For the record, I HATE Valentines Day!
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Directed By: George Mihalka (Relative Fear)
The Prologue
Well it’s that time of year again! Time for everyone to lie and tell each other that they love one anther and how they’ll stick with each other for ever and ever, then go out and spend tons of cash that could be used for cool things like HORROR MOVIES on cards, candy, and bears that are bigger than the person they are being bought for!..Not that I’m bitter about any past relationship or anything,…I’m just sayin’
So for Valentines Day, the most useless holiday of them all I’ve decided not only to be a bitter bastard but to get in the spirit of the money grabbing holiday by watch some movies with the V-day theme..and thus we have, My Bloody Valentine from 1981. A slasher that somewhat went under a few radars until the remake last year.
My first encounter of this movie came when I was a kid and saw a very cut version one late night on USA’s Up All Night..oh memories!
The Movie
A decades old folk tale surrounding a deranged murderer killing those who celebrate Valentine’s Day, turns out to be true to legend when a group defies the killer’s order and people start turning up dead…This is the price one must pay to party I suppose!
This film came out during the over kill of all slasher films and thus was kinda of a bomb at the box office, to top that it was still cut all to hell but recently a DVD was released (Around the time of the remake) that was uncut so that is what I’m watching here, and the extra bits of added gore do help a lot.
Now the movie doesn’t really take off at a break neck pace but it does end up giving us a grand total of 12 dead bodies and since we were on the subject of the gore the word is some was soo good that a few cases was reported of people’s on the set getting sick at the sight of some of the folks in their makeup, so I can surely appreciate that.
I think the Coal Miner outfit is one of the best slasher looks any slasher has had. I’d rank it up there with such things as Jason and Micheal’s looks. The looks of the movie are also cool looking with all the Valentines Day decoration around the place, but then again wasn’t all the stuff like that soo much better looking in the 80′s?
For it’s time there’s a pretty good twist to the movie and I think the ending sequence right before the credits roll is very creepy, something that stood with me from the first time I saw it as a kid. I didn’t remember much of it but I did remember that.
But when you get past the look and the good but somewhat limited gore screen time you end up with pretty much a normal run of the mill slasher film. A lot better than some Halloween or Friday the 13th films but probably not as good as stuff like the first Silent Night, Deadly Night or even The Burning. But one of the most watchable out of the zillion slashers by far.
The Conclusion
Very well worth your time folks just a little bit dated by this day and age even for an 80′s slasher. But it gave us a very good concept for the other wise too lovey dovey for my taste holiday and it gave us a cool slasher costume to boot!
I think everyone should kick back with their “loved one” on the 14th and make a point to pass up the chick flicks and watch this movie.
The Rating (6.5/10)
Chucks website
