The slasher film may have existed prior to Halloween, but it wasn't until the success of John Carpenter's independently-made scarefest that it seemed horror was the new industry standard. By 1980, when Friday the 13th turned a profit, the horror subgenre seemed inescapable. It's no surprise that one of the extras on the new special edition DVD of MY BLOODY VALENTINE is a condensed version of Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, the documentary based on Adam Rockoff's book tracing the slasher lineage. Before you knew it, almost every holiday and innocent teenage ritual became ripe for bloodshed (even Prom Night and April Fool's Day), and whole franchises dominated the 1980s (eight Friday the 13th films, five Halloweens and five Elm Streets).

Thank the producers of Happy Birthday to Me for deciding to consult their calendar and come upon the realization of making a Valentine's Day-themed thriller. George Mihalka, the director of MY BLOODY VALENTINE, was approached with this task, concocted by Andre Link and John Dunning, in early August of 1980, and there wasn't even a script ready. It had to be completed, naturally, by February 14, 1981. As set in a small Northern mining town, the production was naturally grounded in Nova Scotia, where there was an actual closed mining facility which could be used for filming. The cast of unknown actors were even invited a week before production to take in the scenery and get a sense of their environment.

Although MY BLOODY VALENTINE owes its lifeblood to its progenitors in ways that are obvious, there is a sense of authenticity and atmosphere to the setting which is quite refreshing. There is the sense of a community amongst the young characters (they're not exactly teens although they are called kids) and a feeling of a working class environment which actually garners attention. After the shift ends, they play five-finger fillet at the watering hole and order rounds of Moosehead, or kick around the junkyard on most nights. Talk may arise about the need of getting out, but the young men and women of the fictional Valentine's Bluff live idle, modest lives. It's all worth it when February 14 rolls around and love is in the air for everyone. Even the corpulent but not slobbish Hollis (Keith Knight) has an adorable date in a red dress named Patty (Cynthia Dale).

Valentine's Bluff, however, is a bit more conflicted about the festivities than the mining young men and their dates are. Turns out about 20 years previously, five men were still working at the mine on the night of the Valentine's Day dance at Union Hall. The methane levels in the cave proved dangerously high and a lantern is the catalyst for a collapse which goes ignored because the supervisors bailed to attend the party. After six weeks prying through the wreckage, lone survivor Harry Warden is discovered hysterical and gnawing on the flesh of his co-workers. A year later, after being hospitalized, he murdered his supervisors, ripped out their hearts and stuffed them into candy boxes. Thus a warning was sent to the town not to hold another shindig in fear that Harry Warden will notice and exact bloody vengeance.

T.J. Hanniger (Paul Kelman) returns home after an ill-fated trek out in west North America only to be punching the clock at his mayor father's (Larry Reynolds) mine. His old flame Sarah (Lori Hallier) felt abandoned and found love with best friend Axel Palmer (Neil Affleck), and tempers flare as the men are forced to co-exist at both work and in nightlife. In the meantime, Chief Newby (Don Francks) and Mayor Hanniger have seemed to lighten up enough to allow the Union Hall to be re-opened this coming Valentine's Day. But then come the heart-shaped boxes with ominous notes and trickling blood. Chief Newby finds the body of kindly old Laundromat owner Mabel (Patricia Hamilton) stuffed inside a dryer, and the dance is called off, leaving the restless young couples out in the cold until T.J. proposes they have a party down by the mine.

There's gonna be a heartbreak tonight, I know.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE was released in 1981, a bad year for many slasher movies in regards to the way the MPAA treated them. Virtually all of the violent content had to be trimmed down severely to ensure an R rating, a fate which befell Friday the 13th Part 2 and The Burning. Whereas the latter was recently reissued with Tom Savini's gore FX restored and looking very clean for a movie made in the eighties, the other two Paramount titles languished without much in the way of deleted footage discovered. But then news of a proposed sequel surfaced which would've utilized the lost footage. This fell through, and instead Lionsgate Films distributed a full-fledged remake in 2009 with 3-D gore effects.

The special edition DVD presents the first time the movie has been properly issued in any form which could remotely be called "uncut." The original theatrical cut is also provided, but the draw here is the "extended" cut which branches 10 deleted scenes of more graphic violence. You'll notice how faded and flaw-ridden much of the new footage is, but the pay-offs to a couple of sequences which made little sense in the theatrical version without the gore are worth it. Aside from the newly-improved shot in the surprise ending, the death sequences of both Happy (Jack Van Evera), the bartender/oracle who takes a pickaxe through the head, and jolly Hollis, who is killed with a rivet gun, play more viscerally and naturally.

