July 31, 2018
Written by: Stephen Miller, John Beaird
Starring: Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck
Budget: $2,300,000 (CAD)
Quote: From the heart comes a warning, filled with bloody good cheer, remember what happened as the 14th draws near!
Trivia: My Bloody Valentine (1981) was filmed in Sydney Mines during Cape Breton's economic crisis with the Sydney Steel Corporation. They had pollution problems and were trying to decide whether or not to shut the factory down. It was thought that the filming of My Bloody Valentine (1981) would promote tourism in the province, but it wasn't very effective.
My Bloody Valentine was yet another early eighties slasher that I missed as a kid. I think it didn't have a cool name like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or an awesome cover like other horror movies. It's too bad too because it was a really fun film with a cool concept. It was made the year after Friday the 13th and although the filmmakers admit it was simply their attempt to cash in on the slasher craze (according to interviews in the great horror documentary Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film), this film carves out its own unique niche in the horror slasher genre. It's got great characters, a terrifying killer, and a good twist. Definitely a fun one!
The film begins with two miners in a mine when one takes off her miner suit to reveal a sexy blonde woman in a bra. The girl does a little dance and just when you think we are going to get our mandatory 1980s slasher boob shot, the other miner has shoved her onto a pick axe impaling her. This scene is fairly divorced from the rest of the film's plot and instead is there to introduce the killer and set the tone for the rest of the movie. Also, it has a disorienting effect on the viewer.
The rest of the film is about this Canadian mining town being terrorized by a killer with a pick axe in a mining suit. Through a flashback we learn that twenty years earlier during a Valentines Day dance, there was a mine collapse that trapped four people. The fifth person, named Harry Warden, survived by cannibalizing the others and has lost his mind. Later he kills a couple people associated with the mine and gives the warning that he will kill again if the town ever hosts a Valentines Day dance. The Town of course does and people of course start dying until they officially end the dance. Unofficially, the young mining kids throw a party at the mine where the killer picks them off one by one until he is finally stopped revealing who he is in a twist (it aint Harry).
The killer's mining suit is such a great idea for a horror film. It obscures the killer's entire body except for his eyes giving him an ominous presence. Also, it has a breathing apparatus that gives the killer a Darth Vader breathing noise which acts as his own theme (similar to Jason's theme in the Friday the 13th movies). Finally, the mining light on the helmet adds to his menacing body. In the Going to Pieces documentary the filmmaker claims that the idea for the miner came from just spitballing different masked professions that they could turn into a killer.
One thing I love about this killer is first that he comes up with some original and brutal killings. Most of them involve creative ways to use a pickaxe to kill people (What a great weapon! Was this the first movie to use that?). Another woman who runs a laundromat is killed and shoved in a dryer over night. A guy gets his head boiled in hotdog water. Another woman gets pickaxed and a shower shoved through her head. Brutal. When she is finally discovered her face is partially cooked. This killer, unlike Jason and Michael Myers, also leaves calling cards. He cuts out the hearts of his victims and puts them in heart boxes leaving them with the sheriff. On these boxes he leaves goofy poems that just work in this film. "Roses are red, violets are blue, one has died, and there will be two." That kind of stuff.
Lastly, I gotta say I love the characters. There is a love triangle with a girl and the guy who left and came back and the one she settled for. There is the grumpy bartender continually warning his patrons about Harry Warden. There is the jokester, the hottie and her Walrus looking boyfriend. Great cast of characters. The film was filmed in Nova Scotia and all the actors are Canadian. So, y'know, we have a whole lot of people saying "I don't know what you are talking aboot."
Great underrated movie! Next movie, is the 2009 Remake!
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