MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981)

“You know, a bunch of Canadians would have a party in a mine.”

The more rigid and defined the genre, the easier it travels the world. Think of hardcore punk, house music or, last but not least—because there’s always a sequel—the slasher film.

The story of a Cape Breton coal town haunted by a demented miner every February 14th, My Bloody Valentine was Canada’s contribution to the genre that took over the horror market for a full decade after the success of 1978’s Halloween. With violence that was extreme for the genre at the time, My Bloody Valentine was reviled enough that it played a large part in the end of the Canadian tax shelter scheme that funded it. The film’s reputation should be much better than that, as My Bloody Valentine is the most original, well-acted, and just plain fun film in the holiday slasher canon.

As Emily Schultz and I discuss, it also captures Canadian life in a way free of the pretensions and politics that usually accompany notions of a national cinema. Hint: It involves a lot of Moosehead beer. -BJD

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Brian J Davis: Before we start, we should talk about My Bloody Valentine, the band. When I saw there was a band called My Bloody Valentine—this is around the time of Loveless—I thought a cool thing about them was their name. Oh, here’s this noisy Irish indie band that named themselves after a Canadian slasher movie. A-plus appropriation! As it turns out, it was a drummer who was in the band for five seconds who came up with the name, My Bloody Valentine, and then after becoming successful they had to constantly explain, We didn’t know it came from a Canadian slasher film!

Emily Schultz: I think I have the advantage over you here because this is my third time watching it.

BJD: It never played on TV—but then again, growing up where we did, all our TV was from Detroit. My Bloody Valentine is just so deeply Canadian, I can’t imagine how Americans reacted to this. Did they think this was Maine?

ES: We have to talk about the mines. They actually filmed in disused mines in Cape Breton…and it does make for a really unique setting.

BJD: The idea could come off like a slasher parody, but it’s nowhere near satirical. Dare I say it — My Bloody Valentine has a whimsical level to it. Like if Bill Forsyth made a slasher film.

ES: Keep the mining mask and helmet on—I wonder how many how many times that was said in bedrooms after this movie?

BJD: Oh, she’s touching the hose now! Only a Canadian could be tasked with: Hey, we need to rip off Halloween. Then come up with My Bloody Valentine and set it in a mining town.

ES: Listen to these accents. I’m guessing they had a dialect coach for the first couple weeks.

BJD: Yes! And then that dialect coach left because everyone’s doing a spot-on East Coast accent at the beginning, but it all goes away.

ES: For 20 minutes it’s completely Fargo.

BJD: So now we’re meeting our cast and this is one of the things that makes this movie special compared to most slashers: the acting is so good, right? The lead is kind of like the Richard Burton of Nova Scotia.

ES: This was a definite sleepover party pick. My friend Julie was a horror connoisseur and she would sort of pre-screen things. And then if we were getting bored or we were talking over it, she’d fast forward and she’d be like, No, no, we have to keep this on, we have to keep this on, we have to get to the good part. And then she’d fast forward to the gore. But, you know, that was the charm of watching ’80s horror: being too young to watch it. When we watched this last week I vividly recalled the scene of the girls on ladders setting up the dance. And there are so many ladders.

BJD: What other slasher film took the time for symbolism. None! I swear to god there’s references to Orpheus and Eurydice in this movie.

ES: Exactly. My 12-year-old girl brain kicked in and I remember thinking: that’s a thing. Of course, that’s where you kiss. On ladders!

BJD: Wait. We’re getting exposition. This is almost parody, “Well, it’s our first Valentine's Day in 20 years. After that thing that happened.”

ES: Look, Moosehead!

BJD: For viewers who have never been blackout drunk in Canada, Moosehead beer was a sponsor of My Bloody Valentine. And they put Moosehead in every other scene.

ES: It’s a good beer.

BJD: I’ve been 12 years sober. I have no memory of Moosehead. I vaguely remember it being pricey.

