A slasher boom is coming in 2009 and one peeved miner named Harry Warden is throwing open the doors and leading the charge when
My Bloody Valentine 3D arrives January 16th. Warden's return is just the beginning. Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger are all in line with their own reboots/sequels to scratch at the front door of your local multiplex again in the next year or so. And in a time where what's old is new, there's an upside. Studios are returning to the vaults to dust off the original films that are serving as inspiration for these remakes hitting theaters. That's great for the fans, even better for fans of George Mihalka's Canadian '80s slasher film
My Bloody Valentine.
Produced by the team John Dunning and André Link (of
Happy Birthday to Me, Cronenberg's
Rabid and
Shivers),
My Bloody Valentine suffered an evisceration by a distributor (in this case Paramount) under fire by critics who were lambasting the studio at the time for the body count picture
Friday the 13th. To avoid the dreaded X rating, Paramount made a significant number of cuts to
My Bloody Valentine and released it in theaters February 11, 1981. And now, thanks to the efforts of Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Mihalka's sophomore feature effort - a gem amongst its brethren and one that's undeniably Canadian - will be seen by fans uncut. Getting to this point, however, took a bit of detective work.
"People have been looking for the [excised] scenes for so long and there was never any real clear direction on where they were or if they even existed," explains Peter Ventrella, producer of Lionsgate's
MBV: Special Edition. He, with Dustin Dean, the senior director of DVD and Blu-Ray production at the studio, spearheaded an effort over the summer to piece the film back together.
"It was a mythological search for this lost treasure of a movie. Keep in mind, this was '80 when [Dunning and Link] produced the film which came out in '81 - most footage that was cut out of essentially an independent film that was picked up by Paramount for release, you have no hope of finding any of this stuff."
For years rumors circulated that the footage was nonexistent. Lost forever to time. Others said one of the producers had a cut and that ultimately proved to be true. Dunning had provided Ventrella with a VHS that contained a version of the film with glimpses of unseen footage. Then, one day, Dunning peered into his storage facility located in Canada and
"found boxes of 35mm footage," recounts Ventrella.
"He didn't really know what it was, didn't really know if this was the lost footage he suspected it was and sent us this material. We were like kids on Christmas morning when we got the packages and opened them up. This was indeed the material that had been lost."
"It was in surprisingly good condition because it's cold up in Canada and the film must keep well," Ventrella laughs.
"But the 35mm film was an interpositive. It wasn't the original negative, it was a strike made from the negative, so it was pretty nice and close to the original. The picture itself was nice, it had a tiny bit of fading, but we color corrected it, so I think it's close to the final color corrected version of the release feature."
With footage in hand, Dean and Ventrella say there was never a question of whether they should restore the film or relegate the cut scenes to the special features section of the DVD. The game plan was to release an uncut version all along. And to help in the restoration, they called in director Mihalka. Ventrella recalls,
"He was really glad we found the material and he was instrumental in viewing the elements put back into the feature and giving us some tweaks and suggestions on how it originally was. Having him there was the last piece of the puzzle. It was an early film for him and he remembered every detail - where everything went, the original audio mix, everything, so it was essential having him there." In total, with the restored footage, the film now runs an estimated three minutes longer than its theatrical counterpart. The scenes now intact? The infamous "shower head" kill, perhaps? You'll have to see for yourself.
Mihalka and producers Dunning and Link were not just integral to the birth of this new
MBV, they're also participating in the DVD's featurette
Bloodlust: My Bloody Valentine and the Rise of the Slasher Film. The doc will look back at the film's production, trace the innovations made in the slasher genre and feature interviews with some of the other players involved in the film.
"In terms of the actors, we found Carl Marotte who played Dave, the guy who gets his head dunked in the hot dogs, Lori Hallier, who played the lead Sara, and Neil Affleck who plays Axel Palmer," says Ventrella.
"Neil was an interesting guy. He had come down to L.A. after working on the original movie to work as an animator on The Simpsons
for 10 years and he's now back in Canada pursuing his acting career. He brought in original props from the film and showed them on camera and had a lot of great stories."
"One other person we hooked up with is [composer] Paul Zaza," he continues.
"You might remember him for the end song that plays over the credits. The burning question with Paul was Why? Why and how?
He's great and a really accomplished composer. He did scores for a bunch of films including Black Christmas and a bunch of Canadian films. His stories about how the end song came about are going to be very satisfying for people that always asked why."