You can view these separately in the special features menu with optional video introductions from the cast and crew. There's plenty of behind-the-scenes talk, including an amusing anecdote from the producers about a prank involving a fake corpse and a customs inspection, as well as some specifics about the make-up FX from designers Thomas Berman and Ken Diaz. These intros feel more satisfying than the lone featurette on this DVD, the 20-minute "Bloodlust: My Bloody Valentine and the Rise of the Slasher Film," which tries to chart the peaks in the slasher film wave by focusing on Mihalka's film and, naturally, Patrick Lussier's 3-D redux, which actually grows more disappointing in retrospect (I missed the old killer's heartfelt M.O.). Furthermore, did they really need to include a still from Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 to exemplify the whole Killer Santa motif? I thought I was done with that series. Make it to the end with or without fast-forwarding, and you'll like what's been included as a cap-off.

Another historically-minded extra, "Bloodlines," presents a history of horror in a tree-like format with text from Rockoff that describes many other different types of horror flicks, including "rape revenge," "new wave slashers" and even the current spate of remakes. But because even the "gialli" segment doesn't even mention the name Dario Argento once or reference any of his films (Deep Red, Tenebre), it's not even that good as a primer. There is mention made of Jamie Blanks' awful Valentine, however, in the "Postmodern Slashers" category, which, as the notes point out, not only echoes Mihalka's film but also the 1982 film Alone in the Dark with Jack Palance.

The original MY BLOODY VALENTINE has somehow managed to stand out amongst the field of 1980s slasher movies to me upon reviewing it. And I'm not just admiring it on a guilty pleasure level. I never really noticed how excellent the photography of this movie was until I looked at the opening sequence, with its askew angles and eerily sexual encounter between the killer and an unlucky lady with a heart tattoo over her breast who strokes his breathing tube. Although drawn very basically, the characters are amiable enough and not as irritating as many who populate not just older but even modern slasher films. I actually felt sorry for the couple who snuck off to the shower area, John (Rob Stein) and Sylvia (Helene Udy). I liked the build-up to the latter's death a lot as well as the one-take shot of her boyfriend looking at the corpse. I won't tell you how she dies, but I actually think trimming it of the gore actually made this particular sequence better. And once we're down in the cave for the finale, there's plenty of tension in the chase that ensues. It's the claustrophobic, murky underground scenery that helps a lot, and the way the killer stalks after his victims with the pickaxe by crushing all of the light did something most modern horror movies couldn't do: it unsettled me.

Although Rockoff has a point when he describes why this movie didn't manage to become as enduring and profitable as other films, MY BLOODY VALENTINE did develop a cult following. It gave a great Irish alternative band an easy name and was even dubbed the favorite slasher film of Quentin Tarantino in an EW interview circa Grindhouse. That it's finally been released with all its bloody business intact more than makes up for the bare-bones treatment Paramount bestowed upon it in 2002. I had fun pointing out just how much this movie fit the template of the slasher movie as much as the next geek, and also thought some moments wince-inducing (Paul Zaza's score didn't help out during T.J. and Sarah's beachfront exposition). And yet, I can't help but recommend MY BLOODY VALENTINE. In the realm of the slasher movie, this one actually has a heartbeat to it.

The movie is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen with anamorphic enhancement. The theatrical print looks really strong for a movie filmed on the cheap in 1981, with plenty of crisp color saturation, warm flesh tones and solid blackness detail, with only a smattering of grain and print damage. Despite the limitations of its age and the standard definition of DVD, I was more than surprised by the quality of the movie and regard it as near-perfect. A Dolby Digital 5.1 mix does space out some moments to particularly startling advantage whilst offering audible sound effects (I loved it when the miner started taking out the lights with his pickaxe). However, the sound engineers are working with an existing mono track, so much of the action is relegated to the front with the rears rarely making an impact. The original mono mix is included and seems to be the track of preference automatically. Aside from the specified extras, there is no trailer for this film, although the set opens with previews for the 3-D remake, The Haunting in Connecticut, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Saw V, and Disaster Movie.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE is a Paramount Pictures presentation. The film was released in a 90-minute R-rated version on February 11, 1981. The movie contains strong violence, language and some sexual content. The extended cut on this DVD runs about two minutes longer and is even gorier.

Movie: 4/5.
Video: 4.5/5.
Audio: 3.5/5.
Extras: 3.5/5.
Final: 4/5.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age