It’s shocking how well 1981’s “My Bloody Valentine” holds up. While it is a holiday themed slasher film that would end up becoming one of many, it can be placed in a league of its own for how creepy, eerie, and tense it still is. Sure you can argue that George Mihalka’s film is a bit rough around the edges. In one scene when character Hollis discovers a young couple impaled on top of each other, in a quick edit, you can see the actress breathing. But that doesn’t stop “My Bloody Valentine” from turning in to a very tightly written and engaging horror film about a psychotic miner who really hates Valentine’s Day. Mihalka’s film transforms in to a slick amalgam of “Friday the 13th” and “The Town that Dreaded Sundown,” where our maniac Harry Warden is created after the result of gross negligence.
His supervisors left him and his co-workers in the mine to attend to an annual Valentine’s party, prompting Harry to survive by killing and eating the other survivors. Only Harry lived, and went on a vengeance filled rampage. The specter of a maniacal miner named Harry Warden still haunts Valentine’s Bluff, and despite the elders’ efforts to move on, and make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day once again, Harry Warden has inexplicably returned and is slaughtering a lot of the elders responsible for the crime. Despite succeeding in many eerie chase scenes, and murders, “My Bloody Valentine” has a great sense of humor about itself to boot. From Harry’s poems, and the human hearts he sends the mayor, it’s a slasher great that deserves celebration. Among many, five more reasons why “My Bloody Valentine” is a slasher great.
5. There’s an Action Packed Runaway Mine Cart Scene
Sorry Indiana Jones, but “My Bloody Valentine” kind of beat you to it. After a painfully disastrous attempt to escape the mine by climbing to the top, the remaining survivors make a last ditch effort to flee by mine cart. Things don’t go as planned when Harry Warden hitches a ride, prompting the last characters to battle him on board the running mine cart, and then eventually jump off and face off with him in within the belly of the mine. There’s no Short Round, but it still allows for a tense getaway scene.
4. The Twist Makes Sense
While the twist ending is about as inexplicable as the one in “Sleepaway Camp” and “Friday the 13th,” Mihalka’s slasher film at least examines the fall out of a vicious crime. The negligence of Valentine’s Bluff creates a ripple effect of violence, chaos and death, as Harry is the victim who incidentally creates others of his kind in an attempt to garner payback for being left to die and resort to cannibalism. Here the deaths have consequences, and the killing spree will cast another shadow on “Valentine’s Bluff” for decades to come. As an added dose of terror, it’s heavily implied that the presence of Harry Warden is supernatural. Was Harry Warden an evil spirit who possessed a past victim for one last massacre? Or did the mines just rot anyone with a weak mind, turning them in to psychopaths? Did Sarah help evoke Harry Warden? Did the mines possess its final victim, or did Warden? Guess we’ll never know.
3. Harry Warden’s Design is Underrated
The Killer Harry Warden’s Design is Original in an age where every movie ripped off Jason or Freddy. This is the decade where every movie had to have at least someone wielding an axe or machete, or have some kind of nod to Jason and or Freddy. Even some of the strongest slashers had some kind of wink to Jason in their movie promos and whatnot. Harry Warden’s design is spooky and often times very menacing with his blinding light atop his head, and mask that looks like a screaming ghost in the vein of the mask in Wes Craven’s Scream. The droning Darth Vader breathing from within the mask, and clever ways he’s able to murder most of his victims allows for Harry Warden to be one of the more horrific and relentless slashers in the sub-genre, who is so maniacal and broken, he’s virtually beyond help by the time the movie comes to its haunting closing credits.
2. The Kills Are Absolutely Vicious
When Harry Warden begins slaughtering his victims, he makes it abundantly clear he wants Valentine’s Day to end. He begins slashing through locals and makes them suffer before ending their lives. The kills in the film are cruel, mean spirited and very well filmed. One woman has her heart cut out and is put in a Laundromat. One guy is drowned in a boiling pot of hot dog water. One man has a pick axe jammed through his head as his eye dangles from the tip. Another woman has her head jammed in to a sharp pipe. The nail gun murder is easily the best and most excruciating of the bunch.
1. There’s An Actual Story, and It’s Great
Unlike a lot of other slasher movies from the eighties, the story behind “My Bloody Valentine” actually manages to be very engaging. The characters here are all very fleshed out and don’t just feel like cannon fodder you’re waiting to die. There’s the small town whose economy relies on the mine they operate, and there’s still the shadow of the vicious murders committed by Harry Warden a maniacal miner, as well as the gross negligence committed by the supervisors. There’s a group of friends trying to engage in Valentine’s festivities after spending months working in the local mines.
There’s also TJ who arrives back in town to claim his former girlfriend Sarah, who has unfortunately moved on to date new boyfriend Axel. The trio was once best friends and now Axel and TJ gradually become bitter rivals for her affection. What’s worse is Sarah eventually becomes torn with former lover TJ who she shares a passion for, and Axel who she really loves. Meanwhile the mayor and local authorities are being sent human hearts and body parts by “Harry Warden” who is warning them to cease all Valentine’s celebrations. Despite displaying caution and ending celebrations, the teens decide to party anyway, oblivious to Warden’s return. When they finally realize what’s going on in their town, it’s much too late, and once again the result of gross negligence.
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