40 Fun Facts About My Bloody Valentine (Movie)

What does the police chief in My Bloody Valentine (1981) find inside a box of Valentine's chocolates?

A human heart sits in the candy box, with a note warning that murders will begin if the town's Valentine's party goes ahead. The authorities cancel it, so the young miners throw their own.

Which mining tool does the Miner, the killer of My Bloody Valentine (1981), carry as a weapon?

A pickaxe is the Miner's trademark: he kills Patty with one deep in the tunnels, and the killer of the 2009 remake swings one too.

How does the trapped killer free himself from the rubble at the end of My Bloody Valentine (1981)?

He hacks off his arm, then runs deeper into the tunnels shouting that he and Harry Warden will come back for everyone in town.

Why did the crew of My Bloody Valentine (1981) spend about $30,000 repainting the real mine?

Its owners had cleaned it before the crew arrived, leaving the pit as bright as a theme park, so the production paid to make it dark and grimy again.

Neil Affleck, a lead in My Bloody Valentine (1981), later directed episodes of which animated sitcom?

The Simpsons employed Neil Affleck from 1991 to 2000: he worked on 52 episodes and directed seven of them, a decade after his slasher lead.

Which Hollywood director has said My Bloody Valentine (1981) may be his all-time favourite slasher film?

Quentin Tarantino called it possibly his favourite slasher of all, and Entertainment Weekly ranked it 17th on a list of film's guilty pleasures.

Which actor, later Soldier Boy in The Boys, plays returning mine heir Tom in My Bloody Valentine 3D?

Jensen Ackles leads the remake as Tom Hanniger, and it went on to gross about $100 million worldwide on a budget of $14 million.

The director of My Bloody Valentine (1981) blames its heavy censorship on a backlash after whose murder?

John Lennon was shot in December 1980, two months before the release, and the director says the outcry over screen violence that followed cost the film its gore.

The Irish band My Bloody Valentine, formed two years after the 1981 film, pioneered which rock subgenre?

Shoegaze is the style the Dublin band is credited with pioneering, and frontman Kevin Shields has claimed he did not know the name was a slasher film's title.

What covers the face of the Miner, the killer who stalks both My Bloody Valentine films?

A gas mask and mining gear hide the killer, and that deepens the mystery: other men in the working-class town wear the same kit, so anyone could be under it.

What had two supervisors skipped work to attend when the mine exploded in My Bloody Valentine (1981)?

A town dance drew them away before their safety checks, and the cave-in that followed is why the town called the event off for the next twenty years.

Which young miner is revealed as the killer in the final fight of My Bloody Valentine (1981)?

Axel is the killer, having faked his own drowning earlier in the tunnels. T.J. stops him by striking him with a rock, which brings the roof down.

In which Canadian province was My Bloody Valentine (1981) shot, at a real coal mine that closed in 1975?

Nova Scotia supplied the Princess Colliery in Sydney Mines, picked over a rival pit in Glace Bay because its bleak surroundings looked like the middle of nowhere.

Which studio behind Friday the 13th bought North American distribution of My Bloody Valentine (1981)?

Paramount hoped for a second Friday the 13th, but the heavily cut film sold barely two million tickets in North America against about fifteen million for that hit.

What built up unchecked in the tunnels and caused the fatal explosion in My Bloody Valentine (1981)?

Methane went unmeasured because the supervisors had left early. The hazard was real on set too: it limited how many lights the crew could safely use underground.

How did Harry Warden stay alive while trapped underground in My Bloody Valentine (1981)?

Eating the other miners kept Harry Warden alive but drove him insane, and a year later he came back to kill the two supervisors he blamed.

What does the final showdown of My Bloody Valentine 3D reveal the Miner to be?

Tom's split personality is the Miner: a flashback shows him digging up Harry Warden's old gear and carrying out the murders himself.

Which US state hosted the shoot of My Bloody Valentine 3D, partly in a disused mine turned museum?

Pennsylvania offered tax incentives, and the crew spent 13 days in the Tour-Ed Mine near Pittsburgh, which had been out of production since the 1960s.

Which TV series, whose star led My Bloody Valentine 3D, used the film's title for a 2010 episode?

Supernatural gave the name My Bloody Valentine to the 14th episode of its fifth season, a year after its lead actor had fronted the remake.

My Bloody Valentine 3D was the first film with which US rating to be projected in RealD 3D?

Rated R, the remake was the first such film projected in RealD and the first to get a wide 3D release, opening in about 1,000 equipped locations.

Where is Mabel, the first victim of the new killings in My Bloody Valentine (1981), attacked?

