Monday, September 27, 2010

My Bloody Valentine (1981) - Dollar Bin Film

By: Brandon Sites - Make Sure To Sign Up For My Giveaway of Aaah! Zombies!! CLICK HERE!

Love is in the air! With Halloween just around the corner, it has people anxious to celebrate their favorite day of the year or reminisce about the past.  In doing so, they are thinking about things they love. So they got me thinking about the past and the first time I viewed My Bloody Valentine.

Back when I was in fifth grade, one of my classmates was telling me about this film that he loved to watch every year called My Bloody Valentine. Since, he was kinda the outcast, I just listened half heartily, though the title stuck with me. So I went to my local video store to look up this movie. I saw the tape box and I have to say it was pretty awful. It turned me off to the film completely. I told this classmate this, yet he assured me to give it a chance......

So when my local store, was looking to clear up room on their shelves, they put My Bloody Valentine up for sale for the bargain price of $7.99. So for some odd reason, I bought it. I got home and watched the film immediately. My Bloody Valentine deals with a former coal miner who escapes from the loony bin to kill off those that celebrate Valentine's Day. You see, decades earlier he was trapped in a coal mine on Valentine's Day by some idiots who left their post in the mine early to attend the town's annual dance. So he swore vengeance on this that ever celebrated Valentine's Day in the future.

My Bloody Valentine is filled with all kinds of soap operaish moments in which a cheesy music score plays in the background and the main characters pout and emote up a storm because of their broken hearts. When My Bloody Valentine gets away from the drama of things and focuses in on the horror, that's when it really soars. The film slowly teases the audience with some very deliberate pacing before it pays off the viewer with some serious jump scares. My Bloody Valentine is like really hot sex. You start out with some foreplay, some other sexually related activities, then you get on to the actual sex part, and finish off with a climax. When it comes to scares and the buildup of those scares, My Bloody Valentine just doesn't have sex with the viewer, it makes love to them!

My Bloody Valentine also utilizes its mine setting to full effect. The mine is this labyrinth with all kinds of hidden dangers, unknown entrances and exits, and all kinds of other pitfalls. The mine in of itself becomes another character.

For sheer suspense and terror, you can't go wrong with My Bloody Valentine, though you just might want to fast forward past the dramatic scenes.

A little trivia- Back when this used to air on USA Up All Night, the bar in which the characters hang out at was filled with a bunch of nudie pics. Well, I guess USA didn't catch that and failed to censor that. So that made My Bloody Valentine all that more naughty back when it aired on Up All Night.

3 comments:

Sheri said...

I saw that movie on a date right on Valentine's Day. I loved it! But I think my date thought I was weird.

Eric Polk said...

Certainly one of my favorites early-80s slasher films. To be honest, it is the drama between the lady and the two gents that made this film a step above the other hack-n-slashers of the time.

Anonymous said...

This 80's horror film from Canada has allways been one of my favs!! signed ''FANTASM ''