“My Bloody Valentine” (1981)

Studio: Paramount Pictures
Starring: Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck
Directed by: George Mihalka
Rated: R
Running Time: 90 min.

Synopsis: A killer attacks a mining town on Valentine’s Day.

REVIEW

Back in the early 80’s, a trend was started, which actually started as far back as the 70’s, but became more frequent in the decade after. I’m talking about slasher films with a holiday theme. There have been tons and some have been good and some have been bad. My Bloody Valentine is neither a classic nor a terrible film. It’s an okay horror film that has a few good scares, but a lot of cheesy moments.

Since most slasher films have their killers wearing a mask of some sorts and every new horror film was trying to be creative with the killer’s outfit. This one has their killer disguised as a miner, since most of the film takes place in a mine. The killer is decked out in a miner jumpsuit, helmet with a spotlight on it, a miner’s facemask with a breathing apparatus, and a trusty pitch ax to cut up his victims.

The movie starts off with two miners walking around a shaft. One of them takes off their mask and it turns out to be a beautiful woman. She starts to come on to the other miner and the two start to warm each other up in the cold mine. Some sexual innuendo when she starts to stroke the miner’s hose from his mask. Everything seems to be going fine, until the miner sees the bright red heart shaped tattoo on her breast and he takes his pitch ax and stabs her right in the heart. She lets out a blood-curdling scream as the picture zooms into her mouth and the title of the film appears.

The plot of the film is nothing new and borrows some of the same elements from films like Friday the 13th and Prom Night. The movie is basically about some murders that happened years ago that involved a miner who was left for dead in a mine explosion while his bosses were attending a Valentine’s Day dance. The miner is eventually saved, but goes mad from being trapped in the mine so long. A year later, the miner murdered one of his employers and warned the town to never hold the dance ever again. Twenty years later, the town plans to bring the dance back, but killings start to happen again. At the time this formula was used again and again in many slasher films.

One thing I want to point out is that the town is called Valentine Bluffs and it seems like there’s just the people that work in the mine, the mayor, and the sheriff, are the only people that live in the town. The film uses the color red all through the movie, in clothes, vehicles, homes, and course Valentine decorations. They are plenty of standard goofy slasher moments throughout this film. There’s a part where the mayor and his assistant are planning the dance and they’re trying to avoid talking about the murders that happened years ago when the typical prankster character plays a joke on them and bloody ups his head for a laugh. Of course this doesn’t go over well and the mayor is furious with him.

There are a few good cheesy murder scenes in the film. The mayor’s assistant is burnt or mutilated somehow, when they find her rolling around in a dryer at a laundry mat. One thing that is quit odd is that all the dryers were still going when they found her and she was murdered the night before. All dryers last an hour, so I guess the killer was running back and forth and stuffing quarters in the machines to keep them going. Then there’s the scene where the crazy old bartender tries to scare the kids. The town decides to stop the dance from going on, but the miners decide to have their own private party at the mine, which they shout out loud and the local bar. Well, the bartender warns them not to go through with it and plants a trap for them just to scare them. He sets up a dummy with a miner’s outfit in a closet that when you open the door it pops out for a scare. While the old man is amusing himself by what he had created by opening and shutting the door, the real killer comes out and with his pitch ax stabs him in the neck.

A not so cheesy murder is when one of the girls from the group is killed. While she waits for her boyfriend to return with a beer, she lies on the floor in a room filled with miner jumpsuits and masks hanging above. Suddenly a bunch of them start falling on her. She tries to escapes, but they keep on landing on her. Then she is met with the killer, who grabs her by the face and pushes her head through a shower faucet. This is a very brutal and suspenseful scenes and one of the best parts of the film.

My Bloody Valentine is although unoriginal and cheesy, it is a fun movie to watch. The acting and dialogue is laughable at times, but it has its moments. The scenes of horror are done very well and at times suspenseful. Not one of best out of the 80’s slasher bunch, but still a good horror flick to watch.