A laundromat is where the Miner corners Mabel that evening, and the police chief hides the truth from the town, announcing natural causes to prevent panic.

In My Bloody Valentine (1981), what is Dave's face forced into when the killer attacks him in the kitchen?

A pot of hot dogs, boiling for the party the young miners throw after the official one is cancelled, is where the killer holds Dave under.

Which tool does the killer fire into Hollis's head in the mine tunnels of My Bloody Valentine (1981)?

A nail gun kills Hollis moments after he finds his friends Mike and Harriet, who have been run through together by a large drill.

In My Bloody Valentine (1981), the killer was traumatised as a child by seeing Harry Warden kill whom?

His father was one of the two supervisors Harry Warden hunted down for leaving their posts, and the boy watched it happen.

Critic Roger Ebert dismissed My Bloody Valentine (1981) as yet another copy of which earlier slasher hit?

Halloween was a well-made thriller in the eyes of both Ebert and Gene Siskel, who each gave the Canadian film a thumbs down as one of its many weak imitations.

The US ratings board demanded cuts to what in My Bloody Valentine (1981) before clearing it for cinemas?

Every death scene was trimmed, and even then the board sent the film back asking for more. Stills of the lost gore had already run in Fangoria magazine during the shoot.

Which studio made the 2009 remake of My Bloody Valentine and restored cut gore to the original on DVD?

Lionsgate licensed the 1981 film while producing its remake and turned up a copy with unseen footage, putting about two and a half minutes back for a special edition.

Cinépix, producer of My Bloody Valentine (1981), scored its biggest hit with which Bill Murray comedy?

Meatballs was the Montreal company's biggest success, in 1979, and the slasher borrowed one of its faces: Keith Knight, who plays Hollis, made his screen debut in it.

Why was the killer's identity hidden from the cast of My Bloody Valentine (1981) until filming ended?

To keep acting ambiguous, the cast learned who was under the Miner's gear only when the ending was shot, at the very close of production.

What does the police chief reveal about Harry Warden at the end of My Bloody Valentine (1981)?

He was long dead, having died five years before the new killings began. The hospital that once held him tells the chief it has no record of him at all.

In My Bloody Valentine (1981), Sylvia is left impaled on which fixture during the miners' party?

A showerhead does it, and finding Sylvia and Dave is what finally sends the partygoers to call the authorities, though some friends have already wandered into the tunnels.

Which filmmaker directed My Bloody Valentine (1981) straight after the comedy Pick-Up Summer?

George Mihalka, born in Hungary, won a two-film deal on the strength of that comedy, and in 1993 his satire La Florida became the highest-grossing Canadian film of its year.

What working title did My Bloody Valentine (1981) carry before producers renamed it for a holiday?

The Secret gave way to a title that openly nods to the holiday slashers then in fashion, a trend that included the hit Friday the 13th a year earlier.

Paul Zaza, composer of My Bloody Valentine (1981), went on to co-write the score of which holiday comedy?

A Christmas Story followed in 1983, co-scored with Carl Zittrer, the same partner with whom Zaza had written the music for the slasher Prom Night.

Alf Humphreys, who plays Howard in My Bloody Valentine (1981), was a deputy in which Sylvester Stallone film?

First Blood gave Alf Humphreys his breakthrough a year later as Deputy Lester, and he went on to appear in the superhero blockbuster X2.

The director of My Bloody Valentine 3D spent years as the film editor for which horror filmmaker?

Wes Craven had Patrick Lussier cut most of his later films, including the first three Scream pictures, and was an executive producer of Lussier's own Dracula 2000.

Todd Farmer, co-writer of My Bloody Valentine 3D, earlier scripted which futuristic Friday the 13th sequel?

Jason X was Todd Farmer's first film and sent the series aboard a spaceship. He also acts in the remake he co-wrote, as a trucker named Frank.

Which comedy opened at number one the weekend My Bloody Valentine 3D debuted in third place?

Paul Blart: Mall Cop took the top spot and Gran Torino came second, but the slasher took $24.1 million over its four-day opening weekend.

In My Bloody Valentine 3D, why does the trapped Harry Warden kill the miners buried alongside him?

To save oxygen, Harry Warden turns on his own crew, while the blame for the blast falls on Tom, heir to the business, who forgot to vent the lines.

Which tenor, later famous for Danny Boy, sang the uncredited closing ballad of My Bloody Valentine (1981)?

John McDermott was a family friend of the composer when he recorded The Ballad of Harry Warden, more than a decade before his singing career took off.