31 Days Of Horror rolls onward at Last Movie Outpost, and this time we are looking at a 1981 slasher film. Unfortunately, it never got a franchise like many other 1980s horror slashers. That is a real shame. It has some of the best, nastiest kills, perhaps second only to The Prowler.
The film starts with the story of Harry Warden, a local miner who gets trapped underground with some other unlucky fellows. To survive, he resorts to killing and eating his co-workers to survive. Once out, he holds a grudge, as you can imagine. A year after the mining incident he gets some revenge on Valentine’s Day and terrorizes the town. He demands they never have another Valentine’s Day party ever again or he will kill more. Then they lock him up in the loony bin.
Twenty years later the town decides it’s safe to fire up the Valentine’s Day party again, since Harry is long gone. It doesn’t take long for the bodies to start piling up. Hearts start showing up in the mail. A body is found in a dryer in the local laundry, and a guy gets his face boiled off with some hotdogs.
By the time the local Authorities get on the scene, some of the drunk partygoers have taken some booze and broads down into the local mines for some after-hours partying. Bad idea, they are now in the killer’s element. He picks them off in some pretty nasty ways, and we get treated to some mayhem. The film ends with a bit of a twist that I won’t spoil. Of course it does, that’s the nature of this kind of film.
The film is a great early slasher from the early 1980s. Sadly it was also heavily censored by the MPAA, even though it was a Canadian production, and 9 whole minutes of fun-filled gore got the axe. Reportedly that footage still does exist, but no one has had any luck releasing a restored version just yet.
My Bloody Valentine had a remake back in the 2000s that is pure dogshit, unsurprisingly. Be sure not to accidentally buy or watch that one.
This is a holiday classic that covers two bases – Halloween and Valentine’s. If you haven’t seen it, be sure to check it out.
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