Films That Witness Madness
review
MY BLOODY VALENTINE - SPECIAL EDITION
If you were alive in the 1980s and into horror films, chances are you've seen MY BLOODY VALENTINE more times than you can count. One of the lucky few that escaped franchising, this Canadian gem is a true one-off, a slasher film that wastes precious little running time getting down to business yet also manages to contain a healthy dollop of character play for those who want more than just terrible actors with targets on their foreheads. MY BLOODY VALENTINE is one of the more convincing slasher films in terms of setting. Shot in a little town complete with a real coal mine, MY BLOODY VALENTINE screams authenticity and that helps elevate it past the vast majority of it's brethren. It also goes a long way towards explaining why, after all these years, this bloody little film enjoys a massive cult following.
A plot synopsis isn't necessary here. If you don't know what this film is about or haven't seen it yet, I'd stop reading right here and go out and get it. Now would be the perfect opportunity to do so as the fine folks at Lionsgate and Paramount have just released the film in a completely uncut form. For those of us who remember reading about all the deleted footage, this disc is a godsend. While the added footage doesn't change the underlying film - what this new footage does is simply put an exclamation point on many of the already shocking scenes - finally being able to see MY BLOODY VALENTINE uncut is a true pleasure, one many thought they'd never experience. And unlike many of those so-called "Extended and Uncut" DVDs being sent to stores these days where the only difference between "Unrated" and "Theatrical" is 25 seconds of added spray, this edition of MY BLOODY VALENTINE really does deliver the goods.
The new DVD release is a reminder of just how easily the MPAA caves to pressure. Following the release of FRIDAY THE 13TH, there was a serious backlash against the organization for allowing such a film to pass by with an R rating. Various women's groups protested, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel ranted against it on television, and all those people who demand "good taste" in popular entertainment came bounding in, pitchforks in hand, to demand answers. The MPAA's response and apology to the "good taste brigade" was to neuter every single horror film that came their way for years after FRIDAY THE 13TH's release. The footage that was deleted from MY BLOODY VALENTINE is by no means more explicit than the footage that wasn't deleted from FRIDAY THE 13TH - watching the two films back to back reveals FRIDAY to be the more sadistic film of the two - but it had to go in order to please the rather vocal crowd, many of whom wouldn't have gone to see the film anyway.
Every murder was abbreviated in the original theatrical run of MY BLOODY VALENTINE. Most of the footage placed back into the Extended DVD is clearly from a rough cut of the film. A few of the murder scenes - Patti's pick-ax to the gut, for example - are in dire need of editing and were obviously missing at the time the film was scored. A few scenes were rightfully removed - Dave's hot dog bath plays better without the additional footage, Mabel's corpse in the dryer goes on way too long - but the majority fit incredibly well. The funny thing is, MY BLOODY VALENTINE doesn't need these scenes to work. Even truncated, it is a scary, suspenseful little film. If you took the graphic violence out of FRIDAY THE 13TH, that film would be so completely dull and pointless - even more than it is now - that no one would even bother with it. FRIDAY THE 13TH and it's ilk have literally nothing else to offer.
What MY BLOODY VALENTINE has to offer is an incredible setting and a great collection of characters. While so many slasher films were busy depicting high school bimbos and sex fiends with little more to do than screw and act like idiots, MY BLOODY VALENTINE offers up a group of 9-to-5ers doing what small-town folk do in small towns: work, drink, and try to pass the time. My father came from an old coal-mining town in Northern Pennsylvania and, whenever we would go up to visit the relatives on holidays, I was always struck by just how much his hometown reminded me of Valentine Bluffs. It was the same kind of town: not much going on, full of people who knew everyone's name, the whole place feeling like it's own little universe, trapped in it's own way of doing things, unable to escape it's own past or unwilling to look beyond it's own present. Perhaps years of experience in my father's hometown has somewhat biased my opinion of MY BLOODY VALENTINE, but I can honestly say that I have rarely experienced a film so devoid of artifice in regards to setting and characterization.
If the film has a flaw it is in it's dual narratives. While the chunk of storytelling following TJ, Axel, Sarah and the rest of their social circle is pure gold, the bits featuring Mayor Hanniger and Chief Newby are completely wrong. Leaving aside the fact that Chief Newby has got to be one of the worst policemen in the history of policemen - there's a fucking serial killer running around and he doesn't tell anyone, too worried about what? Bad press? Not wanting people to worry? - these scenes feel stressed and patently false. Had the film stuck solely to the miners, it would have been absolutely without fault but perhaps a bit too "more of the same". A minor trade-off.
And, of course, no discussion of MY BLOODY VALENTINE would be complete without mention of the film's killer. There is something absolutely creepy about that piece of costuming. There is a tiny piece of throwaway filler in MY BLOODY VALENTINE that is forever ingrained in my mind. It's the shot of The Miner walking down the corridor, smashing all the light bulbs with his pick. That used to give me nightmares when I was a little boy. There is something profoundly disturbing about that image that I've never really been able to place. It might be the slightly inhuman visage of the mask or the sound of the breathing apparatus. Or it might have been the determination in his stride, that feeling of absolute rage. Whatever it may be, that single shot of The Miner remains lodged in my memory.
MY BLOODY VALENTINE is, in my opinion, one of the best horror films of the 1980s and easily one of the five best slasher films ever made.
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