About 5 years ago I finally was able to see My Bloody Valentine which I had heard about for quite some time but could never find. Released in 1981 this was obvioulsy in the time of the slasher boom(prom night,terror train,april fools day and so on) . After finally watching it I feel in love with but couldn't help but think there was something missing. So I quicky googled it and found out that there was a ton of footage cut out from this movie by the MPAA. I instantly thought damn I hope one day they can somehow release an unrated edition. I guess somewhere someone was listening to all the MBV fans and finally in light of the new my bloody valentine 3d a special edition of the original my bloody valentine was released with all the missing scenes.
A quick recap of MBV is as follows. About 20 years ago in the town of Valentine Bluffs which was a small mining town, an explosion took place in the mines and trapped a bunch of miners down below. We find out this happened because a bunch of the supervisors left their posts early cause they were excited to go to the towns annual valentines day dance. They left and had failed to check the methane levels. Out of the dozen miners only Harry Warden survived it. He survived by eating his fellow miners that were trapped there along with him. Once he was rescued he was insane and was committed to an asylum. Years later he escapes and he takes his revenge out on the supervisors, cutting out the heart of one of them while his young son watched from under the bed. Harry's weapon of choice, a pick axe. He warned the town to never hold a valentine's dance again.
Fast forward till present and the town of Valentines bluffs finally decides its time to have a dance and to forget about Harry Warden. However soon after shit starts to hit the fan. Chief Newby gets a valentines day heart stuffed with.......a heart, a human heart. Not long after that Mabel, the town supervisor and owner of a laundromat is killed. She is discovered in.....a drying machine spinning around and burnt to a crisp. The chief instructs the police to say it was a heart attack cause he didn't want to scare the whole town and start a panic. This laundromat scene was one of the many that was cut into pieces by the MPAA. Some more muders take place after this naturally including the town crazy/legend teller Happy. He gets it pretty bad, a pick axe into him and out his eye in another scene that was cut short by the MPAA.
Sounds like typical slasher stuff right? It is except there are quite a few things that this movie has going for it that others don't. The stupid teens are replaced by young men who all work in the mines. After work they do what many people in the real world do after work, they drink. It all feels very authentic and the small working town setting only adds to this. Not to mention the fact that this was really filmed in a mine and they actually had to avoid using bright lights. Nothing is scarier than a dark place way down below where you can't even see a foot ahead of you. Add to that the freezing temperature and you have a recipe for success. The killer also happens to be pretty scary also,decked in full mining costume and shining his single-headed lamp into his victims faces all while breathing through the mask in eerie muffled breathe like sounds.Main character wise we have Axel(what a cool name) who we learn is going out with Sarah, we have TJ who has returned from a failed experiment on the west coast.We then find out that TJ used to be with Sarah and he isn't to keen of her going with Axel. There is also Hollis who seems a bit older but not much more mature. And of course there is Chief Newby. There is a nice twist at the end also which adds even more and perhaps this has my favorite ending quote to a movie ever. "Sarah be by bloody Valentine" in a sadistic voice followed by an even creepier laugh and rhyme.
Now onto the new version which includes the following.
-Bloodlust:MBV and the rise of the slasher film-a nice little documentary about what films influenced MBV and an interview with director George Mihalka
-Bloodlines:An interactive horror film history which is just an interactive menu where you can select certain horror genres ans see which films were considered a particular genre
And last but not least
-deleted scenes
1.Opening sequence-adds a bit more visual footage to the female victim getting pushed onto the pick axe and the pick axe piercing through her chest
2.Mabel in the dryer-this scene was very nice to see intact for the first time,you get a much better view of mabel's burnt body spinning around in the dryer
3.Happy's surprise-another scene thats nice to see uncut.The killer plungning the pick axe through Happy's neck and out through his eye and then dragging him through the road.
4.Dave gets dunked-Bits of added footage to Dave's head getting dunked into boiling water
5.Sylvia in the shower-a real nice extended scene of the killer picking up stlvia and pinning her head through the shower pipe
6.Nail Gun-perhaps one of the best extended scenes.In the original we can barely make out what happens but in this one you see the killer actually shooting the nails into Hollis from point blank range
7.Beheading-you get to see Howard's head actually snap off and get decapitated.Very nice.
8.Pick axe to the torso-just a little bit more in terms of facial expression
9.Axel's flashback-we get an extended glimpse of harry warden killing axel's dad and cutting his heart out
10.End sequence-a nice added version of the killer cutting his own arm off after being trapped under the debris along with my favorite end quote.
