Meurtres à la St-Valentin

This early 80's horror flick is one of the best of the slasher genre. It has a great setting in a small Canadian mining town - which has it's streets and buildings drenched with red and pink valentine decorations - which is a surreal contrast to the cold and sombre setting that foreshadows the real pumpers that eventually pop up in crimson heart shaped candy boxes.

The scenes filmed in an actual mine - where the protagonists are trapped with the killer lurking around with a sharpened pickaxe - are expertly filmed with plenty of style and a menacing atmosphere. The acting is decent and although some of the characters act like jerks they are likable and human enough for the viewer to care about them. They are all working class stiffs and just want a good time and relief from the reality of their everyday situation. You want them to have their valentine party that has been denied them for obvious reasons.

Notorious for being one of the most censored films by the MPAA at the time of release to avoid an 'X' rating, it is now available in an uncut form on Lionsgate DVD. The death scenes are much more detailed and graphic, but either version is worth watching for the flourish that the director and his cast and crew have imbued into this little horror gem.

Quentin Tarantino has called this his all-time favorite slasher film, and it's one I'd never seen, so I went into this with fairly high expectation. Unfortunately, this film still pales when compared to John Carpenters "Halloween" or William Lustig's "Maniac." Still, it's well made and does stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the better slasher films of the 70s and 80s; "The Town that Dreaded Sundown," "The Burning," "Sleepaway Camp," "Black Christmas," and such. The story involves a coal mining town where a maniac wearing mining gear kills hapless victim with a pickax, boiling water, shower head nozzles, and other implements that all prove deadly. The film does have a decent who-done-it mystery element to it and when the mystery is revealed at the end it's not a copout and is satisfyingly done, which is a rarity for most slasher films. Overall, I wouldn't say "My Bloody Valentine" is a classic, but it is a must see for slasher film fans.

Nice terror movie plenty of ominous murders , chills , thrills , scary scenes and lots of blood and guts . Slasher movie about a coalminer who axes numerous victims in a little mining town which becomes pretty sinister with the miner killer appearing . The caption near the beginning states "Thursday February 12th", indicating that the dance will be on Saturday the 14th . A decades old folk tale surrounding a deranged murderer killing those who celebrate Valentine's Day, turns out to be true to legend when a group defies the killer's order and people start turning up dead . This bizarre little horror movie is set in a mining town , on Valentine an explosion of methane gas took the lives of a group of coal miners working in the Hanniger Mine . Long time after, Hanniger (Kelman) returns to his hometown on the tenth anniversary of the Valentine's night massacre that claimed the lives of 22 people , male as well female and many of the townspeople have their hearts removed with a pick-axe and sent in candy boxes . There's a big valentine-party planned in the little coal mining town of Valentine Bluffs, Nova Scotia . Later on , a blood-soaked heart arrives at the police station commanded by Chief Jake Newby (Don Francks) , accompanied by a heinous message . Hanniger meets his old flame named Patty (Cynthia Dale) and a bit later on he finds himself suspected of committing some new killings . The Valentine party is prohibited but being held in another place: at the coal mine, and it isn't long before the town's young people begin dying violently . It appears Harry Warden , a psychotic coalminer who has returned to punish them and several people are cruelly murdered .

The picture is a sleek production with average budget and packs genuine chills , suspense , tension , head-slitting and shocks ; it turns out to be a terror-thriller very exciting . Gory , gruesome , pretty repellent , ghastly and unrelenting shock-feast laced with a loving triangle . The film is paced with intelligent edition , special use of color and slick utilization of shock images that take place in the astonishing close-up crimes committed by means of a pickax . This scary movie displays terror , shocks , hard-edged scenes and creepy images and abundant gore . While the look is suitable atmospheric and eerie , the plot stretches plausibility to the breaking point . The gory and bloodiest images were cut out to avoid a X-rating . This is a customary splatter plenty of grisly killing , thrills , gruesome shocks , nauseating chills and quite entertaining . It relies heavily on old-fashioned buckets of blood and the plot belongs the same of 'Slashers genre' in ¨ Halloween ¨, ¨Nightmare in Elm Street ¨, ¨ Friday 13 ¨, style . In fact , The Friday the 13th series and the plot of My Bloody Valentine is similar to the Friday the 13th films ; as it was released by Paramount attempting to do same box office . Being recently remade in 3D by Patrick Lussier , starred by Jensen Ackles ,Jaime King , Kerr Smith , Megan Boone ; the latter film being based on original directed by George Mihalka . This is an usual excruciatingly splatter film in which the intrigue , tension , suspense appears threatening and lurking in every corridor , party , mine , shaft , tunnel number 5 and many other places . This unrelenting shock-feast packs good make-up and nice special effects . It's just one long relentless stabbing and acceptable budget horror movie that still packs a punch for those who like to be terrorized out their wits .

