If you’re an ardent horror movie fan, are totally in love with your partner as another Valentine’s Day approaches, and want something a little more dark to watch as you cuddle up together on the sofa, rather than the same old sloppy rom com, then here are two great Valentine’s Day horror movies you might like to check out.
1. Valentine (2001) – Directed by Jamie Banks and starring Denise Richards and Marley Shelton, Valentine is the perfect slasher movie to watch on the night of universal romance. It tells the story of school nerd Jeremy Melton who, at a Valentine’s Day dance in 1988, is rejected for a dance by four of the school year’s most popular girls. Finally, a rather shy, overweight girl agrees to a dance. Later on, the pair are discovered in a passionate embrace by a gang of school bullies. In a fit of shame, the fat girl makes a false allegation to the bullies that Jeremy has assaulted her. This prompts the thugs to strip and set about poor Jeremy, humiliatingly in front of the whole school.
Thirteen years later, as Valentine’s Day approaches, the five girls responsible for causing Jeremy so much grief are now trying to get their love lives in order. One of them, after a disastrous date, is murdered by a killer wearing a Cherub-styled mask. Perturbingly, she had received a death threat in a Valentine’s card just days before she was slaughtered. The other girls also receive similar cards, as the killer lurks in wait for his next potential victim.
2. My Bloody Valentine (1981) – Probably the ULTIMATE Valentine’s Day horror movie, and the one that always springs to mind first whenever you contemplate a suitable Valentine chiller. In 1961, in the isolated town of Valentine Bluffs, five miners become trapped down in a shaft after a methane gas explosion, resulting from the careless actions of the foreman, who’d gone to attend a Valentine’s Day dance. The sole survivor was Harry Warden, who was pulled out from the rubble after keeping himself alive for six weeks by gorging on the carcasses of his dead colleagues. This trauma had made him lose his mind, resulting in his being hauled off to a psychiatric hospital.
Twelve months later, he escaped to attend the Valentine’s Day dance, where he slaughtered the incompetent foreman. He then issued a chilling warning that if the town ever held a Valentine’s Day dance again, he would return to wreak more havoc.
Twenty years later, with the legend of Harry Warden having now all but faded from people’s memories, a group of young miners and their girlfriends are making arrangements for a Valentine’s Day party. But their plans are overshadowed by the presence of a sinister, mysterious figure, dressed in miner’s garb and armed with a pickaxe. This figure has crept into town with only one thing on his mind: murder.
My Bloody Valentine is a low-budget cult movie that has generated much controversy over the years. It has also been heavily cut in parts, which isn’t surprising considering the copious amounts of blood and gore it contains, as the maniacal miner mercilessly slashes and hacks his way through a string of victims. The movie was remade as a 3D version in 2009, starring Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles in the leading role.