Valentine’s Day is a day meant for love and romance, but horror movie fans have also turned it into a tradition of terror and mayhem. To get into the spirit of the lover’s holiday with a horror twist, it felt like the perfect time to compare one of the genre’s best Valentine’s Day mainstays, My Bloody Valentine (1981), and its 2009 remake, My Bloody Valentine 3D. They share many similarities and a few differences that make them appealing in their own right, but which one deserves your heart on Valentine’s Day? Let’s dive in!
Directed by George Mihalka from a screenplay by John Beaird, My Bloody Valentine is a Canadian slasher film that follows a group of young adults who get into the spirit of the holiday by deciding to throw a Valentine’s Day party. What they don’t expect is to encounter a crazed killer dressed in mining gear who has decided to make the day of love the perfect time to start his killing spree.
Directed by Patrick Lussier from a screenplay by Todd Farmer and Zane Smith, My Bloody Valentine 3D follows similar beats and focuses on a small town that is being stalked by a killer wearing mining gear on Valentine’s Day who is thought to be the very same murderer that they believed died 10 years prior. The original film stars Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, and Neil Affleck, while the remake features Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Kevin Tighe, Edi Gathegi, and Tom Atkins.
‘My Bloody Valentine’ Wears Its ’80s Slasher Sensibilities on Its Sleeve

My Bloody Valentine (1981) has ’80s slasher sensibilities working in its favor. The film emerged in the wake of films like Halloween and Friday the 13th, garnering so much attention that they led to a slew of imitators, including this one. Everyone was looking for a slasher film centered around an event or holiday that they could milk for all of its slasher glory, and Valentine’s Day proved to be the perfect one for My Bloody Valentine.
The great thing about the film is that it’s pure ’80s in the sense that it embraces what the genre had so quickly become. The opening scene alone lets you know what kind of ride you’re in for with its combination of sex and a gruesome end to one character who gets a very on-the-nose pickaxe right through her heart tattoo. If you’re into the nostalgia of watching ’80s horror, particularly the slasher sub-genre, the 1981 film doesn’t disappoint.
The hook of the 2009 remake, if you were lucky enough to catch it in theaters, is that it was released in 3D. Oddly enough, this was a VERY ’80s gimmick that dominated cinemas to boost the box office for certain films, particularly horror films, as seen with 1982’s Friday the 13th: Part 3 and 1983’s Jaws 3-D. Having seen the remake in theaters, I can personally say that the 3D in the remake made it a bloody good time and certainly added to its charms.

Related

The 16 Best Horror Movies to Watch this Valentine’s Day

Whether you love love or hate it, one of these horror films will make the perfect date night (or all-by-yourself night) on Valentine’s Day.

The 3D adds to the kills and scares while not being used as a crutch. There is more to offer in the remake than just the 3D, but it certainly is an added bonus. Now, here is the detriment. If you own the DVD or Blu-Ray, while it does come with 3D glasses for its 3D version, it lacks the same punch of the theatrical experience, so it loses a little bit of its power when viewed at home.
Both films deal with the history of their towns in interesting ways. The town of Valentine Bluffs in the original is trying to kick off Valentine’s Day festivities while also dealing with a town secret that has prevented them from celebrating Cupid’s holiday for 20 years. There was a horrific explosion at the last Valentine’s Day dance held in town, and it ripped through the mines, leaving six of its miners trapped for six weeks. Harry Warden (Peter Cowper) became the only person to survive the event because he had to dabble in cannibalism and consume his fellow miners to stay alive.
The event drove him crazy, which resulted in him being sent to a state hospital to help him deal with it. As it turns out, nothing they did there did him any good because he returned a year later to kill the two people responsible for the explosion (it turns out they decided to head to the dance instead of checking the methane levels that ultimately led to the explosion). Following their murders, he warned the town to never have a Valentine’s Day dance again or ELSE! In all the years since, Harry Warden became an urban legend in town, which has made people wonder how true the story is or if Harry still stalks the mines where his madness began.
‘My Bloody Valentine 3D’ Digs Deeper Into the Backstory of the Town

My Bloody Valentine 3D utilizes the same history but kicks things off with the backstory of the town. While the opening scene isn’t as thrilling as the opening of the original, it does provide the audience with an immediate backstory about what happened in the mines and the explosion. A few details are also changed to add a bit of personal flair to the proceedings. Instead of two random supervisors not checking to see if the mine was safe, the person in question was Tom Hanniger (Ackles), the son of the owner of the mine. Harry Warden (Richard John Walters) is once again found to be the only survivor of the mine explosion and ends up in a coma.
A year later, still mad from the event, he heads to the mines and murders nearly everyone in his path and tries to kill Tom before the police intervene and Harry makes his escape into the mines, thus becoming his own urban legend. The rest of the film takes place 10 years later and offers up its own fair share of surprises that make the remake more of a mystery thriller mixed with slasher elements rather than an outright slasher film. This little detail gives it an edge over the original because the whodunit aspect of the remake is surprisingly well done and is a bit of a shocker, at least on first viewing.
The characters in the remake are also better written, but that could be due to the ’80s film’s focus on blood and gore rather than character development. The main characters in both films are involved in a love triangle that adds to the Valentine’s Day plot element, but it’s better executed in the remake. Tom and Sarah (Jaime King) were once an item, but the events in the mine changed all of that.
The Characters in ‘My Bloody Valentine 3D’ Have More Depth

10 years later, Sarah is now with Sheriff Axel Palmer (Kerr Smith), having formed a bond with him following the events 10 years prior. There is a bit of a wrinkle with Axel also having an affair with Sarah’s co-worker Megan (Megan Boone), but Smith still makes Axel likable, something that isn’t the case with Axel (Affleck) in the original. The triangle in the original falls apart because Axel is so unlikeable, but it works in the remake because, despite his flaws, Axel still comes off as a good guy compared to Tom, who is also likable.
The depiction of the miner in both films is quite good, and the costume is a memorable one for horror fans. The remake adds a bit more modern-day pizazz to the look, but it’s still a solid homage to what was created in the original film. As for the identity of the killer, while both films hint at Harry Warden being the man behind the miner’s mask, they both reveal that isn’t the case, and it’s a matter of which film does it better.

Related

If You Liked ‘Heart Eyes,’ Check Out This 2001 Slasher Film

In 2001, ‘Valentine’ gave audiences a taste of ’80s-inspired slasher thrills mixed with a deadly dose of the lover’s holiday gone horribly wrong.

It’s late in the game in the 1981 film before the audience finds out Harry is dead, while the viewer learns fairly early in the remake that this is the case. The reveal in the remake plays better because it’s unexpected, and the movie allows more time to set up its mystery. If you’re watching the original closely, it’s easy to tell fairly soon who the killer is going to be. It doesn’t make the original any less fun, but the remake does a better job of hiding the killer’s identity in plain sight.
So, which film is better? My Bloody Valentine (1981) is a joy for fans of ’80s horror, and that alone makes it a treat, but My Bloody Valentine 3D makes a strong argument as to why SOMETIMES remakes are justified. It pays homage to the original in all the right ways while also improving on story elements. Both films are gore fests in the best way, so viewers can’t go wrong there, but My Bloody Valentine 3D has my complete heart, while the 1981 film is a nice little side piece. My Bloody Valentine is streaming on AMC+, and My Bloody Valentine 3D is streaming on Tubi.