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My Bloody Valentine

My Bloody Valentine (1981)

February. 11,1981
|
6.2
|
R
| Horror Thriller Mystery

Twenty years after a Valentine's Day tragedy claimed the lives of five miners, Harry Warden returns for a vengeful massacre among teen sweethearts gearing up for another party.

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Reviews

Lovesusti
1981/02/11

The Worst Film Ever

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Intcatinfo
1981/02/12

A Masterpiece!

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AshUnow
1981/02/13

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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Portia Hilton
1981/02/14

Blistering performances.

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a_chinn
1981/02/15

Quentin Tarantino has called this his all-time favorite slasher film, and it's one I'd never seen, so I went into this with fairly high expectation. Unfortunately, this film still pales when compared to John Carpenters "Halloween" or William Lustig's "Maniac." Still, it's well made and does stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the better slasher films of the 70s and 80s; "The Town that Dreaded Sundown," "The Burning," "Sleepaway Camp," "Black Christmas," and such. The story involves a coal mining town where a maniac wearing mining gear kills hapless victim with a pickax, boiling water, shower head nozzles, and other implements that all prove deadly. The film does have a decent who-done-it mystery element to it and when the mystery is revealed at the end it's not a copout and is satisfyingly done, which is a rarity for most slasher films. Overall, I wouldn't say "My Bloody Valentine" is a classic, but it is a must see for slasher film fans.

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michigindie
1981/02/16

After reading the reviews, I thought this film would be an atmospheric, moody slasher with sex, suspense, gore and fear. It's not."My Bloody Valentine" is an okay film because it keeps missing its opportunities to be a great film. The basic idea is good, the location is good...but that's about it.Lost opportunity #1: The script is not engaging. It's one of those that has no real lead character with whom you identify. The film is ensemble style, jumping around from short random scene to short random scene. Consequently, it never really pulls you in. There are no strong emotional motives, no real interaction between characters, no linear plot.Lost opportunity #2: Not enough skin. Despite being produced in 1980, at the height of raunchy sex depictions in thrillers, the film is incredibly tame. The opening all-male shower scene could have been a feast, but all the guys wear boxer shorts while showering. Although it is implied a couple of characters have sex, we never see anything suggestive...they just go off to be alone and the next time we see them, they're dead (and fully clothed).Lost opportunity #3: There is not suspense, no dread. Almost every killing happens quite suddenly as the director is going for a quick "shock" reaction from his audience. If you're shock-proof, these scenes fall flat. Knowing the danger is there and nearing and watching the characters unwittingly walk into the trap would have been much more impactful.Lost opportunity #4: Few hotties in the cast. Although Hollywood was brimming with gorgeous young people who would do ANYTHING to get into the movies back then, the producers cast mostly homely or average players. There are a couple of hot guys and one okay girl but they should have done better.This was not a horrible film, just disappointing. See what you think.

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Steve Pulaski
1981/02/17

NOTE: This film was recommended to me by Bethany Rose for the "Steve Pulaski Sees It." Perhaps if released in the late 1980's, or even the 1990's, George Mihalka's My Bloody Valentine would've been a film many slasher fans would've sneered at; it would've likely been a film dismissed as "more of the same" in a genre unwilling to subvert its more predictable principles to become something greater. Being released in 1981, however, when the slasher film was still a fairly new concept, My Bloody Valentine is actually a very significant for the time period. It's one of the few films of that era that didn't spawn a legion of sequels, let alone even a followup, and managed to tell its story and wrap it up without the feeling that it needed to build a cult of support and development around its pickaxe-wielding killer. It's a film that tells its story and leaves its mark.The story is set in the small town of Valentine Bluffs, which is preparing for a Valentine's Day dance, the first in man years. A working class town where most men work as coal miners, the Valentine's Day dance was a popular event in the town before a mining accident occurred twenty years before. On-the-job negligence resulted in five men being trapped underground amidst dangerous level of methane gas. While four of the miners died, one survivor named Harry Warden survived through cannibalistic acts and was eventually rescued. A year later, after never being seen again, Harry exacted revenge on the supervisors that were responsible for the accident, killing them both and slicing through their chests to extract their hearts, which he left in Valentine boxes to be found; he warned Valentine Bluffs never to hold another dance again.With Harry being locked in an asylum and a new generation of spry young kids wanting to commemorate Valentine's Day with a dance, the town complies and hosts another dance. Once again, as foreshadowed by a few of the older townspeople, murders begin happening by a man in a gas-mask wielding a pickaxe; Harry has presumably returned to avenge a town that has disobeyed his only wish.My Bloody Valentine is rather dark and methodical for a slasher film, unwilling to commit to a more light-hearted aura like many of its successors would. Its fabulously paced score of synths and melodic music, composed by Paul Zaza creates actual suspense in conjunction with Mihalka's direction, which is filled with original camera-angles. Consider the closeups we see of the murderer, and the utterly gruesome deaths we see with an unblinking eye. Mihalka was going for something completely frightening and unapologetically terrifying with the mood he creates here, and it isn't until one sees this film after watching more comical entries into the genre that they realize what a breakthrough this film was, staying true to slasher films' original roots of being frightening, atmospheric, and tense.The narrative is just believable enough to keep one watching, as it's not crafted in total randomness, and the deaths are just brutal enough to warrant some legitimate scares or jolts. Seasoned horror fans and cult followers will take note that pressures from the MPAA forced Mihalka to edit and scale-back his film significantly in the gore-department, and Mihalka's original cut, despite being filmed, has never been released to the public. An extended cut was released on DVD to coincide with the film's remake in 2009, adding three minutes to the film's original version, despite never releasing the completely untampered original.With that, My Bloody Valentine is a particularly strong slasher because, for one, it recognizes its genre and respectfully handles its scares and its material, and secondly, plays along with the tropes by making this a heavily stylized slasher in aesthetic and atmosphere. It manages to be gruesome quite often, but elegant throughout, and with such a brutal concept, it's surprising that the result is so quaint.Starring: Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, and Neil Affleck. Directed by: George Mihalka.

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gwnightscream
1981/02/18

This 1981 horror film stars Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck, Don Francks and Peter Cowper. The town of Valentine Bluffs is about to celebrate Valentine's Day, but is in for a nightmare when a killer repeats gruesome murders that happened 20 years prior. It began during the town's Valentine's dance and 5 mine workers were trapped underground after an accident. Harry Warden (Cowper) was the only survivor who eventually killed the ones responsible for the mishap and was committed after. Soon, The killer warns the town of not having a dance, but takes out the ones that ignore him. Is Harry continuing his killing spree or is it someone else? Kelman plays T.J., Hallier plays his ex-girlfriend, Sarah whom he still loves, Affleck plays her boyfriend, Axel and Francks plays Chief Newby. This isn't a bad 80's slasher flick, but you must watch the uncut version if you're a fan of the genre.

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