Among the interviews on
Bloodlust also expect to see plenty of production photos, many of them from personal collections. Also on the disc,
Bloodlines: An Interactive Horror Film History.
"Having been a huge fan of slasher and horror films growing up, I thought it would be a fun idea to put together something that encapsulated the roots of the genre. How they developed and really where MBV '81 fits into the scheme of things and where it led to. You find a lot of these films are related and there was a style in terms of influences and we felt it would really put things in perspective for both the fans of the genre."
Ventrella explains this feature is a
"a family tree style interface where the roots of the tree are Psycho and various influences that came out of it from H.G. Lewis to gialli to the slasher godfathers which would be
Friday the 13th. Then the rubber reality films like the Freddy Krueger [films] and the various permutations that came out of that. There's backwoods bloodletting like
The Hills Have Eyes and we get into the Hammer films. So there's a great context for where MBV fits and where 3D comes into the whole scheme of things.
Between the new 3D film and the forthcoming
My Bloody Valentine: Special Edition, it's shaping up to be a good year for Harry Warden. Look for Lionsgate's DVD on January 13th. Currently, there are no Blu-Ray plans in the works, however, if anything changes, we'll let you know.
Comments
Posted by: robg on December 17, 2008 at 15:32:28
So freakin' excited for this now! I've always longed to see the long-rumored "uncut" version. Plus all the features on this disc sound fantastic. Definitely worthy of a double-dip buy. :-)
Posted by: Tim Gordon on December 17, 2008 at 15:51:09
I can't wait!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Tyler on December 17, 2008 at 17:10:48
the pics look like a whole other movie, they look goodddddddd
Posted by: Charley Brewster on December 17, 2008 at 19:14:12
My Bloody Valentine UNCUT, Friday The 13th UNCUT and Friday The The 13th Part III in 3-D all within one month of each other.
Awesomeness!!!
Posted by: kramg on December 17, 2008 at 20:55:54
While i am happy to see it uncut i thought there would be more then 3 min. I thought i read somewhere there was about 7 min's of gore cut.Hopefully this can live up to the fan hype
Posted by: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor on December 17, 2008 at 21:27:22
I thought the exact same thing, Kramg. Seven minutes of "gore" is quite a bit, if you think about it. And that's a number that might have increased through rumors over time. Three minutes seems realistic.
Posted by: kramg on December 17, 2008 at 21:43:36
Maybe there is 7 min of deleted scenes all together but just 3 min of them a gore scenes. There are deleted scenes on the disc also maybe that will be the other four or so minutes. But like you said 7 min of gore would be quiet a lot and people have been waiting for this release for so long and talking about it for so long that facts probably have been distorted. This release has a lot to live up to though..
Posted by: Zombie Dude on December 17, 2008 at 21:54:43
But it says that the new cut runs 3 minutes longer. WTF? I've heard that there's a least 7-9 minutes worth of footage cut. Why does this say 3?
Posted by: weinberg on December 17, 2008 at 22:21:13
Damn good piece, sir. I definitely look forward to this DVD.
Posted by: Rookie on December 17, 2008 at 23:03:32
My bloody Valentine (1981) is one heck of a great movie, proudly made by french canadian Georges Mihalka. THANK YOU CANADA for all of those fantastic early 80s slasher movies.
Posted by: djblack1313 on December 18, 2008 at 01:48:45
yeah, Ryan, this is an EXCELLENT piece! great job! i love this movie and i'm fairly optimistic (also after reading the early reviews) that the 3D remake will be awesome too!
Posted by: 80Pork on December 18, 2008 at 07:37:48
I first saw My Bloody Valentine in the late 80s when I was around 9 or 10. I saw a special on the USA network called "Women of Horror" (which I used to have on videotape until I moved out of my mom's house). The opening segment to the show was the moments leading up to the shower kill with the mining suits falling form the ceiling. I knew I had to see that movie. I finally saw it on cable, and wasn't disappointed. It is definitley one of my favorites from the 80s, and I can't wait to get my hands on this DVD. I had the movie recorded on VHS for years before buying the "bare bones" DVD in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart.
