My Bloody Valentine [DVD] [1981]

This is an extremely enjoyable horror. I remember seeing the cover of this on a video as a kid and being intruigued, and watching it all these years later, it's a fun and exciting slasher. The plot has a fun conceit - that a miner went nuts after an accident on Valentine's Day and caused a bloodbath, warning the town not to celebrate the holiday again. So naturally when the day gets revived, the corpses begin to mount up...
It's filled with great performances and features the usual 'is it the original killer or a new guy?' dilemma that's in every slasher of this design. This aspect is played very well. The gore is pretty good, and the tension and stalking scenes are very well executed as well. The killer is very distinctive and fun to look at, and it has a very exciting ending. Well worth watching.

*****  2010-08-06 Benminx

Wow, this is a really great looking BD. For those who don't know: After many years this movie can now be seen in it's original unrated Version, sure you will notice that the new integrated scenes are not of the same quality, but what the hell, now they are here and this moves My Bloody Valentine from a sleeping pill to a really good slasher movie. Important for us here in Europe: The BD is codefree, so come and get some of this great 80's feeling again.

*****  2009-12-27 A streetar with desire

You can't beat the old one. this dvd is still the best. the remake is not bad but
when you see the very first my bloody valentine, some blood, few nasty bits but not as bad as the remake, i would say watch this film for yourself, make up your own mind.....

thanks

*****  2009-11-04 Mr. A. Ransome

This early 80s slasher opens in true fashion with a couple of gas-mask wearing miners, getting jiggy with it at the bottom of a mine. One of the miners takes off her mask (and half of her clothes) and reveals herself to be a blonde female with a red heart tattoo above her left breast. Her fellow `miner' stops her from removing his mask, and tenderly strokes her breast before suddenly impaling her on his pickaxe.
Cut to a bunch of good old boys laughing and joking as they knock-off from the mine and head to town to see their sweethearts and whoop it up at the town's Valentines party; one man however has been ditched by his babe and stands moodily in the corner sipping his beer; is he after revenge..?

As a mysterious masked killer cuts down the town's residents, leaving their hearts in chocolate boxes as a warning to others, the mayor and chief of police recall a vengeful miner, Harry Warden, who blames the town for the death of five of his colleagues 20 years earlier. Has Harry escaped from the secure unit where he was committed after committing two similar murders in 1960? Is the doom-mongering bartender the one behind the grisly slayings? What will happen when the young miners and their girls defy Harry's chilling warnings and hold a Valentine's party in the old mine...?

It's interesting seeing this homely and not at all scary movie, with its generally not at all good looking leads and inevitable end, after the glossy 2009 remake. Good fun for 90 minutes and there is some surprise in the ending after all...

*****  2009-06-12 Captain Pugwash

If you needed a reminder of how things have moved on over the years, then this is it.

In 1981 this was probably one of the most frightening films ever made, and the censors had a party with this. Some cinemas felt this to hot to handle, even with some scenes cut. These days you can see worse on television.

The film itself, with all but 6 minutes of the cut material, is back in its original form. It has a good story line. Without spoiling it, by revealing the plot, the film is based around a spate of grisly murders on valentines day. It is the same lunatic who did the same years earlier and promised to come back?

Even now there are a few scares, surprises, twists and turns. Graphic certainly, excessive probably not these days. So, still worth seeing, withs its exciting and perhaps surprising ending, but will not give the nightmares that it gave some in 1981.

*****  2009-04-03 Red Rose