My Bloody Valentine (1981)

My Bloody Valentine (1981)

My Bloody Valentine is a true classic that was created in 1981 as a slasher flick with a slightly different setting from most of the films of its time and that were created after. This film was directed by George Mihalka and amazingly was only his second film. Sadly though it would appear to be his masterpiece as while he has had many films under his belt in the years since its release - he did not have any major horror films after this point. The film was written by Stephen A. Miller (Who has sadly mainly worked in Television and not graving us with further horror greatness) and John Beaird (who unfortunately passed away in 1993.) It was early in the career for all three of these men and sadly none further pursued the horror genre in their careers as it's one that has been a fan favorite (if partially underground favorite until the re-make) of slasher films for decades at least when they were able to get their hands on the full movie. What surprising is how well the movie was received by horror fans even with the amazing kills and gore stripped from it as the entire movie was a masterpiece in horror as the acting, directing, score, everything was top notch.

When it originally came out it was horribly stripped of countless of the kills that were previewed that had horror fans everywhere clamoring for its release. What we ended up with was a stripped down film that did not provide the proper slasher feel that was both previewed and promised. It was a movie that could have become a franchise to outshine many there were out there and was cut short from horrible editing on the part of the studio. Today this isn’t an issue as every release of it you can find contains the full footage thanks to Lionsgate.

The story begins with a combination of a Valentines party in a mining community where 20 years prior a horrible accident in the mines occurred trapping one Harry Warden in the mines. He was trapped there for quite some time and after a bit of cannibalism with his friends who had died finally snapped. When he managed to escape he ended up being committed but was able to constantly escape to go on a killing spree. As I mentioned 20 years had passed since this horrible date and Harry has been long since confined in the institute. Clearly it’s time to let the guard down and re-open the doors for a Valentine’s Day festival for all of those who want to celebrate.

I’ll let you take one guess on who appears to escape and go on a killing spree when the younger minders start their party to celebrate. What I have to say is that we actually get a lot of great character development and interaction in the movie and a ton of creative kills on top of it. The Valentine’s Day 3D released in 2009, while a fun film and is attempting to turn it into a franchise, fails to properly delivery on the characters in the way the original did. It’s still a fun film but the original let’s you get excited on what could have been if it hadn’t been so mutilated by editors before going onto the big screen.