My Bloody Valentine (1981) on Netflix
Valentine Bluffs revives its Valentine's Day dance after twenty years, against warnings tied to the Hanniger Mine disaster. Sarah, Axel, and T.J. get ready for the party.
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- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.3/1028,420 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes56%
Trailer
Plot summary
Twenty years ago in Valentine Bluffs, two supervisors left their posts at Hanniger Mine to attend the town's Valentine's Day dance and skipped the methane check. An explosion caved in a tunnel; every miner died except Harry Warden, who survived by cannibalism, went insane, and the next year killed the two supervisors, cut out their hearts, packed them in Valentine's Day candy boxes, and warned the town never to hold the dance again. Now Mayor Hanniger reinstates the dance, and residents including Sarah Mercer, Axel Palmer, and the mayor's son T.J. look forward to it. The mayor and police chief Jake Newby then receive a box of chocolates with a human heart inside and a note promising murders if the dance proceeds.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director George Mihalka attributes the heavy cutting partly to the murder of John Lennon in December 1980, saying there was a backlash against movie violence afterwards. Another suggested reason is that Paramount wanted to avoid the backlash it got from releasing Friday the 13th the previous year.
- The crew kept the killer's identity secret from the cast until the end of production, when the final scene was shot, so that the actors would play their parts in an ambiguous way.
- To get an R rating, the MPAA demanded cuts to every death sequence in the film. Producer John Dunning said it was "cut to ribbons", and even after those cuts it came back with an X-rating and demands for further cuts.
- An uncensored cut stayed out of reach for nearly thirty years after the 1981 release. When Paramount put the film out on DVD in 2002, the studio claimed the "missing" footage did not exist.
- The mine owners cleaned up the location before filming, leaving what was described as a "clean and colorful Disneyland-like set". The production then spent an estimated $30,000 painting parts of the mine to make it darker.
- Director George Mihalka said filming in the mines was the hardest part of the shoot: 2,700 ft underground, limited elevator space made each trip with cast and crew take an hour, and methane levels limited how many bulbs could be used.
- Lori Hallier arrived on set weeks after the other actors because she was studying at the National Theatre School of Canada. Director George Mihalka, determined to cast her as Sarah, persuaded her academic advisors to let her finish the semester early.
- Scottish-Canadian tenor John McDermott provided the uncredited vocals for the end-credits song "The Ballad of Harry Warden" and other music cues, landing the job as a family friend of the film's composer, Paul Zaza.