Eerie as well as frightening musical score by Paul Zaza . Atmospheric and adequate cinematography by Rodney Gibbons . The shooting location at Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia was chosen because of its rustic atmospheric appearance. The film was shot with lots of difficulties in authentic mines which were often as much as 900 feet underground , only certain lighting devices could be used in the mines because of the potential danger of methane explosions. The motion picture was professionally directed by George Mihalka . It was re-premiered at video-market in 2009 , an original uncut , then it was a real success in America and all around the world , thanks to 3 minutes gore added , even Quentin Tarantino has named My Bloody Valentine as his all-time favorite slasher film . George Mihalka is a good filmmaker and producer expert on terror and suspense genre . He has directed similar terror stories (Psychic , Relative fear ,Watchtower) . He's usually movies television director (Crossbow, Da Vinci's inquest, Windsor protocol , The Firm) and occasionally motion pictures director (Bullet to Beijing, the return of Harry Palmer , Straight Line, The Blue man, Scandale) . Rating : 6,5/10 . This murder-feast that will appeal to gore and guts aficionados .

Notorious for being the slasher film most tortured by the censors upon release, MY BLOODY VALENTINE has become something of a cult classic with legions of adoring fans. The only available version of this movie is missing over 9 minutes of gore, but thankfully producer John Dunning has located all of the absent footage and a battle rages on with copyright owners Paramount for a fully restored release. The movie itself nestles nicely with ROSEMARY'S KILLER as the two best non-franchise splatter flicks of 1981.

From the outset, we're introduced to the small mining town of Valentine Bluffs, which hides beneath its fun loving exterior a best-forgotten secret. Twenty years ago the supervisors at the mine were so eager to get to the annual Valentine dance that they didn't bother to check the levels of the methane gas. There was a massive explosion and five workers were trapped underneath the rubble and debris. The only survivor was one Harry Warden, who never mentally recovered from the accident. Exactly a year later he returned and brutally killed the two who were responsible for the tragic mishap. He cut out their hearts, stuck them in candy boxes and sent them to the authorities. Fortunately he was caught before he carried out any more killings and was put into Eastfield Asylum for the insane. Now in 1981 the happy go lucky residents of the usually tranquil town are preparing themselves for the first Valentine dance to be held since that fateful night two decades ago. Memories of Warden's murders have passed and a group of fun loving kids are thinking about nothing else but the anticipated party. However the night before the event the town mayor receives a blooded heart in a candy box with a poetic warning. It seems Harry has returned…

MY BLOODY VALENTINE is certainly a fine example of eighties splatter at it's best. Although the acting isn't remarkable, I found that the three leads were competent enough and the script gave us enough time to get to know them. There's an interesting sub-plot that builds between T.J. (Kelman), Axel (Affleck) and Sarah (Hallier). Apparently T.J. was with Sarah before he went away for a while without telling anyone where he was going. Now he's returned and his buddy Axel is with his old flame. Cue the flying sparks! The rest of the wacky cast members are so cheery and carefree that you just know something dreadful is going to happen to them! There's a practical joker (who surprisingly isn't the fat guy), a couple of overly randy teens and even a hammy old guy who tells the kids that they're doomed just like Ralph over at Camp Crystal Lake!

