Movie Info
Movie Name: My Bloody Valentine
Studio: Secret Film Company
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): February 11, 1981
MPAA Rating: R
Will you be my Valentine?
The town of Valentine Bluffs is preparing for Valentine’s Day…for the first time twenty years after a mine collapse led to Harry Warden (Peter Cowper) turning into an insane killer. With the return of the holiday to Valentine Bluff, the killings have begun again. When a group of kids decide to have a Valentine’s Party at the mines, the killer is coming for them…but all may not be what it seems.
Directed by George Mihalka, My Bloody Valentine was a slasher film released in the middle of the slasher boom which really kicked off with Halloween in 1978. The movie was cut down for an R-Rating and the unrated version wasn’t released until 2009.
I guess high heat was the wrong temp
My Bloody Valentine is a slasher classic. It has all the kills of a Friday the 13th, Halloween, or A Nightmare on Elm Street, but due to the popularity of those series, it was kind of forgotten among with the scores of horror films released at the time…which is a shame because it has much more validity than many of the horror sequels of the big named characters.
The cast like many films is filled with unknowns. They are all decent screamers and believable when terrorized….unfortunately, scenes which require a lot of acting cause them to struggle. The sappy love triangle between T.J. (Paul Kelman) , Axel (Neil Affleck), and Sarah (Lori Hallier) also doesn’t help the challenged actors.
I’m mining for blood and I think I hit a vein
The visuals of the movie are pretty good and do a good job ratcheting up the horror. I wish the movie had done a bit more with the claustrophobia aspect of the horror film and the fact that the characters are trapped underground. The movie is quite violent and the masked miner is a good and terrifying killer though the fight sequence at the end isn’t necessarily the most terrifying fight you’ll ever see (I also like how no one seems to be too bundled up even though it is the middle of February in an obviously northern town).
Though the ending is a “trick” ending, the movie is more about the horror than the rather obvious twist. If you haven’t seen the original My Bloody Valentine, you should seek it out. It is worth a trip to the mines. The movie sets up a sequel, but unfortunately, it never evolved. My Bloody Valentine was remade in a 3D version in 2009 which if nothing else brought attention back to this horror classic.
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