ES: It was only a dollar more than the regular beer! I think that says more about you.

BJD: Oh look, they’re all suspicious of their friend who went out to the West Coast and came back.

ES: These are the thickest Canadian accents I’ve ever heard in cinema.

BJD: If the Valentine’s Day Killer comes back to town every year to check and see if anyone is celebrating...that seems like you could probably have a sting operation to catch him. Like, what day is the Valentine’s Day Killer going to show up? Probably the 14th of February.

ES: And if he did, did he kill someone every year?

BJD: Well, no, they stopped in order to appease him. They haven’t had a Valentine’s dance in 20 years.

ES: But did they see him? What’s the deal here? I need more details.

BJD: So, you want to know what happened in—random year pick—1976 then?

ES: Did he come back in 1976? Did he come into the bar? Did he sit and have a Moosehead then say, “Yep, there’s no Valentine’s celebration. All good. Guess I can go back to the hospital now.”

BJD: One of my favorite things about this film is I like every one of these characters. You can’t say that for most slasher movies. I don’t want to see any of these characters die because they remind me of my babysitters and their hash dealing boyfriends.

ES: Oh, that’s true.

BJD: And my other favorite thing is the love triangle. A Douglas Sirk-style love triangle in the middle of this mining town set slasher film.

ES: I understand the Valentine obsession for the young people. I don’t understand why the grownups are so into it.

BJD: The town’s called Valentine Bluffs.

ES: That’s right. The town with the big heart.

BJD: And the big alcohol problem! Hey, how do you know it’s an AA meeting in Canada?

ES: I don’t know. How?

BJD: No one shows up. And now onto Mabel’s death—have you ever seen a laundromat murder anywhere else?

ES: I love the way she’s throwing open the dryer doors as a defense. That’s as funny as anything from Shaun of the Dead.

BJD: And this is another thing that makes this stand out. The Italianate-levels of violence. Slasher films were the most formulaic films in history—and half the time they weren’t even violent enough to be interesting. They were just profoundly boring.

ES: Nothing boring about the violence in this.

BJD: But also, there’s something special about this quiet scene of two Canadian girls, with their accents and scarves talking about the dance.

ES: There is so much plaid in this film.

BJD: Let’s not say anything too Scotia-phobic.

ES: We got a Tege! It’s a Canadian thing to turn the abbreviation T.J. into another abbreviation: Tege.

BJD: There are only two employees in this town, the mayor and the chief. They’re running the entire operation.

ES: This is a Really Canadian Moment: they need to find out if the killer is still alive or not. But someone says, “I’m gonna have to check the microfiche. And it’s gonna take seven days.” Sticking to the estimated paperwork time: so Canadian.

BJD: The world’s most inept sheriff. He walks right past the bloody dryer to go to the one that has clothes in it. And later he’s as bad as the mayor in Jaws.

ES: It’s a cover-up. Mabel loved him but he’s going to suppress news of her death.

BJD: “You yell deranged miner, we’ve got panic on our hands on the 14th of February.”

ES: Oh, the paper heart inside her chest cavity.

BJD: Artists made this film, ma’am. Artists.

ES: Oh my god, they’re still debating to hold the dance, even after pulling Mabel’s cooked body out of the dryer.

BJD: I love that this town is a dictatorship of two and all the residents are 20-year-olds.

ES: I was thinking: there were a lot of movies in the ’80s about adults depriving young people of fun. This film, Footloose…

BJD: Are you saying this is a cinematic response to the Reagan era?

ES: Yes!

BJD: Can I go on a film rant? Because there is much irony in this movie being the one that killed funding for Canadian genre films. If you compare this movie to something like 1970’s Goin’ Down the Road, which is about two broke Nova Scotians who escape to Toronto and spiral further into poverty and then escape further to the West Coast. And I suspect that’s actually referenced in My Bloody Valentine with TJ’s story.

ES: Again, the worst fate for a Nova Scotian is to end up on the West Coast. 

