got to love how people have been using Nova Scotia to make horror movies for the last 41 years at least. Shooting on My Bloody Valentine began in September 1980, taking place around the Princess Colliery Mine in Sydney Mines which had closed in 1975. Two mines were considered for the setting, the other in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. The production company decided on the Sydney Mines location due to "the exterior being a dreary, cold and dusty area with no other buildings around it so it looked like it was totally in the middle of nowhere."
also its my birthday today. so that's pretty neat
My Bloody Valentine is a 1981 Canadian slasher film directed by George Mihalka and written by John Beaird. The plot tells about a group of young adults who decide to throw a Valentine's Day party, only to incur the vengeful wrath of a maniac in mining gear who begins a killing spree.
this movie is exactly what i hoped it would be. 80s slasher's are a dime a dozen, but the movie with real soul are few and far between. This movie has a perfect 80s small town fantasy vibe that i adore. We get a classic Friday the 13th banjo truck ride, deadly boob fondling, a homoerotic shower scene, a Jason Voorhees style campfire story, and best of all some amazingly practical gore. perhaps the best part is simply how much damn fun everyone is having. its wonderfully goofy most of the runtime, but when things get serious they get really serious. Sarah, Axel, and the mayor's son T.J. are involved in a tense love triangle that really highlights the strength of this movies characters. this a movie that's goofy at first glance, but equally skilled at being dramatic and frightening. and speaking of frightening...
the small mining town and its mine is a perfect setting for a horror movie. Located 2,700 feet underground, filming in the mine was a lengthy process, as, due to limited space in the elevators, it would take an hour to transport the cast and crew to the location. due to the methane levels underground, lighting had to be carefully planned as the number of bulbs that could be safely utilized was limited. Prior to the production's arrival to the mine, the owners cleaned up the location significantly, leaving it described as a "clean and colorful Disneyland-like set." This resulted in the production team spending an estimated $30,000 to paint portions of the mine to achieve a darker atmosphere, akin to how it had appeared in its original state. they did such a damn good job however that i was damn near convinced the simply found the mine in that state.
the setting also gives us both Harry Wardens cannibal backstory, and the badass mining gear our killer is wearing. the mask gives us some Michael Myers style heavy breathing, and mixed with the now classic POV it feels familiar yet entirely unique. on top of that every kill in this movie is a lot darker than you would expect from an 80s slasher. For the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to award the movie with an R-rating, cuts were requested to every death sequence in the film. Producer Dunning said the film was essentially "cut to ribbons" in order to achieve an R-rating. An uncensored cut of My Bloody Valentine remained unavailable to the public for nearly thirty years after its original theatrical release. When Paramount released the film on DVD in North America for the first time in 2002, the studio claimed that the purported "missing" footage did not exist. By 2009 you could get a version of the movie with 2 extra minutes of gory goodness, and naturally I'm watching the longer cut. in this cut, the kills go way beyond simple and fun to down right dark and disturbing, and it gives a massive boost to the horror elements in this movie.
i really have no conclusion to neatly wrap up this review. this movie simply kicks ass.
8/10
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