Now you can watch this movie with all these deleted scenes in-tact or without them.Who in their right mind is going to watch this movie without them now.All in all it was simply joyful to see this movie uncut finally.Makes me like this even more since stuff doesn't seem missing anymore.Final verdict
4 out 5 hearts
A quick recap of MBV is as follows. About 20 years ago in the town of Valentine Bluffs which was a small mining town, an explosion took place in the mines and trapped a bunch of miners down below. We find out this happened because a bunch of the supervisors left their posts early cause they were excited to go to the towns annual valentines day dance. They left and had failed to check the methane levels. Out of the dozen miners only Harry Warden survived it. He survived by eating his fellow miners that were trapped there along with him. Once he was rescued he was insane and was committed to an asylum. Years later he escapes and he takes his revenge out on the supervisors, cutting out the heart of one of them while his young son watched from under the bed. Harry's weapon of choice, a pick axe. He warned the town to never hold a valentine's dance again.
Fast forward till present and the town of Valentines bluffs finally decides its time to have a dance and to forget about Harry Warden. However soon after shit starts to hit the fan. Chief Newby gets a valentines day heart stuffed with.......a heart, a human heart. Not long after that Mabel, the town supervisor and owner of a laundromat is killed. She is discovered in.....a drying machine spinning around and burnt to a crisp. The chief instructs the police to say it was a heart attack cause he didn't want to scare the whole town and start a panic. This laundromat scene was one of the many that was cut into pieces by the MPAA. Some more muders take place after this naturally including the town crazy/legend teller Happy. He gets it pretty bad, a pick axe into him and out his eye in another scene that was cut short by the MPAA.
Sounds like typical slasher stuff right? It is except there are quite a few things that this movie has going for it that others don't. The stupid teens are replaced by young men who all work in the mines. After work they do what many people in the real world do after work, they drink. It all feels very authentic and the small working town setting only adds to this. Not to mention the fact that this was really filmed in a mine and they actually had to avoid using bright lights. Nothing is scarier than a dark place way down below where you can't even see a foot ahead of you. Add to that the freezing temperature and you have a recipe for success. The killer also happens to be pretty scary also,decked in full mining costume and shining his single-headed lamp into his victims faces all while breathing through the mask in eerie muffled breathe like sounds.Main character wise we have Axel(what a cool name) who we learn is going out with Sarah, we have TJ who has returned from a failed experiment on the west coast.We then find out that TJ used to be with Sarah and he isn't to keen of her going with Axel. There is also Hollis who seems a bit older but not much more mature. And of course there is Chief Newby. There is a nice twist at the end also which adds even more and perhaps this has my favorite ending quote to a movie ever. "Sarah be by bloody Valentine" in a sadistic voice followed by an even creepier laugh and rhyme.
Now onto the new version which includes the following.
-Bloodlust:MBV and the rise of the slasher film-a nice little documentary about what films influenced MBV and an interview with director George Mihalka
-Bloodlines:An interactive horror film history which is just an interactive menu where you can select certain horror genres ans see which films were considered a particular genre
And last but not least
-deleted scenes
1.Opening sequence-adds a bit more visual footage to the female victim getting pushed onto the pick axe and the pick axe piercing through her chest
2.Mabel in the dryer-this scene was very nice to see intact for the first time,you get a much better view of mabel's burnt body spinning around in the dryer
3.Happy's surprise-another scene thats nice to see uncut.The killer plungning the pick axe through Happy's neck and out through his eye and then dragging him through the road.
4.Dave gets dunked-Bits of added footage to Dave's head getting dunked into boiling water
5.Sylvia in the shower-a real nice extended scene of the killer picking up stlvia and pinning her head through the shower pipe
6.Nail Gun-perhaps one of the best extended scenes.In the original we can barely make out what happens but in this one you see the killer actually shooting the nails into Hollis from point blank range
7.Beheading-you get to see Howard's head actually snap off and get decapitated.Very nice.
8.Pick axe to the torso-just a little bit more in terms of facial expression
9.Axel's flashback-we get an extended glimpse of harry warden killing axel's dad and cutting his heart out
10.End sequence-a nice added version of the killer cutting his own arm off after being trapped under the debris along with my favorite end quote.
Now you can watch this movie with all these deleted scenes in-tact or without them.Who in their right mind is going to watch this movie without them now.All in all it was simply joyful to see this movie uncut finally.Makes me like this even more since stuff doesn't seem missing anymore.Final verdict
4 out 5 hearts
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