My Bloody Valentine Special Edition Coming From Lionsgate, But... (1 Viewer)

[cineMANIAC]

No, no extra dialogue, no character scenes, no lost sequences-this is the original film with extended gore bits added back in. The making-of (20 min) ends up being a promo for the remake

 

[Michael Elliott]

Interesting. Thanks.

 

[TravisR]

For the OCD collector, the Paramount theatrical cut and the Lion's Gate theatrical cut differ slightly in the flashback scene where they rescue Harry Warden from the mine collapse at approximately 0:12:50.

-The Paramount disc has a shot of him rocking back and forth holding a dismembered arm but the LG disc uses a shot of him eating the dismembered arm instead.

-A few seconds later when Harry is killing the supervisor, the LG disc adds a shot of him starting to pull out the guy's heart which is absent from Paramount's disc.

I don't know which is the true theatrical cut (though I suspect it's Paramount's) or if one is a foreign version or if there's just some weird R rated and unrated hybrid version (like the first Friday The 13th DVD) but I figured I'd give a headsup. To me, it's very minor thing and I'll probably only watch the uncut version so I'm not that concerned either way.

 

[JeffMc]

Dammit, now I gotta keep the Paramount disc since it has something the LG one doesn't!!! Yes, I have OCD. I was going to keep it anyway, so now at least I have some sort of excuse. Ha. Thanks for the info!

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Not that surprising, given that Paramount has a long standing relationship with Lionsgate as a result of LG's having merged with Republic Pictures Home Entertainment when they were still Artisan. Several films initially released by Republic reverted to Paramount, but Paramount decided to licence the titles back to Lionsgate to release rather than release them themselves.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Also, in this specific context, the Canadian company fronted by John Dunning and Andre Link that produced MY BLOODY VALENTINE for Paramount essentially morphed into what is now Lionsgate. (It's a relationship that, to a degree, dates back to Paramount's very inception in the '20's.) As such, Lionsgate owns a substantial piece of the original movie (hence why they did the remake and not Paramount), and that is why they are releasing this new DVD, albeit with Paramount's full cooperation.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I take it you're referring to Famous Players, which in Canada was not only a movie theatre chain, but a production and distribution company well into the 1990s, when it was simply referred to as C/FP Distribution, the C/FP standing for Cinepix/Famous Players. Famous Players/Lasky was, of course, the original name of the company that became Paramount, and Paramount/Viacom did maintain a controlling interest in the Famous Players theatre chain, until Viacom decided to sell the chain to Cineplex Entertainment in 2005.

C/FP did indeed morph into Lion's Gate (as it was originally known), which wound up buying out Artisan Entertainment and becoming Lionsgate. The relationship I referred to stemmed from Viacom's acqusition of Spelling Entertainment, which had distributed several of its titles through Republic Pictures Home Entertainment, which by this time had been part of Artisan for some time.

Ironically, Lionsgate films are now distributed in Canada by Maple Pictures, a spin off distributor operated by two former Lionsgate execs.

 

[Bryan^H]

Although Madman is up there, My Bloody Valentine is my favorite slasher.
Extended gore bits aren't enough. A shameless plug for the remake have me skipping this one. Nice try Lions gate. Next time get commentary by the cast, and special features dealing with THIS film, not the remake.

 

[JeffMc]

Seriously, it's your favorite slasher and you're not going to fork over $15 to get the best possible version of it, uncut for the first time ever? I agree the extras are pretty terrible and worthless, but the uncut film itself is here and is worth every penny. I also found it amusing that no where on any of the extras is the MPAA even mentioned once. Not one mention of WHY the film was butchered so much except for one laughable reference by Mihalka that it was John Lennon's murder that caused Hollywood to start editing out more violence from films. Gee, it had nothing to do with the backlash against the misogynistic treatment of women on-screen and glorifying gore that has no redeeming value. It was simply John Lennon's murder that caused the MPAA to censor movies. Somehow I feel this Special Edition was playing real nice to the MPAA by not referring to them negatively - otherwise the MPAA could take their wrath out on SAW VI.

It's a shame LG couldn't find and include the film's original trailer, which was included on one of Something Weird's horror-trailer VHS compilations from years back. Also, I find it amusing that the LG dvd has the big old R-rating on the back-cover. Ya, that cut is on the DVD, but so is the X-rated (or unrated) uncut version which minors shouldn't be allowed to watch according to the MPAA. Since the R-cut is on the disc, they can get away with putting the R logo on the cover! See, Paramount could have done the same thing all along and got away with it.

Overall, just getting the uncut film makes this a must purchase.

 

[TravisR]

No offense but I don't think you've actually seen the disc because while the remake is mentioned and gets a plug (this disc wouldn't exist without it), it does not come close to dominating the special features.

 

[Bryan^H]

I may be the only fan of slasher films on the planet that has never been bothered by less gore. What counts to me is: Location(come on desolate towns, or camps in the woods are great), story, and actors. The atmosphere, or ambiance are absolutely everything in a slasher film. Gore is last on my list. Those 3 extra minutes couldn't do that much more for me.

 

[Bryan^H]

I haven't seen this version. I was going by what an earlier post had said about the features.

I think it's great that it's being released uncut for the first time, but I'm just not going for it. If the special features are impressive, then I might buy in. I haven't seen a helpful review anywhere. Especially regarding the special features.

 

[TravisR]

The features certainly aren't plentiful- though I imagine this is as good as it's ever going to be for this movie. There's a 20 minute featurette (which briefly gets into the remake) and behind the scenes look at/intros to the deleted gore scenes. What's there is OK but if the features are all you're interested in then I guess you should skip it.

 

[Bryan^H]

Yeah. Hopefully when the Fright Night remake opens, and the inevitable special edition re-release on dvd, Columbia/Sony goes overboard with extras.

 

[Simon Caleb]

My Bloody Valentine is not a slasher in its R rated form; It's a thriller with horror overtones.

In the version now released, still not quite a director's cut I hear, it's finally a slasher film.

Placing more importance on extras than having a film as the director intended sans censor dictated cuts, then you can't be a very serious fan of film, slasher or otherwise.

On a separate note, clever of Lionsgate to allow the unrated footage to be included via seamless branching, thus allowing the film to fly under the radar and be stocked pretty much everywhere.

 

[ChadMcCallum]

Odd. Do stores in the US usually not carry unrated dvds? Here in Canada stores like Wal-Mart always carry the unrated and (if released) rated versions. It seems like they carry more of the unrated version too.

 

[TravisR]

No, the only chain that sorta does that is Wal Mart but that only extends to the stores where there's no Best Buy or Target, etc. in the area. I guess they feel a moral stand is nice but money is better.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I haven't heard of ANY Wal-Mart's not carrying unrated versions.

Does the original come with movie cash for the remake? I viewed the remake earlier and the 3-D effects mixed with the gore and nudity make it worth seeing.

 

[TravisR]

Mine didn't.

 

[Bryan^H]

I am a serious fan of film. I respect the directors vision, but sometimes I prefer the theatrical cut of films(Legend from Ridley Scott is a good example) over the directors cut.

I could care less about the extras if the film in question is a different experience in it's uncut state. I own My Bloody Valentine on dvd, and 3 measly minutes won't change the film. Sorry.