BJD: But My Bloody Valentine so much more authentically captures Canada than any social realist drama. And I’m not picking on Canada, or social realist cinema because this happens with any national film culture. There’s no Roman pimp who ever watched Pasolini’s Accattone. A fantastic movie, but the people it was about never watched it. Whereas My Bloody Valentine certainly speaks to you and me, being from an industrial Canadian town in the 1990s.
 
ES: Lead actress Lori Hallier, I mean, if I can give a Canadian compliment: she’s just givin’ er.

BJD: It’s well-made, it’s well-acted and we’re going to be so sad when they’re all killed after having sex.  

ES: And that’s its edge on even Halloween, right?

BJD: Here’s a hilarious thing. Halloween is supposed to be set in a small town in Illinois but was of course filmed in Pasadena and West Hollywood. I hate to admit this, but the real Illinois was exactly one state over from where we grew up. And for years, anytime I saw Halloween I didn’t even think, oh, should this town have palm trees? Again, My Bloody Valentine oozes authenticity.

ES: A bunch of Canadians would have a party in a mine.

BJD: As long as there’s Moosehead.

ES: So about halfway through, they kind of start this thing of: can you guess who the killer is? And they start putting the characters in weird sorts of setups.

BJD: The bartender’s death. He goes to check on his prank miner dummy four times. Four!

ES: He could have gotten away. That was particularly gruesome.

BJD: Ironic realization just now: we’re watching a movie built around beer.

ES: Canadian culture is built around beer.

BJD: This is how far removed in New York we are now: we’re having smoothies while watching this film! We’ve lost our Canadian edge.

ES: The sheriff receives a heart shaped box. What’s inside the box!?

BJD: I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be eating any chocolate in this town.

ES: It’s not a human heart ripped out. It’s a message from beyond the grave from Mabel. Oh, and he covered up Mabel’s death. Oh my god. The guilt.

BJD: We’re at the renegade Valentine’s Day party. And we're going to get our hot dog death scene.

ES: Now, this is original.

BJD: Well, here’s the thing. From Montreal out to the east coast, they cook hot dogs horribly. They call them “steamies” and derogatorily call any hotdog that is fried or grilled, “Toronto style.”

ES: Now you’re the one being Scotia-phobic.

BJD: Look at this panic scene. So realistically shot and it ends with Canadian cooperation. Only in a Canadian slasher does everyone sensibly and in order: warn the authorities, go home, and then the two heroes who hate each other are now going to work together.

ES: It’s operating on a Canadian level of consciousness.

BJD: I think it’s apparent—even after the shower pipe impalement scene—that the message of this movie is: Love wins.

ES: Lori Hallier is so not a final girl. She’s got two boyfriends on the go and kicking ass. There's no moral binary in this film.  [Spoilers ahead]

BJD: Shovel versus pickaxe. That’s how Canadians fight!

ES: The killer is revealed as Axel, one third of the love triangle.  As far as traumatic childhood flashbacks go, that is pretty good. But shouldn’t we have known some of that?

BJD: In 1981 there were no screenwriting seminars, Emily. They just wrote and hoped it worked. But I agree. The one flaw of the movie is:  instantly crazy character syndrome. It’s as bad as when Tommy Lee Jones in Eyes of Laura Mars suddenly reveals he has a split personality in the last five minutes.

ES: We’re spoiling two films now!

BJD: “This whole fucking town is going to die!” Oh, that’s also an authentic Canadian statement.

ES: They save the bad twist with a nice twist. Axel is trapped in a mine collapse and Sarah is holding his free hand, which he then saws off in order to escape!

BJD: And he shouts the film’s title before he disappears: “Be my bloody valentine!”

ES: And the credits song is a Gordon Lightfoot-style shanty that tells the story of Valentine Bluffs. Wow.

BJD: Sorry, Cronenberg. Sorry, Guy Maddin. This movie is Canada.