It has become something of an annual tradition for me to sit down with George Mihalka's heavily underrated ice-cold slasher, My Bloody Valentine.

Set within the fictional Canadian mining town of Valentine Bluffs, the film follows a group of 20-somethings trying to bring back the town's traditional Valentine's Day dance, after a 20 year suspension.
20 years ago, five miners were trapped after an explosion, the result of two foremen leaving early to attend said dance, neglected to check the methane levels. 6 weeks later the rescue team find one survivor, a man named Harry Warden. He survived by eating his fellow miners, but his mind was irreparably damaged, succumbing to complete insanity. Harry spends the next year at an institution, managing to escape on Valentine's Day and returning to the town to reap his revenge. Killing the two foremen responsible for the disaster, carving their hearts out and leaving them in Valentines candy boxes, with a note warning the town to never hold the Valentines Day Dance again or he will return to the town again and commit further killings.

Jump forward 20 years to the present and the legend of Harry is wearing a little thin with the younger generation, who take it upon themselves to arrange a dance. All is prepared and everyone is excited, that is until someone dressed in full mining regalia starts to mercilessly off the townsfolk in gory and imaginative ways. The town's mayor and sheriff immediately associate the murders with the return of Harry Warden and attempt to stifle panic within the town going to such lengths as downplaying one death as a 'heart attack'. In the middle of this we have T.J. (Paul Kelman) and Axel (Neil Affleck), two guys who are in love with Sarah (Lori Hallier). A device which adds further tension between the characters as they are torn between love and survival. The film manages to create a credible level of atmosphere and suspense, while leaving you guessing who among the cast might be the killer, or if it is indeed the ghastly return of Harry Warden. It features some genuinely brutal kills, with heads being detached, skulls penetrated by pickaxes, and a severely mutilated body flopping around inside a washing machine; this film is firmly and forever in my top 5 slashers. Essential.