My Bloody Valentine is a 1981 Canadian slasher film directed by George Mihalka from a screen-play written by John Beaird.
The movie was conceived and produced entirely over the course of around a year. The movie was shot and filmed on location in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, in the fall of 1980. It was theatrically released in Canada on February 13, 1981 by Paramount Pictures Corporation, coinciding with the Valentine’s holiday. It had a mixed response from critics and it grossed $5.7 million at the box office.
The film had faced notable censorship – it had over nine total minutes cut by the Motion Picture Association of America due to the amount of violence and gore, though, the co-producer Dunning confirmed that the uncut footage still existed.
They tried several times to produce it, but Paramount Pictures refused to release an uncut version of it. In 2009, Lionsgate licensed the home media rights of the film and released Blu-ray and DVD editions of the film including three additional minutes of footage. Later that year Lionsgate also released a remake of the film.
The cast includes Paul Kelman as Tom Jesse “T.J.” Hanniger, Lori Hallier as Sarah Mercer, Neil Affleck as Axel Palmer, Cynthia Dale as Patty, Don Francks as Chief Jake Newby, Keith Knight as Hollis, Alf Humphreys as Howard Landers, Terry Waterland as Harriet, Thomas Kovacs as Mike Stavinski, Helene Udy as Sylvia, Rob Stein as John, Patricia Hamilton as Mabel Osborne, Gina Dick as Gretchen, Larry Reynolds as Mayor Hanniger, Jim Murchison as Tommy Whitcomb, Carl Marotte as Davek, Jack Van Evera as “Happy”, and Peter Cowper as Harry Warden / The Miner.
The movie begins when Mayor Hanniger of Valentine Bluffs, a Canadian mining town, reinstates the traditional Valentines Day dance, which has been suspended for 20 years. The dances stopped 20y years ago after an incident in which two supervisors left five miners in the mines to attend the dance.
Because they forgot to check the methane gas levels in the mining tunnels, there was an explosion that caused the mining tunnel to cave in and trap 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 their hearts out and placed them in Valentines candy boxes, with a note from Harry warning the town never to hold the Valentines Day dance ever again or he will kill more people.
Overall I’d give the movie an 8/10 because it was fairly predictable but it was a fairly unique plot.
