My Bloody Valentine (1981)

(In French, On Cable TV, February 2020) The early 1980s were the golden age of slasher horror movies, and it’s not a surprise if some of them were better than others. Despite my strong dislike of the subgenre, even I have to admit that My Bloody Valentine is an above-average slasher. There’s quite a bit more going on than simply setting a familiar plot at an incongruous time of the year: As the subplot and atmosphere of the small city in which My Bloody Valentine takes place, it’s actually possible to care a little bit about the characters and remain interested in the backstory underpinning the bloody kills. I wouldn’t want to overstate things—but the worldbuilding here is actually interesting, what with the mining environment offering a visual and thematic counterpoint to the small-tow atmosphere. (The mine feels superfluous at first, until you realize how it provides the film with its gas mask iconography and, eventually, the backstory required to motivate the killer.) The rest of My Bloody Valentine isn’t that interesting, but in wading through a seemingly endless succession of near-identical gory slashers, I’ll take any distinction I can get.