My Bloody Valentine (1981)

When you think of horror classics you think of films like Halloween and Friday the 13th. Rarely will you see someone who names My Bloody Valentine. That's not surprising as it came out in 1981 and it had to compete with huge slasher flicks like The Burning, The Evil Dead, Final Exam, Friday the 13th Part 2, Halloween II, The Prowler etc. In fact My Bloody Valentine is a mix between two of those. It has the stalking/hounting scenes of Halloween and a brute, huge killer like Friday the 13th. Is it as good as those movies though?

There's a big valentine-party planned in the little coal mining town of Valentine Bluffs, Nova Scotia. It is the first Valentine's Day party in 20 years, because then there was an accident in the mine, and the accident happened because the men responsible for the security were at the party. The sole surviving miner, named Harry Warden, later killed them, and told the town NEVER to arrange a Valentine's Day party again. The party begins, and so does the killing...

My Blood Valentine is a typical 80's slasher film. Not surprisingly a group of teens decide to party (in this case a valentine's party) and the killer sees it as a huge opportuninty to drop some bodies. The killer, dressed up in the typical mining suit, does look extremely cool and creepy. Unfortunately the teens are less cool. They are seriously the most asshole teens in a slasher film ever, and there are a lot... They are not funny, while they think they are and I just couldn't wait for good ol' Henry Warden to kill 'em all off. 

And that is when the disappointment starts to creep in. The kills are rather boring. While some of the ideas for the kill scenes are very cool the actual kill scene's are rather disappointing. My Bloody Valentine lacks a lot of gore. Films like Halloween got away with it due to the tension of Michael Myers creeping around the house but that ain't the fact here. If there ain't no gore I want to see the killer doing some creepy things. Unfortunately, except for some first-person stalking, this happens rarely. The atmosphere is OK but not great either. 

Fortunately the dumb ass partiers decide to go down the mines to party some more. This setting does create more tension and atmosphere and that's the reason why the last 20 minutes are a bit more entertaining. Still nothing great but watchable at the very least. 

The killer's awesome appearence is one of the better things of this movie. The films has some decent atmosphere and tension but almost no gore. At least my version didn't have any. When I look at google images I see more gory pictures that weren't included in my version. I guess I saw a CUT version then. God damn those assholes. For now it'll be 2,5 stars but I'll give the unrated version a watch sooner or later so that I can compare it and maybe the rate will be higher. 

SO KEEP IN MIND. I APPARENTLY SAW A CUT VERSION.

Fun Facts: (Source: IMDB)

Star Neil Affleck said that the identity of the films killer was kept a secret even from the cast because the filmmakers liked the idea of the mystery being real among the actors. Although Affleck figured out that he was the killer when after being cast, he was sent to the make up effects department to be fitted for a fake arm that would be ripped off of the killer in the film's finale.