Plans for an annual Valentine’s dance in the sleepy town of Valentine’s Bluff (uh-huh) hit a snag when a psycho miner (wearing a gas mask and brandishing a pick-axe and all!) starts hacking up locals, possibly connected to a nasty mining accident about twenty years earlier. Although warnings to cancel the dance are heeded (dire warnings are placed inside sick little valentines by the killer), some dorky youngsters decide to head down the mine for a bit of ‘recreation’, and naturally end up in a whole mess of trouble. Don Francks plays the local sheriff.
Second-tier, Canadian slasher directed by George Mihalka, doesn’t have much in the way of top-level acting, quick pacing, or brilliant dialogue, but it features one of the most interesting settings and back-stories for a slasher film that I’ve seen. It offers minor pleasures (the foggy cinematography and rather impressive lighting have their moments, despite obvious budgetary limitations, and the use of sound is effective too), but hey, that’s more than most of the “Friday the 13th” films can deliver, so like “He Knows You’re Alone”, this one’ll do when there’s not much else on TV.
Still, some of that Jason Voorhees patented gore wouldn’t have gone astray in this rather ho-hum (in gore terms) affair, a major detraction in many people’s eyes. And by the way, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Valentine” have an awful lot to answer for!
OVERALL SUMMARY
Watchable (especially the climax) but it’s a shame that there’s no one here to give two cents about (Veteran Francks is about the best of the lot).