With February 14th fast approaching, romantic horror fans across the globe are poised to dust off their copy of the definitive deadly date movie, My Bloody Valentine. The superb slasher whodunit celebrates its 40th anniversary on February 11th, making it an official all-time horror classic in every sense of the word.
Directed by George Mihalka, the film follows a gaggle of mischievous teens ahead of an annual Valentine's Day dance that is rudely interrupted by a psycho-killer disguised in a coal miner's mask and uniform.
Original Title
Following his first film, Pick-Up Summer, Canadian filmmaker George Mihalka was approached to make a slasher film by Cinepix Productions. Mihalka agreed and hired writer John Beaird to pen the script.
Beaird turned in a draft for a film titled The Secret, which Cinepix decided to change to My Bloody Valentine to capitalize on the current trend of holiday-based slasher films made popular by Black Christmas, Halloween, and Friday the 13th. Still, lyrics in the song playing over the end credits includes the line "...and those still alive knows the secret survives."
Real Mining Location
One of the most striking aspects of the film is the unique and atmospheric underground setting the movie takes place in. According to Canadian Cinema Since the 1980s by David L. Pike, the film was shot in real working coal mines located at Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia. While still functional, the mines were closed in 1975.
The functional mines were as deep as 2,700 feet underground, prompting special lighting packages to be used to avoid methane combustion. , the conditions provided the most difficult logistical challenge of the entire production.
Town Mishap
Once Mihalka settled on filming in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, the locals were so excited to have a film production in town that they spent $50,000 to scrub the underground mines clean and have them repainted without Mihalka's knowledge.
Unaware that Mihalka chose the location precisely because of its soiled and filthy atmosphere, the production team spent $75,000 to revert the conditions of the mines to appear as filthy as they were, to begin with. The hit cost roughly 3% of the overall budget ($2.3 million)
Tarantino's Favorite Slasher
As Hollywood's biggest fanboy turned bona fide auteur, Quentin Tarantino is no stranger to the horror genre. He even made his own slasher film variation via Death Proof, the second half of the Grindhouse double-bill.
According to EW, one of the reasons he made Death Proof was his love of My Bloody Valentine, of which he said "I love Halloween and all those. But as time's gone on, I think My Bloody Valentine is my favorite."
Set The Day Before Friday The 13th
In a cool but sneaky cross-promotional tie-in, eagle-eyed fans of My Bloody Valentine will be able to spot a direct link between the film and Friday the 13th, released one year before.
At the start of the film, a title card shows that the film is set on Thursday, February 12th. Later, several ads for the annual Valentine's Day dance show the event will take place on Saturday, February 14th. Ipso facto, the ill-fated date of Friday the 13th falls right in between the two main dates depicted in the film. Both films were released by Paramount.
Immortalized In Literature
My Bloody Valentine has been referenced with loving homage in Smog City, part of the five-volume Sysco book series by Rebecca McNutt. The book is also set near Sydney Mines, and the main character Mandy quotes the iconic line "be my bloody valentine!" from the film.
Moreover, Mandy also sports a My Bloody Valentine t-shirt when visiting Nova Scotia in the book. McNutt included the reference because My Bloody Valentine is her favorite movie.
Deleted Footage To Avoid X-Rating
According to Going to Pieces by Adam Rockoff, upon his initial submission to the MPAA, Mihalka was forced to trim nine minutes of gory and graphic footage from the film in order to avoid an X-rating.
After making the requisite cuts to meet the studio demands, the film was still sent back with an X-rating certificate. More excisions were made until the film was given a releasable R-rating. Mihalka blames the drastic cuts on Paramount's backlash over Friday the 13th the year before and the recent violent death of John Lennon.
Mike & Harriet's Death
While several of the excised gore was restored decades later, the grisly death of Mike and Harriet was deemed too graphic and violent by the MPAA that it was deleted entirely.
The on-screen death entailed Mike and Harriet making love on Valentine's Day until they are interrupted by the masked murderer who eviscerates their bodies with a large drilling auger. This fatality remains the only one not to be reinserted in any of the various film releases.
Actors Did Not Know Killer's Identity
According to actor Neil Affleck in several interviews, Mihalka did not tell his cast who the killer was while they were filming. Mihalka wanted to keep the surprise genuine as a way to elicit natural performances from his young and inexperienced cast.
However, Affleck had an inkling he might be the culprit when he was sent to the effects department to be fitted with a fake arm, which he knew in the script would be torn off the killer in the climax.
Restoration & Remake
As for the nine minutes of gory deleted footage, much of the graphic violence was restored on the My Bloody Valentine Special Edition DVD released on January 13, 2009. The 3D remake of My Bloody Valentine was released three days later on January 16, 2009.
In addition to Mike and Harriet's death, Mihalka claims the six minutes that still remain missing from the 2009 release includes a series of nonviolent expositional dialogue scenes. In the aforesaid interviews, Mihallka says the 2009 version is 80-85% of the way it was always meant to be seen.