Remake of the 1981 slasher film about a maniac in a coal miner's outfit slaughtering everyone, and a worthy retread of the original. These days there has been a return of sorts to the unrestrained gory days of early '80s slasher films, and this one delivers in all those typical categories you'd expect -- the over-the-top mutilations and gore sequences, the gratuitous sex (including full frontal female nudity) and people getting theirs in a variety of inventive ways. At least it's a step up in that the main cast and victims are not just silly teenagers, but rather silly 20-somethings and older this time out. And it is a very nice bonus getting a return from old timer Tom Atkins as a retired policeman in the mix, too.
This film is also released in standard flat 2-D, but I would only have awarded it **1/2, if not for the added gimmick of third dimension, which is really what the fun is all about here. The 3-D effects are well done, seeing things fly off the screen and into your face. One wonders whether they might have taken this even farther with more deliberate situations designed to fully utilize the effect, but what's there is still cool. The "mystery" of the film kept me going back and forth in my guesstimates, up to the final second, so that was an added bonus to the usual trappings that worked for me. *** out of ****
This film is also released in standard flat 2-D, but I would only have awarded it **1/2, if not for the added gimmick of third dimension, which is really what the fun is all about here. The 3-D effects are well done, seeing things fly off the screen and into your face. One wonders whether they might have taken this even farther with more deliberate situations designed to fully utilize the effect, but what's there is still cool. The "mystery" of the film kept me going back and forth in my guesstimates, up to the final second, so that was an added bonus to the usual trappings that worked for me. *** out of ****