easily been a throwaway. However, the original's twist isn't very good. It almost felt like it was put in there at the last minute as one last surprise even though there wasn't any build up and/or mystery.

Which brings me to the remake. Now I didn't hate any of the characters. They were just okay. However I liked the story far more. Unlike the original the twist is pretty handled mainly cause there's an actual build up. So while I do like the characters of the original, I gonna say the remake has a better story.

Winner - My Bloody Valentine (2009)

Now if you don't agree with that then my power to you, but I just enjoyed the remake more.

That's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Oct 19th, for my review of Smile 2. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.