WARNING: This Review May Contain Spoilers
I don’t think anyone will understand quite how long I have been waiting to do this article! I covered the original in Chick-Flick Free Valentine’s but it was almost IMPOSSIBLE to find the remake. What I love is that in a weird way, the title works on two levels – it’s set on Valentine’s Day and in Valentine Bluff, both of which end up pretty bloody. Well, happy belated Valentine’s Day everyone….
Getting Stuck Right In
You ever want to set people up for the film they’re about watch? Kill someone within the first 2 minutes! This is the case for both the original and the remake but I feel the original is a little more subtle about it. Maybe it is the change in decade or the fact that the remake was made for 3D, I think they go extremely overboard with the fact that Harry kills 3 people when he awakes from his coma in comparison to the one person lured into the mine to die in the original film. Unfortunately, in my opinion anyway, the remake continues in this violent vain.
Crazy Breeds Crazy
Even though I had seen the original film before, I had remembered it completely incorrectly! From my recollection we didn’t see the killers face – Harry Warden was more like Valentine Bluffs’ Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees, your regular horror film bogeyman – however, it turns out that it is actually Axel killing the residents of Valentine Bluffs having gone crazy after seeing his father killed by Warren 20 years before. However, in the remake it seems they decided to resurrect Harry Warden to return as the killer… or so we think!
The interesting thing in the remake is that you aren’t sure for the whole film if it’s Tom or Axel so, like Sarah, you’re unsure who to trust. Instead, it turns out the incident at the Hanniger Mine party turned Tom into a schizophrenic – part Tom Hanniger, part Harry Warden.
Harbinger Flashback
An important trope in a lot of horror films, especially those set around a past event, is the use of a harbinger. They are the storyteller, the warning for your main characters. In the case of the original, this role is taken on by the bartender – the man who found Harry Warden in the mine 20 years ago – who regales the kids with the tale of Hanniger Mine. However, it is with this story that the remake opens with so it makes me wonder if this is now a lost trope.
Weirdly, the remake actually adds a fact about the Hanniger Mine incident that it is never mentioned in the original film – that Harry Warren killed the men that were buried in the mine with him.
Disappearing Act
It is mentioned in the original that TJ Hanniger disappears for a period of time, leaving Sarah feeling abandoned and she ends up dating Axel. At no point is it actually mentioned why he leaves, however in the remake we are given the reason. As mentioned before, the film starts with the awakening of Harry Warden and the killings in the Hanniger mine. It seems this puts Tom in a mental institute for 10 years, causing Sarah to end up with Axel.
Focus on Romance
OK, maybe this is slightly inaccurate as TJ and Sarah don’t actually end up together in the end, but what I’m trying to say is that the original focuses more on the battle of feelings between Sarah, Axel and TJ than her and TJ falling into bed together. I’m not saying they don’t sleep together but there’s no reference to even the possibility that it happened.
Now, what I was expecting from the remake was for them to double-down on this and for Tom and Sarah to actually sleep together. Thankfully that wasn’t the case, instead they continued to use the love-triangle as a point of antagonism between the two men.
Holding off until the End
Now I realise this probably contradicts the opening paragraph but think it also helps highlight it a lot more. What’s great about the original starting off with one murder straight away and leaving the majority to the last 30 minutes is that it seems to lull you into that false sense of security that maybe more will survive than they actually do. However, you just don’t have this with the remake as it is continually violence on top of violence.
Homages to the Original
Now, when a remake isn’t frame for frame – it’s always nice for them to pay homage to the original film. I only spotted this in two places. First, the chocolate box delivered to Axel mirrors that of the box received by the mayor in the original film. Also, the death of Rosa in the washing machine just before the end game of the remake is the same as the death of Mabel, the laundrette owner.
Take Your Pick
OK, normally I header this with ‘In Conclusion’ but because there is a really good song by Ice Nine Kills about this film called Take Your Pick, I just couldn’t resist. I think it’s blatantly obvious from the above that I prefer the original film to the remake but I still need to conclude the article. Now, I can enjoy blood and gore as much as the next person but there are also times when there can be too much. There’s something to be said for subtlety in a horror film.
