Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Whilst it still revels in the tropes of the slasher genre 'My Bloody Valentine' is a solid, entertaining and slightly different film which should be enjoyed by fans as well as the casual viewer. 'Valentine' is notable for being one of the few good Canadian entries to the eighties slasher craze and makes the most of a limited, somewhat clichéd idea with a welcome professional, creative element that slashers often lack.Following on the heels of 'Halloween' and other holiday based plots 'Valentine' concerns the holiday, a card shop holiday anyway, in a small Canadian town also helpfully named Valentine's Bluff. You'd think it'd be the perfect place for a valentine's party but a mine collapse twenty years prior leaves a madman named Harry Warden buried alive whilst the rest of the town parties. You can imagine what happens next. The madman bans Valentine's in the town and enforces the ban in a violent fashion. Twenty years later a new valentine celebration is planned as Harry Warden has faded into legend.What makes Valentine's stand out is two things. One, the actual slasher set pieces are superb. Creative, brutal and sometimes funny. The filmmakers were forced to cut about eight or nine minutes of footage to appease the censors which adds to the cult appeal of the piece. Yet despite the cuts the bloody nature of Valentine will please fans of the genre and some genuinely unsettling moments are also scattered throughout the film when it comes to the use of blood and guts.The other appealing element is the film's professionalism. Whereas other slasher films fall into the cheesiest and cheesiest of quality through bad acting, bad camera-work and generally amateurish production Valentine does not. The acting is good and naturalistic, a nice surprise from the genre, the cinematography is interesting and inventive, making use of a wider range of camera expression than falling back on the POV shot. The focus of the characters in peril are also far more interesting. Valentine's Bluff is a dreary working class town with a single industry, the mines, to keep it going. As such the characters are smarter, more bitter and, in many ways, better than their college co-ed, teenage counterparts.In the ranks of slasher films 'My Bloody Valentine' ranks high. For those who are fans of the genre it is definitely required watching. For the more casual viewer the film's professional tint and interesting, though still generic holiday based premise, will distinguish itself from other less astute entries.

The original "My Bloody Valentine" is a tedious and utterly unexceptional slasher flick. The only thing that could be said to set it apart is the violence, which is quite a bit more graphic than the average '80s slasher. The "kills" are easy to miss, though, and I had to rewind a couple of times because the movie's tedium and inability to highlight the only aspect of it that made it stand out led me to stop paying attention in key scenes. In one scene, a man cops a pick-axe through the throat, the point of which exits through his eye socket. In another scene, a man falls from a ladder and is decapitated by a chain or something. I watched this twice and still didn't really get it.The only people involved in the movie who knew what they were doing were the special effects guy and maybe the guy who played the guy who got the pick axe through the neck and eyeball. The director was totally out of his depth.

In the small town of Valentine Bluffs everyone is getting ready for the big Valentine's Dance. It will be the first one in over 20 years, since the tragedy. In 1960 a terrible mining accident happened on Valentine's Day. On the day of the accident two supervisors were careless, and 5 people died. The only survivor was Harry Warden, who vowed to get even with the two that left him there to die, so they could get to the dance. He later found those two supervisors killed them, ripping out their hearts. He told the community that if there were another Valentine's Day Dance he would come back and kill everyone. Harry ended up spending several years in a mental hospital. It is now 1980, and the first Valentine's Day dance is going to be held regardless. Almost everyone believe Harry Warden is either dead or just a legend. Most of the people work at the Hanniger Mine; and can't wait to start helping with the decorating. As soon as the decorations begin the dance organizer Mabel is brutality murdered. Chief Newby tries to cover it up, so it won't start a panic . So after Mabel's murder, Newby calls off the dance which leads to disappointment. After her death the local bar tender knows exactly what happened.He believes Harry's back and everyone should wise up and listen to him. He explains that it isn't a fairy tale and they will be sorry. Naturally everyone thinks he's bulls**ting and ignore the scare tactic. The bartender worked in the mine back when the collapse happened, he was one of the men who found Harry.Later he tries to make believer's out of them by scaring them, but it backfires. So the gang ignores the advice and hold a Valentine's party at the mine. Once they arrive the terror and killings continue until the real killer is caught. Could it be one of there own? I love this movie, the uncut version is the only one to watch though. To get the real effect of the film the uncut is a must, the R rating is practically PG. I was young at the time so I don't know what the big brew ha ha was with Paramount, since they put out Friday the 13th a year earlier. That film was much more frighting. If the uncut scenes were left MBV would have done so must better at the box office.THX, Kris L. CocKayne

Spoiler Alert!!! The Version I had didn't have any gore which took away my happiness of getting the film but even when I saw the gore on Youtube I was not impressed with the crappy looking gore. There was only one kill I found interesting and that was when the guy got it through the eye ball. The characters were unlikable! The script didn't make any sense at the very end. The movie was a complete drag! And I didn't care if any of them died. In my opinion I liked the remake a little bit better because it has a very interesting twist unlike this movie, you know what happened when Harry Warden was alive, and you got all the gore you could ever want. I just didn't like the 3-d because it really is an eyesore when you have to look into glasses to see. Overall I give it a 1 out of 10 for that brutal kill through the eyeball.