As we say farewell to My Bloody Valentine Week and Valentine’s Day (don’t know about you, but we’re feeling bloated from all the heart-shaped candy), here’s an all-encompassing video short covering Blood Thirsty Thursday‘s theatrical screening of the uncut version that Retro Slashers co-sponsored during the week.
My Bloody Valentine Week here at Retro Slashers has provided in-depth exploration of the 1981 classic: second-guessing the villain’s identity, filling your head with trivia, waxing nostalgic, contrasting the remake, and going brokeback with the boys of Valentine Bluffs. That’s a lot of love. If you’ve watched the movie for the umpteenth time and realized “it doesn’t get much better than this”, here are two additional titles that show the really red side of romance.
Blue Collar is hot.
It’s also so 70s and 80s. Let’s face it, when was the last time you saw men who looked like men working jobs that people really had? Yeah, it’s sad, ain’t it? My Bloody Valentine would be a good film by any standards of filmmaking, but the fact that it truly captures the hard working everyman, struggling adults caught up in a horrible situation, creates that much more of an impact when the bloodshed hits the fan.
Remakes by their very definition are derivative. No matter how much a filmmaker injects new themes and ideas into a movie, the very fact that it is a recycled concept means that there will be various plot points and set pieces that resemble its predecessor, much like with a sequel. But it is how that material is handled in a new and exciting way that dictates just how effective a remake can be.
My Bloody Valentine was released on February 13, 1981, just as the slasher sub-genre was gaining substantial momentum. Halloween had started the trend proper, and Friday the 13th had solidified it as a moneymaker. Every studio wanted a slasher flick on its release schedule, and special interest groups were beginning to protest them everywhere.
Get your geek on with the aid of Retro Slashers’ time-coded trivia track – the perfect accompaniment to your next viewing of the original My Bloody Valentine. Spoilers ahead, obviously, and please make sure you’re watching the extended cut or the times won’t match up!
***WARNING*** HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD***
If you’ve never seen My Bloody Valentine then you might want to skip this post. If you’ve seen My Bloody Valentine more times than you can count (like me), then this post will offer up a way to view the film in a very different light. If you decide to re-watch My Bloody Valentine after reading this post, make sure it’s the uncut, letter-boxed edition released by Lionsgate. Some of the clues mentioned here are missing from the full screen version.