Posted by: Doctor Splatten on December 18, 2008 at 11:06:01
MY BLODDY VALENTINE was one of the earliest horror films I ever saw (I must've been five when it first came to cable). When I learned the movie was cut in the doc GOING TO PIECES I assumed the footage of that was lost forever. I came this close to picking up that $5 bare-bones DVD until I heard that Lionsgate was doing this Special Edition. It's an underrated entry in the genre for sure, and I can't wait to share this piece of my childhood with my girlfriend (who's also a horror fan, but has never seen ...VALENTINE). Now if we can only get a Director's Cut of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, PART 2.
Posted by: MistAh BlistAh on December 18, 2008 at 14:47:39
can't freakin wait for this...
Posted by: My Bloodier Valentine on December 19, 2008 at 04:45:01
A person who worked on MBV (and wants to remain anonymous) told me a long time ago (no pun intended) that "around 4 minutes" of FX work was cut -- the bulk of it in the shower and drill press scenes, which both had "long setups." This matches with what line producer Bob Presner said in his Canuxploitation interview -- that "four and a half minutes of great graphic gore hit the cutting room floor" -- and what Mihalka said in his Terror Trap interview -- that there was "at least a minute just from Sylvia's death that's gone" and that the scene where Mabel popping out of the dryer was "cut the least...by about 20 seconds." So I really don't know what to make of this, but I'm hoping it's a case of somebody at Lionsgate not being able to count and not a case of us getting a partial reconstruction.
Posted by: Matt on December 19, 2008 at 10:52:29
What a Happy Bloody New year it will be!!! This is one of my top 10 favorite horror films and I'm SO excited to see the uncut version from start to finish as I know every scene, sound effect and music cue.
However, I can't help but feel that I may be let down by the uncut footage. I think that since we have read and heard about this for years that we have built it up to be something so HUGE in our minds, that it may not be such a big deal. Just throwing that out there, not trying to be a party pooper. :)
"Well I say you have your answer, it looks like Harry Warden's back in town"
Posted by: Dudeofthedead on December 20, 2008 at 00:45:16
"Now if we can only get a Director's Cut of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, PART 2." - Doctor Splatten
I think the DVD that came out a while ago is as good as were gonna get.
Posted by: Chris on December 20, 2008 at 18:36:41
About six years ago the cat over at Hysteria-Lives (Justin Kerswell) did an article chronicling the MBV saga as part of his "Longer,Gorier,and Uncut" campaign to restore classic slashers. The article is a bit dated, but it remains a terrific read. At one point Kerswell was contacted by Adam Rockoff ("Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film" scribe) in regards to an interview he did with MBV Producer John Dunning. According to Rockoff, Dunning has a negative of the film with 8-9 minutes of cut scenes. You can check it out here: http://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/hysterialives/Hysteria/campaignindexmbvmain.htm
Posted by: Wayne on December 20, 2008 at 23:34:06
I was hoping there was to be at least 9 mins of uncut scenes but 3 mins is good enough at least we are getting what we wanted and deserved for so long so I say BRING IT BABY! Can't wait to finally get to see the film the way it was meant to be seen!
Posted by: Bryan27 on December 23, 2008 at 10:42:18
Just for the sake of accuracy, George Mihalka is a Hungarian-Canadian, who happens to be, at least, trilingual. So he is as much Anglo as he is Quebecois. He did work at The Montreal Star and Concordia University......
As someone who knows George, his photographer sister (who just published a new book of photos of China), and several other members of the crew of MBV, I am totally stoked about the revival and restoration. I'm hoping that George finally gets the recognition he deserves for a film that was so, so much better than the bulk of what came out in the 80s.
Posted by: i eat babies on January 3, 2009 at 01:24:49
I heard about MBV and the cut footage like a year ago,i wanted to see the movie.But i had a feeling the cut footage would never be seen.Then over 2-3 months ago,i bought the 2-pack of MBV and April Fool's Day,the n next week or two later i hear about the new dvd with the cut footage abd got ****ing happy.Note to self,when i get the dvd,trade in 2-pack dvd.
Posted by: Hallowween_Night on January 5, 2009 at 14:53:02
LOL, I got the two pack DVD as well, with bot MBV and April Fools day, now here we go with a special edition,lol. I might wait to get this, my parents are low on money and while this has more gore its still the same film, so I might hold off for a few monthes,lol. My Bloody Valentine has an EXCELLENT concept, teens in a dark mind with a crazed miner in a gas mask and armed with a pick ax...really interesting but I thought the film was just average...but hey, its a classic. Can't wait to see MBV-3D next week!
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