grantss Valentine's Day is coming around and the young people of the small mining town of Valentine's BLuffs are organising a party. A few decades earlier an explosion at the mine trapped six miners underground. One, Harry Warden, survived, though in a deranged state. Warden is sent to a mental hospital but escapes and murders those he deems responsible for the mine accident. Now people are being brutally murdered again, and the townsfolk suspect that it is the work of Harry Warden.Better than your average slasher-horror, not that this says much. Reasonable set up, and a decent amount of intrigue. Does fall back on many horror clichés, and the performances are so-so. Plot is ultimately fairly formulaic, but has its moments.

jadavix The original "My Bloody Valentine" is a tedious and utterly unexceptional slasher flick. The only thing that could be said to set it apart is the violence, which is quite a bit more graphic than the average '80s slasher. The "kills" are easy to miss, though, and I had to rewind a couple of times because the movie's tedium and inability to highlight the only aspect of it that made it stand out led me to stop paying attention in key scenes. In one scene, a man cops a pick-axe through the throat, the point of which exits through his eye socket. In another scene, a man falls from a ladder and is decapitated by a chain or something. I watched this twice and still didn't really get it.The only people involved in the movie who knew what they were doing were the special effects guy and maybe the guy who played the guy who got the pick axe through the neck and eyeball. The director was totally out of his depth.

Joseph Griffin My Bloody Valentine (1981) is one of the "slasher" greats, in my opinion. However, when I first watched the film, I found it to be quite predictable up until the ending. Want to know why the remake was horrible? Because it didn't feature "The Ballad of Harry Warden." I was surprised a sequel wasn't attempted, given that the ending basically was open for a follow-up. By the way, I'm Nova Scotian and a filmmaker. A horror filmmaker. This film will always be an influence. I found the image of the real Harry Warden murdering Axel's father, dark in tone. It contributed greatly to the film. I gave this film nine out of ten, because, like I mentioned earlier, I found it quite predictable. But then again, isn't it all of the clichés that make for a classic horror film?

loomis78-815-989034 By 1981 the slasher film craze started by John Carpenter's influential "Halloween" could be felt throughout the genre and everyone was jumping on the bandwagon. From independent films to big studios every holiday on the calendar was being used as an excuse to have a crazed killer stalking, usually teenagers. Paramount studios already struck gold with "Friday the 13th" and then moved on to Valentine's Day with this offering. Even though it is essentially the same plot, this one offered up a different setting and more adult characters which would help a lot. Set in the small town of Valentine's Bluff, a mining accident kills a group of men while the town was celebrating a Valentine's Day dance and party. The lone survivor, named Harry Warden (Peter Cowper), warns the town to never have another valentine dance or party, or else. Jump ahead twenty years and guess what? The town is getting ready for a Valentine's Day dance. The Sheriff receives two heart shaped candy boxes with real hearts in them! The party's coordinator Mabel (Patricia Hamilton) is killed (In one of the movie's scariest scenes of serious stalk and slash) and her body is stuffed into a dryer until she is a crispy corpse. The Sheriff and town officials quickly cancel the party. This doesn't stop the group of hard working miners and their girlfriends of having a private party in the mine itself. The party is crashed by an angry killer wearing a gas mask and picks them off in gory fashion mostly by pick ax. It's refreshing to see adult characters instead of the idiot teenagers that usually fill these films. Somehow all of this is a little more believable. Even though they are killed off in the same manner, the film has a realistic feel to it. Add the fact that Director George Mihalka delivers solid suspense, an aggressive killer, some bloody and inventive kills; and My Bloody Valentine turns into everything a slasher film fan can ask for. The mine setting, with its underground tunnels has a closed in look that ads unexpected atmosphere. The killer has a memorable appearance in full miners gear making him one of the more intimidating killers from these types of films. The killer is particularly vicious and this movie has gory scenes that are memorable. Mihalka takes a simple scenario of a girl waiting for her boyfriend to come back with beer and milks it for solid scares which end in a wicked impalement of the girl on a shower head. They die by the numbers but it's the getting there is where the fun lies and this film delivers.