Roses are red, violets are blue, one is dead, and so are you.
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I’ve watched Cherry Falls & Valentine over the last few nights so it’s time for a revisit to Valentine Bluffs, home of a certain pick wielding maniac called Harry Warden. I think it’s been a couple of years since I last watched it & it’s up there as one of the best of the crop of early 80’s slashers - better than the OG Friday the 13th by a country mile IMO. Also RIP to Paul Kelman, who starred as TJ & passed away only a short time ago.
MBV is a gem of a film, with the obligatory legend of the killer, a gritty rural locale full of gritty rural folk and the creepiest fucking mine ever put to film. The cast really embodies this bunch of hard-working, hard-partying miners and feel more real than the usual slasher film fodder. The (real) mine itself is incredible - you feel like you’re underground with the characters as they get picked (ha!) off one by one.
The last scene is creepy as fuck and an all-timer end(?) to the killer and the movie. This should’ve had eight sequels, but I’m kind of glad we have this perfect little slasher on its own (remake notwithstanding of course).
I really rate the remake which was a straight up gory, sleazy slasher plucked from the 80’s but without having to worry about the notorious censorship that it’s forebears did. Plus it was one of the best examples of 3D at the time, given it was actually shot in 3D & not one of those shitty conversion jobs that got smeared over every genre single film lost 2009! Plus you have got the man-god Tom Atkins getting his jaw ripped off!
Happy Bloody Valentines Day all you lovers!
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