My Bloody Valentine – Blu-ray
Director: George Mihalka
Stars: Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
1981’s My Bloody Valentine is one of the best slashers ever made, easily beating better-known entries in some of the big franchises like Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and more. It has been on disc before—it even had an uncut version before—so what does Scream Factory’s new release of this slasher classic bring to the table? Well, keep on reading, and let’s find out.
Just in case you’ve never seen MBV before, here’s the plot in a nutshell. In a town called Valentine Bluffs, Valentine’s Day is kind of a big deal. Yeah, I know, who would have guessed? Anyway, years ago there was a horrible accident at the town’s mine during the big Valentine’s dance, and it gave birth to serial killer Harry Warden, who was never caught. Now, years later, the town is once again planning a Valentine’s party and it looks like Harry is back, with his pickax, gas mask, and blood lust, to make sure that doesn’t happen.
My Bloody Valentine is full of fun and funny characters that you come to like and care about, so when they start getting snuffed out one by one, well, you actually care. I know, what a concept. It has a memorable killer in Harry, who looks great in his full miner getup, has his own signature weapon with his trusty pickax, and could have easily become as iconic as his buddies Fred, J-dog, and Mikey, if he only had a few more films under his belt. It has a great location for the climax, being a real underground mine, giving everything a dark, gloomy, claustrophobic and atmospheric feel. And the kills, always an important part in slasher flicks, are some of the best and most memorable in the genre. It also has something that 95% of slashers don’t: a cool theme song about the killer. I love those! All in all this film, ticks every box in what makes slasher films so good. If you have somehow missed this one all your life you really, really need to change that.
On to the extras that Scream Factory has given us with this new take on the slasher classic. First there are two Blu-rays here: one is the theatrical cut, and the other is uncut, with a lot of the great gore gags put back in, and I have to say, unlike other uncut versions of this movie, Scream Factory went out of their way to restore this cut footage to make it look as good as possible. I absolutely love that. Director George Mihalka introduces the uncut version, and he also contributes a commentary track for it. There is a 35th Anniversary cast reunion on here, a video of Thomas Kovacs (who was Mike in the film) performing the classic “Ballad of Harry Warden” (if you’ve ever heard it, you know what I mean). There are a bunch of interviews collected here, seven of them to be exact, with the director, the special make-up effects designer, and five of the actors. There is a new featurette done for this called “Holes in the Heart,” showing off the differences between the theatrical and uncut versions of the film. A trailer, TV spots, radio spots, and a still gallery are all here to bring this impressive collection of extras to an end.
My Bloody Valentine is one of the best slashers ever made, and this is easily the best edition of this horror classic to ever come out, so yeah, consider this one highly recommended and a must have. This comes out February 11th and should not be missed.
