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Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Slasher > Canada > My Bloody Valentine (1981/Lionsgate DVD)

My Bloody Valentine (1981/Lionsgate DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: B+     Feature: B

 

 

Just like Freddy, Michael Myers, or Jason Voorhees himself, it seems the slasher flick just won’t stay dead.  The film industry is creeping its way back into a neo-slasher renaissance that started with Platinum Dunes’ remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003 and has since been picking up speed. So far, other classics like Halloween and Black Christmas have been revamped for the new millennium with Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, and a sequel to the new Halloween on their way.  While some people object to the remakes, no one can deny that the originals have benefited from renewed attention and appreciation. This is precisely why Lionsgate, in conjunction with the theatrical release of the 3-D redux, has given us this spiffy new DVD re-release of the original My Bloody Valentine from 1981.

 

Originally released in 1981 at the height of what some may call the golden age of the slasher, My Bloody Valentine was one of many holiday-themed gore flicks.  While it didn’t spawn any sequels like so many of its contemporaries, the movie has an enduring quality that stands up favorably even too much of the horror being produced today.  What’s really special about this movie though is that there’s no one thing that it does exceptionally well.  Instead, it takes all the inherent pleasures of a slasher flick – silent, masked killer, drunken over-sexed teens, increasingly new and creative deaths – and just does them well.  The result is a well-balanced movie that knows what the viewer wants out of a slasher, and delivers it.

 

The picture quality on the disc is surprisingly good for a 28-year-old movie that was largely ignored until just recently.  While the 1.78:1 aspect ratio picture is perhaps not as crisp as it could be, the remastered color looks absolutely great.  The bright, vibrant reds stand out against a wash of blues and grays, emphasizing the incongruity of the bloody violence against the backdrop of blue-collar, small-town living.  The audio, in either Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or the original mono, has not stood up quite so well.  While it’s to be expected of movies from the early eighties, there is just a touch of softness to the audio, especially the dialogue.

 

There are only three extra features on the disc, but they’re very good.  The first is a featurette that discusses the making of the film, where it fits into the slasher tradition, and of course finishes with a plug for the remake.  There are also deleted scenes that you can watch separately in the special features menu, or reintegrated into the movie as an uncut version.  My vote definitely goes for the uncut version because really, each of the deleted scenes is just the most gory, fantastic shot from each kill in the movie.  After watching the uncut version of the film, then you can go and watch the scenes on their own in order to really appreciate the mastery of practical effects that was at work in this film.  And finally, the last special feature is a timeline that details the progression of the slasher movie from its early influences to the new wave of remakes that are coming out now.  In total, the special features on this disc really ground both the original My Bloody Valentine and the current trend of remakes with a sense of history of the genre.

 

I think that it is this notion of history, progression, and revamping without replacing that will keep the slasher film going for many years to come.  So when you head out to the theaters to see the new My Bloody Valentine, or any other remake, keep in mind that each film should be judged on its own individual merit.  And most of all make sure that you revisit the original so that you can spread the good word of mayhem, violence, and death.

 

 

-   Matthew Carrick


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