Credit has to be given for the effort from all involved. The movie began filming in September 1980, but the set designer took the time to make sure that everything was decked out in hearts and banners and they made things look like it actually was Valentine's Day. Mihalka makes good use of the spooky mine as a setting and most of the murders are imaginative and well thought out. In one scene a victim is trapped in a room where miner's uniforms are dropping from rails and surrounding her. In panic she tries to find a way out of the claustrophobic and threatening setting (all courtesy of the killer), before bumping into a costume that actually has the murderer in it! If that isn't bad enough, he kills her in a most gruesome fashion! His disguise is arguably one of the best of the eighties and the gas mask sure helps make the traditional ‘heavy breathing' - sound much scarier. There are also one or two jumps that'll probably get you if you haven't seen this before and it's all accompanied with a satisfactory score from Paul Zaza.

The plot is actually pretty smart for a slasher film. I wont go into too much detail because I can't say anything without spoiling it all for you, but watch how they manage to keep you guessing toward the end. It's also worth noting that James Mangold borrowed that classic body (or in his case, head) in a tumble dryer scene for his part-slasher, IDENTITY in 2003. In 2001 George Mihalka went to Paramount with a script for MY BLOODY VALENTINE 2 but they turned him down because the original didn't do brilliantly at the box office. Just proves how annoying they really are doesn't it! They've already said that they'd have no interest in seeing the director's cut of this movie released, even though fans around the world are begging for it. Recently the company asked people to give them ten films that we want to see unleashed and apparently one of those ten was MY BLOODY VALENTINE UNCUT; so we'll just have to wait and see if they come round to our way of thinking. Just imagine if they gave us the full works: The first four FRIDAY THE 13THs and this movie all uncut on special edition discs with commentaries where available and all the trimmings. If Raimi can do it for EVIL DEAD then someone can do it for us! Come on Paramount, lighten up and get on the case!

All in all this is a great little horror movie. It's smartly directed with a likeable cast and a really tense finale. The only problem lies with the shameful editing in the kill scenes where 9 minutes was savagely removed. I'm beginning to think that old Harry Warden should take a trip to the Paramount office, pickaxe in hand, to get revenge on these brutal spoilsports. Still, a few niggles aside, this is a decent little movie from Canada that deserves to be remembered, as one of the best of it's kind. And that's a sure fire compliment!

'My Bloody Valentine.' A slasher. There's not an awful lot more to say. If you've grown up over recent years and are generally interested in the genre, you'll find that this little offering from 1981 is pretty tame in comparison to what's released today. However, back when 'video nasties' were just taking off, this was pretty strong stuff! A small-time mining town in America has a legend (don't they all?) – this one tells of a miner who went berserk years ago on Valentine's day and killed a bunch of people. Now, several years later – guess what – it looks like he's back.

Normally, this is where I say that the cast is made up of oversexed, annoyingly attractive teenagers. But not this time. Here we have oversexed, annoying UGLY teenagers. Don't ask me why (and I promise you that I'm no oil painting!) but this must be the ugliest group of leading actors every assembled to be chopped up by a nut-job with a gas mask and pick axe. I guess we can blame it on the eighties. Or the lack of budget needed to bring bigger (and more physically attractive) stars on board.

Yes, one by one our facially-challenged heroes are chopped up in various hideous ways. Nothing too new there, apart from the fact that the death scenes seem a little more violent for the time than your average Friday 13th film. Notice I don't say 'gruesome' – only violent. I mentioned the budget earlier and it seems like they didn't really have enough money for expert make-up and prosthetics needed for the gore. I suppose it's the way it's filmed that makes it so violent. There seems like there's a real sense of nastiness in the deaths.

Not that you'll care much about those getting sliced and diced. They really are pretty irritating. If Jar-Jar Binks was a little less computer-generated and a little more eighties then those are the people getting murdered here.

Perhaps one thing that the film does have going for it is that you don't actually know who's under the gas mask. In that was it's more akin to the 'Scream' franchise in as much as like a who-done-it.

There's not much new here (especially nearly forty years later!), but if you're into the slasher genre in general and like to see where this type of film found its roots, then give this a try. The gore isn't really there and the violence – although strong for the time – has also diminished, the mystery element may make it worth an hour and a half of your time.