February 11, 1981
My Bloody Valentine is a 1981 Canadian slasher film directed by George Mihalka and written by John Beaird. It stars Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, and Neil Affleck. The plot tells about a group of young adults who decide to throw a Valentine's Day party, only to incur the vengeful wrath of a maniac in mining gear who begins a killing spree.
Conceived and produced entirely over the course of around a year, the film was shot on location in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, in the fall of 1980. It was theatrically released on February 11, 1981 by Paramount Pictures, coinciding with the Valentine's holiday. Despite a mixed response from critics and grossing $5.7 million at the box office, the film has developed a large cult following over the years since its release.
My Bloody Valentine faced notable censorship, having a total of nine minutes cut by the Motion Picture Association of America due to the amount of violence and gore. Though co-producer Dunning confirmed that the excised footage still existed, attempts to release it proved difficult as Paramount Pictures refused to offer an uncut version. In 2009, Lionsgate subsequently licensed the home media rights to the film and released Blu-ray and DVD editions with three minutes of additional footage restored. The same year, Lionsgate released a remake of the film.
Storyline[]
Inside a mine shaft, a female miner takes off her gear in front of another miner. When the woman performs a striptease, the miner pushes her onto a mining pickaxe, killing her. Mayor Hanniger of Valentine Bluffs, a Canadian mining town, reinstates the traditional Valentine's Day dance, which has been suspended for twenty years. The dances stopped 20 years ago after an accident in which two supervisors left five miners in the mines to attend the dance. Because they forgot to check methane gas levels in the mining tunnels, there was an explosion that caused the mining tunnel to cave in and trapped the miners. Harry Warden, the only survivor, resorted to cannibalism to survive and went insane from the ordeal. The next year, he murdered the two supervisors who left their posts the previous year, cut out their hearts and placed them in Valentine candy boxes, with a note from Harry warning the town never to hold the Valentine's Day Dance ever again or he will commit more killings. Warden was placed in an insane asylum and the accident was forgotten, so the dance resumed. A group of young residents is excited about the dance: Gretchen, Dave, Hollis, Patty, Sylvia, Howard, Mike, John, Tommy, and Harriet. Sarah, Axel, and the mayor's son T.J. are involved in a tense love triangle.
Mayor Hanniger and the town's police chief Jake Newby receive an anonymous box of Valentine chocolates containing a human heart, and a note warning that murders will begin if the dance proceeds. That evening, resident Mabel is murdered by a mining-geared killer in a laundromat, and her heart is removed. Newby publicly reports that she died of a heart attack to prevent a panic. He contacts the mental institution where Harry Warden was incarcerated, but they have no record of him. Hanniger and Newby cancel the dance but the town's youngsters decide to hold their own party at the mine. A bartender warns them against it but is killed by the miner while trying to set up a dummy miner to scare the group.
At the party, the miner brutally kills Dave; his heart is subsequently found boiling in a pot of hot dogs being prepared in the kitchen. Shortly after, Sylvia is impaled on a showerhead by the miner. When the others realize Dave and Sylvia have been murdered, they contact authorities, but several of the partygoers have already decided to enter the mines for fun. Newby rushes into the mines with police to rescue them. The miner impales a large drill into Mike and Harriet and shoots a nail gun into Hollis's head. Horrified, Howard flees. The remaining four try to climb to the top with a ladder but discover a dead beheaded Howard.
While finding their way out, Axel drowns and Patty is killed by the miner. The miner chases T.J. and Sarah and a fight ensues. The miner is revealed to be Axel, who faked his demise. A flashback shows that Axel's father was one of the supervisors killed by Harry Warden. As a child, Axel witnessed Harry Warden murdering his father and tearing out his heart, which traumatized him. T.J. hits Axel with a rock, resulting in the tunnel collapsing, which traps Axel as Newby and the police arrive to rescue T.J. and Sarah. Chief Newby reveals to them that Harry Warden died five years earlier. T.J. and Sarah hear a rescuer shout that Axel is still alive, and they rush back to the scene. They watch as Axel frees himself from the debris by amputating his trapped arm. He runs deeper into the mine shouting threats that he and Harry Warden will return and murder everyone in town, and mumbling about Sarah being his "bloody valentine" (it seems to be implied that Axel's words are just words of insanity and blood loss, which it is also implied that he is dying from). The film ends with Axel laughing maniacally as a ballad for Harry Warden plays over the film's credits.
Also See[]
Sound Effects Used[]
- Sound Ideas, EXPLOSION - LARGE EXPLOSION 03 (H-B)
- Sound Ideas, SCREAM - MALE, TERROR, HUMAN, HORROR (Heard only in the remaster.)