Written by John Beaird And Stephen Miller
Directed by George Mihalka
Axel: "Hanniger, I'll be in Hell waiting for you! Harry? Harry, I'm coming! This whole FUCKING TOWN is going to die! We're coming back, you bastards! Sarah, be my bloody Valentine! Daddy's gone away, Harry Warden made you pay..."
With Valentine's Day approaching, I thought I'd delve into some old horror movies focused on the day in particular. This meant finally watching this cult favourite from 1981 where the premise of a mining incident didn't really feel like the grounds for a Valentine's themed horror fest.
The film started with a miner losing his cool when his girlfriend showed a heart tattoo on her breast. He snapped and killed her. Then there was a backstory about a local dance being reinstated twenty years after an incident where five miners died with Harry Warden (Peter Cowper) resorting to cannibalism for survival.
In the current day of this movie's release, you had a lovely triangle between the seemingly nice Axel Palmer (Neil Affleck), his girlfriend Sarah Mercer (Lori Happier) and her ex boyfriend, Tom Jesse "T.J." Hanniger (Paul Kelman). The latter having recently returned to the town of Valentine Bluffs and already making his presence felt by everyone, but especially Axel and Sarah.
Of course with this triangle brewing, there was the Miner as well going around and killing as many of the locals as possible. Locals that included Mabel (Patricia Hamilton), Dave (Carl Marotte) and Sylvia (Helene Udy) to name but a few. The deaths are gory with the likes of laundromats, impaling and boiling water factoring into the kills along with some heart eating and gruesome calling cards left in their wake.
With the younger cast responding to their Valentine's dance being banned again by taking their party to the mines, it seemed like a fitting location for the Miner to finish the job. Not to mention it was also the perfect place for the Miner to reveal their identity.
Having the nice but seemingly boring Axel being revealed as the Miner did kind of work, especially with flashbacks providing suitable context for why he snapped and started killing. Axel almost got a rather suitable demise as well as a maniacal laugh to end the movie on an unsettling note.
- A remake, titled My Bloody Valentine 3D came out in 2009 and I'll be reviewing that as well. Blumhouse are also doing their own reboot.
- Harry Warden's laugh can be heard at the start of the movie.
- Standout music: There's a rather creepy ballad for Harry Warden (the original killer that triggered Axel) that's used a lot in the movie.
- Chronology: Set in the fictional Canadian town of Valentine Bluffs.
My Bloody Valentine did make for a decent enough horror with some suitably gory. It's weakened by the main live triangle not being very compelling though but not enough to overall derail the movie.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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