Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Ten years ago in the town of Harmony, an inexperienced coal miner caused an accident that trapped and killed five men and sent the only survivor, Harry Warden, into a coma. When Harry awoke, exactly one year later on Valentine's Day, he wanted revenge and brutally murdered 22 people with a pickax before being killed himself. Now, after years of peace, something from Harmony's dark past has returned. Wearing a miner's mask and armed with a pickax, an unstoppable killer is on the loose. As his footsteps come ever closer, the townspeople realize in terror that it just might be Harry Warden who has found his way back.

This is one of those films that you have to completely turn your brain off for. A rough remake of the cult horror “classic”, this one doesn’t live up to even the low bar set by the original. But I guess it was a riot in 3-D. The problem is, the 3-D your seeing in theaters today isn’t the same as what is included on this disc. I think the studios need to abandon the idea of trying to present movies in 3-D for the home until they can do it right. Using these horrible red/green glasses is going to make people hate the format rather than embrace what 3-D can be as demonstrated in theaters using polarized lenses. You can tell this one uses every trick in the book to make a great 3-D presentation, but it just comes off as cheesy horror without a solid presentation.

Thankfully Lionsgate included both a 2-D and 3-D version of the film on this Blu-ray. Please don’t watch the 3-D version, it will only give you a headache and as I mentioned before, it is the saddest excuse for what 3-D could be that is available. I’m sure these things will all be re-released when we can truly experience digital 3-D in the home in a few years. The 2-D version looks great though thanks to the digital capture. Detail and dimension are extremely strong and the image has a crisp and clean look to it. Sure it looks like video and nothing like film at all, but I’m sure a lot of people will appreciate the razor sharp imagery, no matter how bad of a “picture” it really is.

The soundtrack is presented in 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and overall it is a fun mix. There are plenty of pop up tricks to get you to jump and the dynamics handle the swings well. Low bass extension is good, but the mix tends to be more on the gimmicky side than the truly ominous one.

Aside from having both versions of the film you also get a digital copy for your portable device. There are also a few production features, a gag reel and Lionsgate’s MoLog BD-Live feature that lets you edit the film to an extent and add shapes and text and other stuff to share with friends. Maybe you’ll actually make a better movie! Or maybe not.

There is no way I could recommend this one in good conscience. I bet it was a riot in digital 3-D but you won’t find that here. If you really want to see it, rent it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.